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New Day

Prostitute Admits Injecting Fatal Dose; NASA Could Fin Aliens in Next 20 Years; Cease-Fire Broken: Mortars Fired at Israel

Aired July 17, 2014 - 06:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to NEW DAY. Let's get over to John Berman who is in for Michaela for the day's top stories.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Great to see you this morning.

BOLDUAN: Hey, John.

BERMAN: There's some breaking news to tell about this morning.

Hamas has violated a five-hour truce with Israel firing at least three mortars over the border. The pause had been to allow humanitarian convoys to get into Gaza. Just before the short lived truce took effect, Israel's military says it foiled an attempt by a dozen terrorists to enter the country through that underground tunnel. You see it right there.

Israeli officials are investigating an air strike that killed four Palestinian boys on a Gaza beach. And now three Israelis have been indicted for the revenge killing of a Palestinian teen.

Breaking overnight in Afghanistan. Six insurgents are dead after launching an attack near the Kabul International Airport. Gunmen used explosives, grenades and machine guns to take over a building just outside the airport. The Taliban members who launched the offensive were killed during a firefight with afghan security forces. No reports of civilian or police casualties.

Talks on limiting Iran's nuclear program are likely to be extended beyond a July 28th deadline. After two days of meetings this week, Secretary of State John Kerry says there are still significant gaps between Tehran and six world powers. Iran's chief negotiators suggested Iran could accept a freeze at current levels for a few years in exchange for sanction relief.

A violent bank robbery ends in a hail of gunfire killing a hostage and two robbery suspects, wild scene playing out during a high-speed pursuit in northern California.

Chaos in northern California as a violent bank robbery ends in a barrage of gunfire leaving one bank customer and two suspects dead. The events unfolded as three heavily armed men entered a bank, tied up a security guard and took three women hostage before taking off on a stolen SUV with the police in hot pursuit.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

POLICE: Ram him if you need to, to stop him or get him or something. If you can stop him, stop him.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BERMAN: The suspects had huge amounts of ammunition on them according to police who said the man had firearm magazine strapped to their bodies and fired on the officers relentlessly.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

POLICE: There's a guy, number two male, sitting out the back window with a rifle, shooting at us with a rifle.

We're taking fire, we are taking fire.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BERMAN: Under the hail of gunfire, two of the hostages either jumped or were pushed from the suspect's vehicle. The witness managed to capture one of the moments on tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was on the ground. My brother saw her roll over and her leg was all tore up and bleeding.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: After more than an hour the suspect's sufficient was disabled, but that didn't stop the men who continued the gun battle with officers. Even police say using the last hostage as a human shield.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were trying to kill our police officers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: In the end all four people in the vehicle were shot. The hostage died of her wounds, though it's unclear when and by whom she was shot. The incident is under investigation, according to police, who maintain they acted appropriately given the circumstances. Two of the suspects also died of their wounds, and one was taken into custody.

What an awful situation. No other police officers were injured in this incident, and the other two hostages, they are both expected to survive.

BOLDUAN: Those are bad people.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Bad people.

Very well-armed, and it's --

BERMAN: Very well armed.

CUOMO: And a very good example of why the police are so worried about the weapons that you're allowed to carry. They were outgunned on the streets where they were trying to protect people.

BERMAN: Yes. They were victims, you know.

CUOMO: All right. Thanks for that, John.

Let's move on to something that happened last night. ESPN held its annual sports award extravaganza. It's called the ESPYs. Veteran ESPN anchor Stuart Scott who is battling cancer, he delivered such a powerful message last night.

I'll never forget, Andy, one of the first of so many beautiful phrases Stu Scott coined. He's as cool as other side of the pillow -- one of the best. One of the best. Good to see him honored.

ANDY SCHOLES, BLEACHER REPORT: Booyah, that's my favorite.

CUOMO: Booyah was good, too. En Fuego.

