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Prosecution: Shooter's Mother Prioritized Horse Over Son; UN Staffers Fired for Alleged Roles in October 7 Attacks; Influencer, Inmate, Icon: Martha Stewart Explored. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired January 26, 2024 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: An historic trial is taking place right now in Michigan against the mother of a mass shooter. Jennifer Crumbley charged with involuntary manslaughter after her son killed four of his classmates at Oxford High School back in 2021. Today, the prosecution laid out their evidence claiming that Jennifer Crumbley not only ignored all the warning signs, but seemed to care more about her horse than her child.

CNN's Jean Casarez is following this case very closely and she's joining us now with more. Jean, how did the prosecution make that argument?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there have been so many text messages that have come into evidence today. And of course, on the written page, you can see someone's state of mind.

Is there gross negligence in regard to your child? Was the shooter, Ethan Crumbley, having severe mental issues? I want you to listen to the forensic crimes expert, Edward Wagrowski, as he testifies to some of those texts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EDWARD WAGROWSKI, FORMER DETECTIVE, OAKLAND COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: He says, OK, the house is now haunted.

MARC KEAST, OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN ASSISTANT PROSECUTOR: And then what?

WAGROWSKI: Some weird (EXPLETIVE DELETED) just happens and now I'm scared. He says, I'm just going to be outsider for a while. Can you at least text back?

KEAST: OK, so that's from 6.03 to 6.29, the last text, can you at least text back at 6.29 p.m.?

WAGROWSKI: Correct, yes.

KEAST: OK, and the next response from the defendant to her son is when?

WAGROWSKI: Two days later, at 4.11 in the afternoon. Where's your dad? KEAST: Could you please tell us when and where this picture was taken?

WAGROWSKI: It was taken, the GPS is similar to the previous ones, at a horse barn. He's on a horse. It was taken on March 17th at 6.03 p.m.

KEAST: OK, 6.03, that's the same time that the text messages regarding the house being haunted and saw a demon?

WAGROWSKI: Correct.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CASAREZ: So Ethan was at home alone. He's texting his mother. He's very scared, 15 years old, and his mother doesn't text him back because she's riding her horse.

Now, here is another text that came out today. That is Jennifer Crumbly texting her husband a few hours earlier before they get to the stable. So it's right around the same time.

And Jennifer texts her husband. Gonna get drunk and ride my horse.

And the judge had made a ruling no alcohol usage was going to come into this trial, but she made an exception because believed that showed the intent of Jennifer Crumbley to not help her son when he needed her, but to get drunk and ride her horse.

KEILAR: And, Jean, this morning the judge told the defense she's not going to allow the shooter to take the stand if he intends to plead the fifth. Explain what is happening with that.

CASAREZ: Well, the defense wants Ethan Crumbley to take the stand because they're saying that many of these texts that the forensic psychiatrist, once she interviewed him and assessed him in jail, that he admitted that he was lying in a lot of this, that it really wasn't true. And so they want him to take the stand to set the record straight. What exactly was he meaning and why did he text these things?

But the appellate attorneys that are mounting record straight, what exactly was he meaning and why did he text these things? But the appellate attorneys that are mounting that appeal for the sentence of Ethan Crumbley of life in prison without any possibility of parole, they're saying he's going to exercise his privilege. He's going to plead the fifth if you bring him in. And the judge says, look, I'm not going to have him take the stand if he's going to plead the fifth.

So let's see what happens in that. But that is the only way that the defense can really refute these text messages that are very, very incriminating to Jennifer Crumbley.

KEILAR: All right, Jean, thank you so much. Obviously, this case has a lot of ramifications for other cases. So we know you'll be watching it closely for us.

Bombshell allegations prompting the U.S. State Department to halt funding to the U.N. Relief Group that aids Palestinians. We'll have that story after the break.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Some shocking allegations to share with you today from the Israeli government.

They claim that 12 U.N. relief agency employees were involved in the October 7th Hamas attacks on Israel. That saw at least 1,200 people killed and more than 250 taken hostage. The U.N. relief and works agency operating in Gaza says it's now fired those workers and is launching an investigation.

