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Court Docs: Suspect Set Woman's Clothes On Fire And Then Fanned Flames, Causing Her To Become Engulfed; Suspect Arraigned On Murder & Arson Charges For Allegedly Setting Woman On Fire In Subway; Flights Resume After Glitch Grounds American Airlines Planes; Trump Teases U.S. Expansion Into Panama, Greenland & Canada. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired December 24, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN HOST: And on top of that, a temporary pause in flight this morning for a major airline, what we know about the cause and the impact.

And millions of Americans use diabetes and weight loss drugs. What doctors say you need to know if you use those medications and are considering a pause over the next few weeks so you can enjoy those holiday treats.

Those stories and much, much more ahead on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: We have new details - disturbing details about the brutal burning death of a woman on a New York subway. A short time ago, the suspect was arraigned in court. And according to testimony from police officers on the scene, he allegedly set fire to the sleeping woman's clothing and, quote, "fanned the flames" by waving a shirt around her.

FREEMAN: CNN's Gloria Pazmino joins us now from New York.

Gloria, what more are you learning?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Danny, Erica, we're getting more details because just a short while ago, the suspect in this case was actually arraigned. He appeared in front of a judge in Brooklyn Criminal Court, and it was there that we got an opportunity to learn some of the details that were reported by the detective that initially investigated this incident.

It happened early on Sunday morning, and as we've been reporting, there was a man who now stands accused of murder in the first degree who approached a woman who was asleep inside of a subway car. He pulled a lighter out of his jacket pocket and lit her on fire. That woman died.

Now, the suspect was in court just a few hours ago and we got some additional detail, including what you mentioned at the beginning, that at one point they have video evidence showing that the suspect actually was fanning the flames by using a t-shirt to fan the flames as the woman was becoming engulfed in fire.

We've also learned that the victim's cause of death has been determined by the city's medical examiner. She died of smoke inhalation and thermal injuries. The woman who died in this incident has not yet been identified.

Now, the suspect, Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, is 33 years old. He's originally from Guatemala. And he is facing murder in the first and second degrees - degree and arson charges. He was remanded back into custody, and he is expected to appear back in court next Friday.

We have heard from the Brooklyn District Attorney, Eric Gonzalez, in this case. He has said that he expects to prosecute the case to the full extent of the law. And it is a case that has just really put a focus on a big issue here in New York City, and that is the safety of the public transit system, as well as public safety in general, mental illness, as well as homelessness. Both the suspect and the victim in this case are believed to have been homeless.

The suspect has spent the last few months checking in and out of homeless shelters. And the woman, who has yet to be identified, also believed to be homeless by law enforcement officials. We have reached out to the lawyer, who is representing the suspect in this case, but have not heard back, but just learning some really horribly graphic details in the last few hours about how this incident unfolded.

HILL: Yes, it is so disturbing. And Gloria, just to follow up, you said the woman, I believe - the victim there, I believe to have been homeless, but she hasn't been identified. Is there anything that has been learned about her at this point?

PAZMINO: Yes, the woman has not been identified. And without getting too graphic, the reason they have not been able to identify her is because the medical examiner is essentially having to go through dental records in an effort to figure out who she is. That is part of the reason we do not know who she was. Just the fact that her body was left in a condition where she was not able to be recognized or anything in her belongings to figure out who she was.

So hopefully we will learn her identity soon. It's something that we know the medical examiner's office is working on. In fact, it was part of the reason why the arraignment was so delayed. They were waiting on the autopsy to be completed, so that could be included in the testimony that was used in the arraignment.

FREEMAN: Gloria Pazmino, thank you for staying on this very, very sad and scary story. Appreciate it.

All right, for more on this, let's talk more with former NYPD Detective Sergeant Felipe Rodriguez. He's now an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Thank you, Felipe, for being with us on this Christmas Eve.

First, I just want to get your reaction to this new information that is just so troubling that this suspect allegedly fanned the flames after setting fire to this victim.

FELIPE RODRIGUEZ, RETIRED NYPD DETECTIVE SERGEANT: It's one of the most heinous things I've ever seen in 31 years of law enforcement. The fact that he's fanning the flames like that, it's almost to the point of being almost torture.

[15:05:01]

Because here we are, you're actually increasing, right, the temperature of the flames and fueling them, so it's something unimaginable. It's something almost out of a horror movie that we're seeing in the New York City subway system at this time.