SCHOLES: Yes, and he really was the best moment of the night, guys. Scott was presented with the Jimmy V. Perseverance Award for his ongoing battle with cancer. In his speech, Scott revealed he had just gotten out of the hospital after going through four surgeries in the past seven days, and he delivered one very powerful message to all the cancer patients out there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STUART SCOTT, ESPN ANCHOR: When you die, it does not mean that you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, while you live and in the manner in which you live.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: And Scott also added he can't ever give up because he can't leave his daughters. He said he was standing on that stage because of them. His daughter Sydney came up on the stage and gave him a big hug. Not a dry ice in the house.

All right. St. Louis Rams rookie Michael Sam received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award for his groundbreaking decision to come out and become the NFL's first openly gay player. Sam got very emotional when speaking about how he's helped others with his announcement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL SAM, ARTHUR ASHE COURAGE AWARD WINNER: A friend asked me to talk to his sister, a young woman who was considering killing herself rather than sharing with her loved ones the fact that she was gay. When we spoke, she's told me that she would never consider hurting herself again and that somehow my example had helped her.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: So, guys, Sam's decision to come out and announce he's gay not only helped him but clearly helped people all around country.

BOLDUAN: Unbelievably powerful moments in sports last night. My goodness, that got me.

SCHOLES: Yes.

CUOMO: I'll tell you. That's one of the reasons why we love sport, right? It's always about more than the game. The ESPYs are a great example of that last night, for sure.

BOLDUAN: Thanks, Andy.

CUOMO: Yes, thanks to him.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

Coming up next on NEW DAY, an alleged call girl pleads guilty to murdering a Google executive. You may be surprised to hear her lawyer's argument. What they say happened.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Welcome back to the show.

Bail has been denied for the prostitute accused of killing a Google executive on his yacht, but we learned some things yesterday. New details that may explain the defense we will hear because Alix Tichelman has pleaded not guilty. Now, the attorney admits the woman injected Forrest Hayes with the substance that apparently killed him. However, that could actually help her case.

Let's discuss it. We have legal analyst Mel Robbins here to dive into all of this.

The charge manslaughter, OK?

MEL ROBBINS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes.

CUOMO: So, that means you may not have intended to kill me, but you did something that was reckless, which means you knew what you were doing was risky, could hurt somebody very badly and you did it anyway. If that's what they are trying to get her for and now this is her explanation of what happened, how does it help?

ROBBINS: Well, this is really interesting twist, if you ask me, Chris, because if you dig into the details of this, what the defense is doing is they are basically saying, hey, listen, we admit, we fold, involuntary manslaughter is what she did. So, they are doing what is a trick as far as I'm concerned in the defense world, where it's like you know a magician how you distract somebody with this while you're busy doing the real thing over here. If they --

CUOMO: Sleight of hand?

ROBBINS: Yes, it is, because basically -- they basically say she's guilty of involuntary manslaughter, the max is four years. That's what Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson's doctor got.

CUOMO: Why is she guilty of anything? If you and I -- well, that's a horrible example.

ROBBINS: You want to role play on NEW DAY. Here we go.

CUOMO: If two people are doing drugs, and one helps administer the drug to other, very rarely prosecuted for homicide.

ROBBINS: Well, it's prosecuted for involuntary manslaughter.

CUOMO: But rarely.

ROBBINS: Well, you know, not necessarily. I looked up a bunch of cases last night, and this is happening more and more, particularly when you see this heroin epidemic taking over as people can't get OxyContin.

CUOMO: Right. But in the state, there's not even a Samaritan law. There's not even a duty to intervene.

ROBBINS: Yes. But there is involuntary manslaughter, and there are three things that you have to prove.

You have to prove that there was a crime. In fact, doing heroin, possessing heroin, a crime.

You have to prove that there was criminal negligence. Clearly, if she's injecting a cocktail in him that kills him, that's negligent.

And you also have to prove, Chris, that her actions were the direct result and cause of his death. In this particular, you know, motion to -- where they are arguing she shouldn't have -- she should -- she should be released on her own recognizance, they lay out the facts. They basically say that these two were enjoying themselves. She shot herself up. He then rolled over.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Very different version. The media, including this outlet, has been referring to her at a black widow, like she may be some type of a serial killer.