CNN's Alex Marquardt has been following these developments for us. Alex, what more are you learning?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, this agency is known as UNRWA. And essentially Israel brought these allegations directly to UNRWA rather quietly several days ago saying that these employees had been involved in October 7th in some way, which we are still trying to find out exactly what they are accused of doing.

The agency UNRWA took these so seriously that they immediately terminated the contracts of these employees and launched an investigation.

Now, UNRWA has been absolutely critical not just in wartime but in peacetime as well in terms of bringing aid to Palestinians. They maintain and run schools in the Gaza Strip and clinics.

And now during this war they've been really at the center of trying to get food, medicine, shelter to these desperate Palestinians. But clearly UNRWA is taking this very seriously. We learned that several days ago UNRWA then told the State Department.

And so when UNRWA made their statement earlier today about the actions that they're taking, including launching an investigation, we very quickly heard from the State Department as well. And it was the U.S. that actually put a number on this, 12 staffers who are accused of taking part in October 7th, again in some capacity.

The Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has spoken with the U.N. Secretary General. He praised the U.N. for taking steps and investigating and announced that the U.S. will be holding back, temporarily at least, this additional funding. How much that is, we don't know, but it could certainly have an impact. The U.S. is one of the biggest donors to UNRWA. So there's certainly still a lot of questions about what exactly happened here.

SANCHEZ: And, Alex, the talk over a potential deal to secure the release of hostages from Gaza, we understand that there has been progress but not really, according to sources within the Israeli government. The U.S. is sending the CIA director over there to sort of oversee the process. What's the latest there? MARQUARDT: Which is notable. The CIA director, Bill Burns, is really

the point person for the Biden administration when it comes to negotiating this hostage deal or another hostage deal that would hopefully, the U.S. says, lead to a ceasefire. The U.S. really sees this hostage deal as a key to unlocking a longer pause in the fighting that would allow the arms, the weapons to be put down, the guns to fall silent, more humanitarian aid to come into the Gaza Strip, Gazans to be allowed to go home. So very notable,

Bill Burns is traveling to Europe. We believe there's a meeting in the coming days with his Israeli and Egyptian counterparts as well as the Qatari prime minister. These are the main players when it comes to getting a hostage deal done.

We are hearing a warning from the White House today that it does not appear that a deal is imminent, but certainly these players have to get together to try to get on the same page and bridge some of the very significant gaps between the Hamas and Israeli positions.

SANCHEZ: Alex Marquardt, keep us posted on the latest. Thanks so much, Alex.

Still to come on CNN NEWS CENTRAL, jury deliberations happening right now in the civil defamation trial against Donald Trump. We are following the very latest from the courtroom when we come back.

[15:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: For decades, Martha Stewart has made her mark on American culture through her special brand of domestic Diane, a word I just learned.

KEILAR: Doyenne.

SANCHEZ: Doyenne. Whatever that is. She's great. Martha Stewart's awesome. And there's a new CNN original series, "THE MANY LIVES OF MARTHA STEWART," that traces her rise, her fall, her comeback, and her establishment as an American icon. Here's a preview of our special look at a woman known as the original influencer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everything in her life is thinking and dreaming and selling something.

MARTHA STEWART: It's a world record Swiss chard. And you know what else is a chard? Martha's chard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last Valentine, she brought me a beautiful hot box with CBD gummy. And Martha, you think she will bring you a little bit of strawberry jam?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Investors should really focus on the Martha Stewart CBD line being number three right here in the U.S. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's got the edge, always.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I think about anything, I think about the way that she did it first.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All these crafts and all these cooking shows, once Martha paved the road, everybody else pretty much copied her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was sort of like an original influencer, doing it as a business. And I think so for my generation, for millennials, that felt really normal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This recipe is actually inspired by a Martha Stewart recipe for blueberry buckle that my mom has made for many, many years.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Martha actually showed a generation of women how to grow a business. There is no modern lifestyle brand without Martha.

[15:50:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today we are making social media smash burger tacos.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Martha Stewart actually tweeted out, this week is Gwyneth the next Martha.