FREEMAN: Felipe, can you explain to me from your perspective how important it is to actually learn the suspect's motive in this case? Why would that be helpful at this point?

RODRIGUEZ: Well, it is. It goes towards, you know, the charging offenses that we're going to have, you know, the indictment that's going to be brought forth, just for the fact of, you know, was it premeditated, was it something out of, you know, did they know each other. And it all goes to the level of being - between a second-degree murder or first degree murder. And this is one of the few times you might get that first degree murder indictment, because if you cause the death of a person and you actually - through torture, you know, it definitely elevates the charges.

So we always try to make sure that motive is a key thing when it comes to charging any criminal charge. So that's what basically the detectives are trying to piece together at this time.

FREEMAN: Felipe, New York Governor Kathy Hochul's office said in a statement that crime rates have decreased by 10 percent since the Governor introduced a subway safety initiative back in May, and are down 42 percent since January of 2021. What's your perspective on that as a New Yorker?

RODRIGUEZ: As a New Yorker and as a professor, you know, I always tell my students, let's look at the evidence, correct? And while she is saying some truthful information, it's all how we kind of skew things at times.

You know, what the Governor's leaving out is, yes, major felonies are down, that's correct. But so far, we've had nine murders this year in the subway system at this same time. So that gives you an increase of over 60 percent. At this time last year, we only had five.

So, you know, there's certain felonies that we could say, you know, it wasn't really a larceny, it might've been a robbery. And we could kind of change things around on paper. But murders are still murders and that's kind of hard to make a way that the governor, you know, make that disappear in any which way.

FREEMAN: And do you feel safe riding the subway these days?

RODRIGUEZ: You know what, it's almost like - you know, it's heightened alert. You know, you can't fall asleep on the trains. Unfortunately, I wouldn't recommend any family member to do that. I would constantly recommend to them, you know, ride where the motorman is or the conductor, which is one of the more safe areas.

And if you get that New Yorker feeling, right, you get that tingling type thing that something's going wrong, follow it, go with it, go with your hunch and move to another car. Or you know what, just get off the next station, wait for a following train. You know, we have to be hyper-vigilant, unfortunately. That's the way the transit system has become.

FREEMAN: Felipe Rodriguez, thank you as always for your perspective, appreciate it. Erica?

RODRIGUEZ: Thank you.

HILL: Yes, for many people, the holidays can be the most wonderful time of year, but maybe not if you're a traveler, perhaps affected by the glitch this morning when American Airlines had to ground its fleet.

Now, the airline says it did request that complete ground stop for all of its planes following a technical issue this morning. It was of course lifted. Pete Muntean joining me now with where things stand at this hour and how the company was actually able to overcome what could have been a nightmare. Pete?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN TRANSPORTATION CORRESPONDENT: Danny, Erica, American Airlines says it's all hands on deck right now to get things back to normal. We now know that this was caused by an outage of a computer system that is key to getting flights on their way and pushback from the gate. American has about 3,900 Tuesday flights scheduled in total. And the good news for the half million people traveling on the airline, no major cascading cancellations, making the real story the delays.

Airline analytics firm, Cerium (ph), tells me that American hubs like Charlotte and Miami have been hit hard. Add bad weather on top of that at DFW and it all means only 37 percent of American flights have left on time. The silver lining, 93 percent of flights are departing within two hours of when they were scheduled.

American spokesperson, Sarah Jantz, tells me the delays are to be expected, but she insists that American does have the staff in place to get things back on track quickly. This outage started at about 7 AM on the East Coast. All American flights held on the ground for about an hour. American now says this was an issue with an IT vendor. That network feeds into American's critical flight operations system and without that, flights could not be dispatched.

This is the statement from American Airlines: "A vendor technology issue briefly affected flights this morning. That issue has been resolved and flights have resumed. We sincerely apologize to our customers for the inconvenience this morning."

History has shown that airline technology issues can have an outsized impact. In July, the CrowdStrike outage caused Delta Airlines to melt down. It canceled about 5,000 flights in total. The Southwest Airlines holiday meltdown was happening right now two years ago and Southwest canceled about 15,000 flights over a week's time.