ROBBINS: She may be. And the involuntary manslaughter --

CUOMO: Or -- but there's a big or here now. ROBBINS: There's a big or, except you also have a guy, Chris,

who died of a heroin overdose who was her boyfriend and she was present at the time.

CUOMO: Boyfriend?

ROBBINS: Yes.

There was another scenario here where, yes, maybe this is just terrible she's injecting at heroin in the people that she's with, or maybe there's something more sinister going on and by saying it's involuntary --

CUOMO: Where's the proof there's something more sinister?

ROBBINS: When you have two dead bodies under the same circumstances, there's something going on. I mean, not -- there's not the average person that's a heroin user that has injected two people in less than two years that have died.

CUOMO: That's the key. It's -- you have you to look beyond this case to a pattern of behavior over time.

ROBBINS: Yes.

CUOMO: Because this one -- you know, you could see a prosecutor very easily saying, look, this guy makes a decision to go out with somebody who gets paid for sex, to do drugs and gets inject by her because he's unable to do it for himself and he dies. Am I really going to blame her? But two of them --

ROBBINS: Under the law, she is culpable. Under the law, this is involuntary manslaughter --

CUOMO: You and I differ on how often those cases prosecuted that way. But having two of them what is driving the theory of the case here.

ROBBINS: Well, and they are also prosecuting this because of the fact it's a Google executive, because the fact that the media is pressing. There are plenty of heroin --

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Does that bother you?

ROBBINS: Not really. Not really at all.

CUOMO: Because?

ROBBINS: Because it's illegal. It's illegal to inject somebody else with drugs, and it is immoral as far as I'm concerned to step over the body.

CUOMO: But the decision to do this just because this is a somebody -- is that OK? At least it's bringing attention to the problem or selective justice?

ROBBINS: It's bringing attention to the problem. I think it's bringing attention to the problem.

CUOMO: It's not if you kill the wrong person, you get prosecuted, but if you kill a poor person --

ROBBINS: Well, we all know how the system works. And that is that if you are a somebody, you tend to have more focus on you. But she's guilty of doing exactly what Conrad Murray did to Michael Jackson, was convicted, was sentenced to four years, served two of those years and was released in November.

CUOMO: They are wrapping me, surprise. But I do want to ask you this anyway, Santa Cruz police deputy chief told "The L.A. Times", he doesn't believe Tichelman intended to kill Hayes. And that blows a huge hole in the black widow theory.

ROBBINS: It blows a huge hole in the black widow theory, but it does but doesn't change the circumstances of involuntary manslaughter which under the facts the defense put forward, she's guilty of.

CUOMO: And you say they are making a play for less time.

ROBBINS: I think they are making a play for less time.

CUOMO: Mel Robbins, appreciate the insight, deep and useful.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: Kate?

BOLDUAN: Thanks, Chris.

Coming up next on NEW DAY, NASA is making a bold prediction about when it expects to find alien life. The truth may be out there. How long will we have to wait?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Your favorite song.

BERMAN: I was listening to this. I was doing my Pilates to this song earlier this morning.

All right. It sounds like science fiction, but suddenly the question is very, very real. Could scientists find signs of aliens soon, like in the next 20 years? NASA is now saying that it is confident that life, life beyond earth can be found by this. The agency suspects there are nearly 100 million planets in our galaxy that could sustain this life.

The revelation comes as CNN chronicles the space race in our original series "The Sixties". That is tonight and it is wonderful.

Let's discuss all this with a terrific gentleman who joins us here, astronaut Michael Massimino.

Great to have you with us here. Great to see you again.

MICHAEL MASSIMINO, NASA ASTRONAUT: Great to be here. Thanks, John.

BERMAN: So, life out there within the next 20 years, we're going to find it. How can we be so confident?

MASSIMINO: There are so many possibilities. If you look at the vastness of the universe and the technology we have, Hubble space telescope, these other observatories we have out there, just mathematically, it makes sense that there's got to be something out there. It might not be a creature walking around. But there's probably some sign of life that we could discover.