GWYNETH PALTROW: There's only one Martha.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Such a compliment here. And joining us now is Pattie Sellers, who covered Martha Stewart for years as the assistant managing editor of Fortune Magazine. Patty, you of course, you know Stewart pretty well, and had incredible access to her over the years. In fact, she was number 11 on Fortune's first most powerful women list that you co- founded in 1998. What is it that set her apart from the other women on that list?

PATTIE SELLERS, FORMER ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR, FORTUNE: Well, in 1998, there were very few powerful women, even though Fortune decided to start covering them and ranking them. And there was, at the time, one female Fortune 500 CEO.

Now, the numbers are still pathetic. There are about 50 now. But Martha and Oprah, Oprah Winfrey was also on the list, and she was higher than Martha. But these were really the only two women who were creating their own empires at a time when women were trying to get to the top and trying to become Fortune 500 CEOs, but everybody was talking about the glass ceiling.

SANCHEZ: It's really fascinating, her entire story. And I think the one that stands out to me was the fact that she was imprisoned for five months for lying to investigators about insider trading. But then she gets out, and she sort of uses that, what would be a negative thing, to her advantage, and she brands on that. SELLERS: Well, it's a fantastic story, and quite frankly, I'm shocked

that it took 20 years for anybody, and credit to CNN for doing this multi-part documentary. It's a big life. She has had many lives. She is still creating new chapters in the many lives of Martha Stewart.

And 20 years ago, it seems like yesterday to me. I mean, I was chasing her as a writer and editor at Fortune magazine. I was trying to get the first interview with her after she got out of prison. She was in prison in Alderson, West Virginia, for five months. And I did everything I could to get that first story, and she ended up talking with me when she got out.

And she defied, she's defiant. She likes to break the rules, and she really broke the rules of brand building in a way, and she defied her lawyers and a lot of advisers by actually serving time. Everybody said to her, you should fight this to the end, and she wanted to get it over with, and she wanted to move on. She is a just-do-it kind of girl.

KEILAR: One of the things that, Patty, strikes me, and I've sort of noticed, I think, over time, is that she has a sense of humor about herself. I really think that's come out more as we've seen this really kind of authentic Martha Stewart come out, that it's not just as curated as it was decades ago.

SELLERS: Well, everyone, you know, people who don't know her, I think a lot of people who don't know her believe that she is almost a sort of artifice or created character. Martha is exactly who she is. She is, you know, she's a woman of contradictions, first of all.

She's, you know, she's created this sort of fantasy world where everything is perfect. Well, her life fell apart, and her career fell apart, and her company fell apart, and she just, she made her comeback.

But she, you know, in rising to the top of the business world, she sacrificed a lot. She sacrificed her marriage, and yet, I mean, I've been in her home, and it's the real deal. She is really an amazing and wonderful homemaker.

Now, she has a lot of help, and she also, it's interesting to me, she's also very much and famously about control, and yet, the number of risks that she has taken throughout her career, and mostly they've paid off, but a few really, really did not pay off, including lying to investigators, and also some of the business deals. Seriously.

[15:55:47]

KEILAR: It's, Pattie, it's, Pattie, Pattie, I'm so, I'm so sorry. We're going to have to leave it there, but it has been amazing to talk to you, and I can't wait to learn more about her story. So, we're going to be sure to watch the all-new CNN original series, "THE MANY LIVES OF MARTHA STEWART," premiering with back-to-back episodes Sunday, 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on CNN. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KEILAR: The Detroit Lions have never won a Super Bowl, so fans are praying and doing other stuff, hoping that they make it to the championship game. Like one diehard fan who's claiming victory already.

[16:00:00]

In fact, he claimed to win six months ago.

SANCHEZ: Yes, last August, Alex Chepeska got a tattoo with the Lions logo and a Lombardi trophy that reads Super Bowl Champs 2024. He says he's got no regrets.

He was inspired by the team's unexpected success last season and their appearance on the HBO show Hard Knocks. Chepeska says there are a few people who think it is a jinx like Brianna and I. What are you doing, Alex? He says the opposite is true.

KEILAR: Don't jinx it.

SANCHEZ: I didn't, yes, this is not, yes. When you do that, you're putting yourself out there.

"THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.

END