The Department of Transportation has really turned up the heat on keeping airlines accountable and outgoing secretary, Pete Buttigieg, says the Delta investigation is still ongoing, though airlines are hopeful that the Trump administration may be more sympathetic to them when it comes to issues like this latest snag. Danny, Erica?

[15:10:00]

HILL: All right. Pete, thank you.

Also with us this hour, Zach Griff, who's the senior aviation reporter for The Points Guy.

Zach, good to have you with us.

You know, as Pete laid out, the technology can have sort of an outsized impact. Things are back on track. The other thing that's good to know for travelers is your rights have changed a little bit just in the last few months. At the end of October, these new rights went into effect in terms of refunds for delays and cancellations. What does that change?

ZACH GRIFF, SENIOR AVIATION REPORTER, THE POINTS GUY: Yes. Well, thanks so much for having me. I think one of the big things that people should remember when things go wrong, and, of course, they could go wrong today, they could be going wrong on the return trip from the holidays, is that you're entitled to a full cash refund when your flight gets canceled or significantly delayed.

And for so many people, especially when they're traveling places where there are multiple airline options, maybe in the instance of today, Americans' flights are super delayed. They've delayed about 1,200 flights today. If you have another option to potentially fly with a different carrier, you could get that full refund from American and then go and voluntarily choose to book a last minute ticket.

And in some cases, those tickets aren't as expensive as some people might think, especially on some of the lower cost carriers that could be operating on time and getting you to your final destination in time for the holidays.

HILL: I would say another win too, in addition to what we saw, part of those rules also were more transparency. Airlines have to be a little bit more honest about what they're charging you for.

GRIFF: Yes. And not only is it transparency, it's also they have to take the initiative to get those refunds and those credits issued to you on their dime. It's not you having to call in and wait for a supervisor speaking to the refund desk. It's the airline who is now responsible for processing these things, for telling you what's included, whether you're bagged, how much it costs, what's the seat assignment fee. When things go wrong, we process the refund for you within a certain time period. It's significantly more flyer friendly.

HILL: Which is great. So for somebody just a little bit of practical - maybe some practical pro tips, if you would. So if somebody, let's say you're dealing with a canceled flight over the holidays, maybe you're just getting ready to leave for the airport and you get an alert that your flight's going to be late two hours or three hours. Are you better off still going to the airport as opposed to waiting a little bit?

GRIFF: Yes, I mean, so the first thing, certainly for me, someone who's traveling hundreds of times a year, the first thing you get that notification is you're looking for your alternative options. Ideally, you have those alternative options already thought through before you get that cancellation. But I'm going to Expedia, Google Flights, starting to see what other airlines are out there. If they're on time, it's locking in those seats as soon as possible, and then handling the compensation and the refunds afterwards.

Because when time is of the essence, such as when you get that notification, you and all of your traveling companions who may be on that flight are also doing the exact same thing. And you're talking about a resource that's very - it's shrinking. You know, there are so few seats that are available at the last minute. You want to grab that first and then handle kind of the rest of the picture.

HILL: And is it better to stand in line, try to get somebody on the phone or make the change on your app?

GRIFF: As much as possible, doing it on the app, doing it on your phone, you can definitely stand in line because some of the more complicated itineraries may require agent assistance, but do as much as you can on your own. Some of the better tips out there is try to call a foreign language. A phone line for an airline could be so much faster than calling the traditional 1-800 number. If you have access to the club, go and speak to the customer service agents there.

But all while you're doing this, make sure someone's on that phone, checking the app, refreshing if, you know, new seats or a better flight becomes available.

HILL: And I have to ask you because we are in the middle of course of, look, it's full-on winter. So who knows what can happen when mother nature gets involved?

GRIFF: Yes.

HILL: This always comes up with people when their flights get delayed or canceled, when it's related to weather. When it's related to weather, is the airline still required to compensate you?

GRIFF: Yes, so the airline, when the flights are canceled or significantly delayed, those refund rules that are written by the Department of Transportation, they do not exclude weather. So refunds in terms of getting your cash back to that card so that, you know, say you don't want to cancel the trip or you're going to postpone it, that's, you know, enshrined in the rule.

Now, compensation is a different story because that's when the airline typically goes above and beyond, maybe gives you miles, hotel voucher, food vouchers, things like that. And typically when it's weather related, you have the airline saying, hey, this is out of our control and we'll give you up to what the law requires us, but maybe not that little bit extra.