CUOMO: That's a key distinction, right? John said the word life twice --

MASSIMINO: Yes.

CUOMO: -- and I'm assuming it wasn't just mental hiccups.

BERMAN: It was meant for emphasis.

CUOMO: Thank you.

BERMAN: You were talking about some kind of life. Not exactly a Sentient being like Chris Cuomo.

MASSIMINO: No, probably the only one we got is right here, right? But there might be something else.

BOLDUAN: However, we do believe he may be from a foreign land.

CUOMO: It's a low bar from me. You better find at least better than me out there.

(LAUGHTER)

MASSIMINO: Probably not, Chris. It's probably something maybe microbial, some small organism.

BOLDUAN: Then, where does that get us?

(CROSSTALK)

MASSIMINO: -- we should be able -- well, it gives us -- so, somehow, turn back the clock many, many years ago, we were probably at that stage at some point ourselves here on earth, right? So if we can find another place that's similar to that, or that can support life, what is the key? Then you can maybe make the assumption that, OK, this is how it's started and this is where might that grow in the future, it might grow to something bigger than what it is at that time?

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: Has that always been one of the goals? Has that always been one of the goals of the space program? Well, yes, let's put someone on the moon and let's get to Mars, but always keep an eye out for --

MASSIMINO: I think that that would be really big news. You know, if we found another -- like if we found a being that was intelligent.

CUOMO: Assuming something happened --

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: I think we would probably lead with it.

MASSIMINO: I think it would be a big story, even if it was a microbial.

BOLDUAN: I'm not saying it wouldn't be a big story. It's so far out there, pun intended, that you think the smart people of NASA aren't really looking for it.

MASSIMINO: I think we're always -- that would be the greatest discovery ever I think, even if it was microbial life, if there was some sign if something somewhere, particularly if it was posed (ph) by --

BOLDUAN: It is living off in that possibility.

MASSIMINO: It would be -- it would be awesome.

So we're not -- not necessarily saying this is what we're all about because we're about a lot of things, about improving life on earth and new technology and understanding where we came from and so on. But if it led to the discovery that there was life somewhere else, I think that that would be huge. It's not our only goal, but it would a pretty nice benefit to learn that.

BERMAN: Let's turn back the clock a little bit, talk about big goals. Let's talk about "THE SIXTIES," let's talk about the space race. It's a subject of the CNN documentary tonight. You were, I know it's hard to believe, a young man --

MASSIMINO: At one point, before I was in space. This is what space did to me.

BERMAN: You were a young man when they first stepped foot on the moon, 40 years ago.

MASSIMINO: Forty-five.

BERMAN: Forty-five years ago, right? I'm bad at math, forty- five years ago.

But the anniversary is like this week. MASSIMINO: Yes.

BERMAN: What was that like for you. How inspiring was that for you to see?

MASSIMINO: I was 6 years old when that happened, and watching those guys walk on the moon and the flights leading up to that was very inspirational. And I saw that, and I was like I want to be like those guys. That's what I want to do.

And if you talk to most astronauts around my age, I'm 51, so anyone that can remember that, I'm kind of the younger age, I guess, of who can remember because I was 6, but we were all inspired by that. It was that kind of event and it led us to do what we're doing now.

CUOMO: What happened, though?

You know, I remember growing up, you know, basically the same age. The space initiative made America in part who we were, that striving for greatness. What is out there? Is there some life?

You know, Einstein wrote so extensively about the arrogance that we would think there isn't life out there. We're the only ones. It seems like today we keep cutting back on the someplace exploration.

What are we, less curious? You know, what's going on?

MASSIMINO: I think it's just national priority.

BOLDUAN: Wasn't it also just about beating the Russians?

MASSIMINO: Yes. If you look at this program that we're going to have on CNN, right, your network here, it talked about that and it was a different set of circumstances.

You're right, Kate. It was about beating the Russians to the moon. It was a national objective. It was in some ways not just national pride and curiosity, but also national defense of what we were trying to accomplish and show the world.