HILL: Yes. Zach, really appreciate it. Such helpful tips and tricks ahead of this busy holiday season. Happy holidays to you. Thanks so much.

GRIFF: Thanks, safe travels.

HILL: Still to come here, President-elect Trump says he wants his justice department to, quote, "vigorously pursue the death penalty." This - those comments coming in the wake of President Biden's decision to commute the sentences for dozens of federal death row inmates.

Plus, is Trump's push to buy Greenland and to take over the Panama Canal a negotiation tactic, a bit of trolling, maybe a little bit of both?

[15:15:04]

And how Donald Trump will have to shift his approach to a more vulnerable Iran in his second term, one of several international adversaries he'll be contending with. All that and much more coming up right here on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[15:19:08]

FREEMAN: President-elect Trump is now blasting President Biden's decision to commute sentences for most federal death row inmates. In a new social media post this morning, Trump said he will, quote, "direct the Justice Department to vigorously pursue the death penalty."

Now, this comes just a day after President Biden commuted the sentences of nearly every federal death row inmate, 37 in total, something Trump has said makes no sense.

Joining us now, former communications aide for Lindsey Graham and Mike Pompeo, who is also the VP of Push Digital Group, T.W. Arrighi, also Democratic strategist and co-founder of Lift Our Voices, Julie Roginsky.

Thank you both for joining me on this Christmas Eve. I hope you're having a happy holiday to both of you, first off.

T.W., I want to speak with you first on this.

Former President Trump - President-elect Trump's relationship with the death penalty is long.

[15:20:01]

He famously took out that full-page ad in The New York Times calling for the death penalty for The Central Park Five. They were eventually found innocent, but also during his first term, he oversaw more than a dozen executions. Is this - is the former president, the president- elect, wading into this now just about Biden or is this really something he's passionate about?

T.W. ARRIGHI, FORMER AIDE TO LINDSEY GRAHAM AND MIKE POMPEO: Yes. Well, first of all, thanks for having me and Merry Christmas to everyone watching.

Look, I think Donald Trump has been pretty clear that he supports the death penalty. I believe he thinks that there are some crimes so heinous that only God can forgive you and it's up to us to set up that meeting. And look, from Joe Biden's perspective, I understand he's a man of faith. He's a Catholic like myself and there's some discernment there that every person of faith, regardless of your religion, has to go through on issues of life and death.

And he's made the calculus that he opposes the death penalty but supports abortion and that's fine if that's where he comes down on.

But look, this is a really bad look on the heels of pardoning his son, Hunter Biden. These people that he commuted the sentences of, I realize that they will not be getting out of jail for the rest of their life. But look, these are butchers. These are people who killed men, women and children, who raped children. These are the worst of the worst. And there's a reason they're on death row, both from a practical standpoint and a symbolic standpoint.

And I think most Americans would agree that commuting them looks bad. Donald Trump has always supported the death penalty. And so this is no surprise at all and it's a valid, valid point of view.

FREEMAN: Julie, though, it's interesting because according to a Gallup study released just last month, public support for the death penalty has dropped to about 53 percent among Americans. That's a five decade low, actually. So is this a political issue that you think is going to be favorable for President-elect Trump as he enters the White House?

JULIE ROGINSKY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, first of all, let's talk about the fact that the president of the United States is directing the Justice Department to do something. I mean, before Donald Trump, you didn't have presidents directing the Justice Department to do anything. It was an independent department that was the legal department for the United States of America, not for Donald Trump, not for any presidents. And for him to direct the Justice Department to do anything is a little unusual.

But look, people disagree on the death penalty. We disagree on the death penalty. I don't support the death penalty, no matter how heinous the crime. I actually think spending the rest of your life rotting in a jail cell is worse than being put out of your misery through the death penalty. But that's a disagreement that we can have. It is absolutely the right of the president to issue a pardon or issue clemency.

I don't love that provision in the Constitution. I don't think we should have it. But nevertheless, the founding fathers disagree with me. And so as a result of that, the same way that Donald Trump could pardon anybody he wanted to on his way out the door a few years ago is the same way that Joe Biden can pardon or give clemency to whoever he wants. And ultimately, that's his decision to do and that's what he's doing.

FREEMAN: I'm interested to see, though, if we end up hearing more about this issue overtly, especially as we enter the New Year. And, you know, there's - there are a lot of priorities for President-elect Trump in this new administration.