We have a different set of priorities now for our space program. It's more about the exploration of science and improving life on earth. Those are still important things but maybe not emphasis that we had back in the '60s. But we're still going. We've got astronauts on the space station. We have planets to explore beyond Earth orbit.

So, it's till there. Maybe not out in the forefront because it's become almost commonplace that we sent people into space. But it's still there. There's a lot of young people who are really interested in the space program. I think these commercial opportunities for people -- more people to experience it. I think that's going to create a lot of interest as well.

So, I think it's a bright future.

BOLDUAN: Mike makes a good point in this episode of "THE SIXTIES," he's like, he says, this became one of those things you base everything off of.

If we can put a man on the moon, but we can't do X or we can't do Y, there aren't a lot of those events anymore that you use as that point of comparison.

MASSIMINO: It was, I feel very lucky that I can remember. The Mets won the World Series in 1969.

CUOMO: '69.

MASSIMINO: But people walking on the moon was the bigger story.

CUOMO: The Jets won.

MASSIMINO: The Jets won, Joe Namath was --

CUOMO: That's how long ago it was.

BERMAN: You put a man on the moon, even the Jets can win the World Series.

MASSIMINO: A miracle year.

CUOMO: That's anti-space.

BOLDUAN: Perfect segue.

BERMAN: Michael Massimino, great to have you here with us.

MASSIMINO: Oh, my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

BERMAN: You've got to watch "THE SIXTIES", "The Space Race". It airs tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN. Go set your DVR right now.

CUOMO: All right. One big story we have for you there, there's a lot of news this morning. Let's get to all of it, right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This morning the humanitarian cease-fire broken.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: We will fight them and we will defeat them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to get a stop to the spilling of blood that is being waged on Gaza.

CROWD: We have children, too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There has to be consequences associated with coming into the country.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: There will be a continued inflow until we change the law. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I still dream of my beautiful daughter that

she's alive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For the fourth time, the woman at the helm of General Motors is facing Congress.

MARY BARRA, GENERAL MOTORS CEO: This is a tragic problem that should never have happened and must never happen again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome back to NEW DAY.

We do have breaking news. This five-hour humanitarian truce between Hamas and Israel did not last five hours. It has been broken some two hours in. Now, according to the Israeli army, what happened was Hamas violated the U.N.-brokered cause by firing at least three mortars into Israel from Gaza. They landed in an open area we're told.

BOLDUAN: The break was supposed to allow Palestinians in Gaza to stock up on food, water and other much-needed supplies so could an Israeli ground offensive be next? This cease-fire seems to be broken at this point.

Let's go to CNN's Wolf Blitzer. He's joining us live from Jerusalem.

Wolf, we really -- I thought we would be talking about could this be an opening to a longer cease-fire and but now, we're already seeing that it's been broken a couple hours in. What are you hearing about this?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: Well, with mortar fire coming into Israel, this is what the IDF, the Israel Defense Forces says. They had some mortar fire. These were not rockets, not missiles, mortars. That would be a violation of this U.N.-sponsored temporary truce, temporary cease-fire.

But so far, the Israelis have not reacted. I think they're going to give it some more time. They're not going to necessarily see the mortar fire that may have come in from some elements not necessarily directly under the control of Hamas. They're going to give it some more time and see what happens.

But you're absolutely right, Kate. A lot of folks, a lot of people would like on the Palestinian side and the Israeli side to see this truce, this U.N.-brokered truce as an opening, expand it, and let the fighting stop and let the negotiations continue and there are efforts under way in Cairo right now, the Egyptian government meeting separately with the Hamas delegation and Israeli delegation that's now in Cairo as well.

So, let's see what happens in the next hour or two.

BOLDUAN: And the innocent loss of life here is something that we just cannot -- we cannot forget. I wanted to find out from you. You have been speaking with Israeli officials, what do they think happened? Why did that air strike happen that killed the four Palestinian boys in Gaza? Do they know why that happened?