Speaking of which, T.W., I want to talk to you about the story that has captivated, I think, many people for the past 72 hours or so. President-elect Trump also continuing to push this idea of taking control of the Panama Canal. He's also talking about taking over Greenland, teasing this idea of annexing Canada. That seems more like a joke.

But what's the bigger picture here? Why, in your view, is he talking about all this?

ARRIGHI: Yes. Well, in short, it's actually good policy and, you know, we've been pretty formulaic in U.S. foreign policy over the last 30 plus years. But for the majority of our history, things like this were not out of the realm of possibility. In fact, it was just good foreign policy business. Look at how we got the Panama Canal in the first place. And right now, the Panamanians are showing a very bad judgment in terms of allowing Chinese corporations to take over strategic locations along the canal. It's one of the wonders of the world that is critical to global trade.

And if China decides with their finger on that pressure point to put pain on America and its allies, we will suffer tremendously. So get - trying to get back to the negotiating table of providing security for the Panama Canal is really, really sensible. And obviously, Trump's going to put it in his own phraseology and people are going to jump. And it's, you know, almost exciting in a way to hear how he talks or horrifying, depending on your point of view. But it's good business.

And the second is Greenland.

Look, people would be shocked to learn that only 50 - what is it - 56,000 people live in Greenland. Greenland has a strategic location on the Arctic Circle. Russia is really playing a lot of funny games in the Arctic to get more control. That is a strategic place with tons of natural resources, with military capabilities.

[15:25:04]

Our access to the Arctic Circle is really small over Alaska. Greenland, who really doesn't have any military, so to speak, and relies on Denmark in a little way, it's really wise for our allies and ourselves to have the protection of the United States on a broader swath of the Arctic Circle. It makes a lot of sense.

And as Teddy Roosevelt once said, when dealing with the Panama Canal the first time, while Congress deliberates, the canal gets built. So I think that's sort of where we're at right now. There'll be a lot of chatter, but it's a good negotiation starting point.

FREEMAN: All right. Julie, do you agree with T.W. that it makes a lot of sense?

ROGINSKY: I didn't think we were going to be bringing up the Roseville Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine today, but what the hell? Listen, you said there were 56,000 people.

FREEMAN: Especially if we - yes, we got to talk about it.

ARRIGHI: (Inaudible) ...

ROGINSKY: It's Christmas Eve, why not go down memory lane as to what was happening over a hundred years ago.

But look, at the end of the day, we have 56,000 people, as you point out, who live in Greenland who just don't want to be part of the United States. Believe it or not, the same way the Ukrainians miraculously don't want to be part of Russia. I mean, there are people who don't want to join other countries, no matter how much those countries want to annex them.

And yes, you're right, the Russians have access to the Arctic, that's because their country borders the Arctic. We don't, for the most part, because our country doesn't, for the most part. And so we can't force somebody to annex themselves to us just because we want more access.

The way to do it is to work with the Danes, our allies, cooperatively for mineral rights, for access to Arctic, for national security. But it's not by saying that we're somehow going to just grab Greenland and just annex it any more than we're going to annex the Panama Canal, which you may disagree or agree with Jimmy Carter and relinquishing back to the Panamanians. But nevertheless, here we are. The Panamanians own it and we can't get it back - short of what - a military strike? I don't know what the proposal here is.

So look, there's a way to do this diplomatically and there's a way to have access to both the canal and to Greenland without suggesting, as Donald Trump is, that we are going to just go and grab it. And that's the difference between a president that knows how to do diplomacy, especially engage in diplomacy with our allies, and a president who just wants to stomp all over our own allies to get to a point that he's never going to get to because short of us sending the United States military to nationalize the Panama Canal, again, or to annex Greenland by force, I don't know what his plan here is with the way he's conducting himself.

FREEMAN: Either way, I feel like we're going to be having a lot of very interesting conversations in 2025 with this new administration.

Julie, T.W., thank you both so much for your time. Have a very Merry Christmas Eve and holiday.

ROGINSKY: Thank you, Merry Christmas to you as well.

ARRIGHI: Merry Christmas, everyone. FREEMAN: All right, still ahead, ski lift chairs collide, spilling skiers down on the slopes. Why one witness says, though, they were lucky that it happened when it did.

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