Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Accused Columbine Copy Cat Due in Court; The View Inside a Tornado; Fire Ends Cruise Early; George Zimmerman Back in Court; Boston Survivors Face the Future; Home Prices Climb Again

Aired May 28, 2013 - 09:00   ET

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

COSTELLO: Happening now in the "NEWSROOM": inside a tornado. (Inaudible) the tornado intercept vehicle takes us into the fury.

Also, high school bomb plot thwarted. Pipe bombs, molotov, durano bombs, even napalm. Did a neuropsychiatric disorder called Pandas (ph) drive a teenager to violence?

And yet another cruise from hell.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The emergency lifeboats have been lowered. We're on deck at 3:00 a.m. in our lifejackets.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Torn from their beds, dragged on deck, the frantic moments on board the Grandeur of the Seas.

And King James, good-bye basketball, hello football?

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Good morning. Thank you so much for being with me. I'm Carol Costello.

This morning, near Eugene, Oregon, students returned to West Albany High School. And the classmate accused of a murderous plot against them heads to court in just a few hours.

Seventeen-year-old Grand Accord will be charged as an adult. Investigators say he built a half dozen bombs and intricately plotted an attack inspired by the Columbine massacre. The only difference, they say, he wanted to rack up a higher death toll.

CNN's Miguel Marquez joins us live now from Corvallis, Oregon.

Good morning.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. It's very, very disturbing claims police are making. We do know that they are saying that this was a very mature plot. They're also saying that if not for the -- a tipster, a friend or family member turning him in, he may have carried it out. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Police say 17-year-old Grant Accord planned and was prepared to carry out a coordinated bomb and gun attack against his school.

JOHN HAROLDSON, BENTON COUNTY, OREGON DISTRICT ATTORNEY: This is a case of a planned assault on a target-rich environment and that target-rich environment is West Albany High School.

MARQUEZ: Hidden in a secret compartment under the floorboards of his mother's house police say they found six explosive devices, including a napalm bomb, pipe bombs, bombs made from Drano and Molotov cocktails.

ALLI LADD, STUDENT, WEST ALBANY HIGH SCHOOL: Me and my friend were, like, just in shock. We're like, how could someone even like think of this? Like that wouldn't even crossed our minds.

MARQUEZ: Accord will be charged with, among other things, manufacturing and possessing destructive devices, unlawful possession of a deadly weapon, and attempted aggravated murder. Authorities laid out their theory.

HAROLDSON: In this case, we would be relying upon evidence of plan, in other words, what is the intent, diagrams, checklists, a plan to use explosive devices and firearms to carry out a plan specifically modeled after the Columbine shootings.

MARQUEZ: That's the 1999 attack in Colorado, carried out by seniors Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who used bombs and several powerful guns against students and teachers, killing 13 and wounding 21. Authorities are not yet saying how far along Accord was in his planning. Neighbors say Accord was a quiet teen and doesn't fit the bill of a killer.

KEN HART, NEIGHBOR: You just don't think that's going to happen in your neighborhood. You know, you just -- and especially by a quiet young man.

MARQUEZ: Authorities say this 17-year-old will be charged as an adult.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: Now authorities are also saying that we're going to know a lot more about this plot and just how mature it was and how far off he was from carrying it out at 1:30 local time, 4:30 Eastern. He will be arraigned here and he will be charged as an adult. These are very, very serious charges -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Miguel Marquez reporting live for us this morning.

And as you heard Miguel say police say it was a tip that alerted them to this alleged plot and it was that decision to come forward that may have thwarted a deadly attack. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. ALAN LYNN, ALBANY SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER: These things never occur in vacuums. Kids knew about what was going on and we're learning that as we go along. Luckily, in this incident, somebody had the courage to come forward and say this is what I know, reported that to us, and we were able to investigate that. And because of that information, we were able to stop a horrific event from occurring in our community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Joining us by phone is Captain Eric Carter of the Albany Police Department.

Captain, welcome.

CAPT. ERIC CARTER, ALBANY POLICE DEPARTMENT: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Can you tell us where that tip came from? Was it a friend or a family member who called 911?

CARTER: I'm not able to state at this time specifically who it was. It is somebody who is a friend with Grant Accord and that information was passed on to a person who reported that to us.

COSTELLO: Because there were interviews done with a couple of students who said, yes, this kid came up to us, he said he was making bombs, but we never thought he was going to bomb the school and they didn't share the information with their parents or teachers or police.

CARTER: And that's something that we're going to be following up on beginning today as getting into the school to start -- talk with students to find out what it is that they knew and why it is that they didn't bring it forward.

COSTELLO: Why do you think they didn't share this information in light of what happened in Newtown, in light of what they know happened at Columbine?

CARTER: Well, that's a great question. I can only surmise that part of the -- is just a sense that this could never happen here, and this person certainly couldn't be serious what -- with what it is that they're talking about.

COSTELLO: As for the suspect himself, when he was placed under arrest, what was his demeanor?

CARTER: I haven't been briefed on what his demeanor was. He spoke with investigators for several minutes before he was taken into custody.

COSTELLO: I know his mother says he has this rare form of OCD, which might have played into, you know, this alleged bomb making plot. Did he appear -- as far as you know, did he appear normal? CARTER: There was nothing that I was briefed on that led us to believe that there was anything abnormal at the time he was taken into custody. And we'll certainly look into what his history and his background is and how that played into what it was that he was planning on conducting.

COSTELLO: And a final question about the school. The high school. I know you've swept it, and you say it's clean of bombs, there's no danger there. But you're going to provide extra security anyway. Why?

CARTER: Just as a precaution and just we know that there is an overwhelming sense of fear and just anxiety with the number of cases such as this that we've seen popping up around the nation. So we just want to do what we can to proactively address that, have a good presence, and really hope to be able to gain a dialog with the students about if they do hear these types of things, no matter how insignificant it is, to please bring that information forward because it could be critical and crucial, not only in this case, but in what potentially could come in the future if other people attempt such types of plans.

COSTELLO: Captain Eric Carter of the Albany Police Department. Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

CARTER: Thank you.

COSTELLO: And in the next hour, we will take a closer look at the claims by the suspect's mother, that a rare form of obsessive compulsive disorder has left him mentally ill. It's called pandis. A psychiatrist will join us next to explain.

One week after that monster tornado tore through Moore, Oklahoma, a daring crew of stormchasers gives us the view from -- literally the view from inside a twister. Look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go for it. Ears are popping.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: I know, this is crazy. The tornado turns day into night. This tornado was in northern Kansas. Winds were as high as 175 miles per hour, which would make it an extremely dangerous EF-4 tornado.

CNN meteorologist Indra Petersons is here to walks us through this remarkable video.

And I guess my first question is, why would you want to go in the middle of a tornado? Not that you did it, but come on.

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, because you learn so much. It's something that is so rare at this point in time. There's so many things we still don't understand about a tornado. Even multiple vortexes and things like that. But we're still trying to learn.

But let's talk about how they got in the thing. We're talking like you mentioned, they rated 150 to 175 miles per hour winds. Winds so strong that it actually tore off their door, even their instruments off the top, but this is a especially designed vehicle. Picture a Dodge Ram 3, not you put some armor on top of this guy, you add bulletproof windows to it, because that's one of the biggest concerns why you don't want to be driving around in a tornado, not to mention the fact the debris could hit you, but also that the car itself to go flying.

So speaking of the fact that the car could go flying, now picture they have this bed skirt, hydraulic bed skirt of metal with this armor that goes straight into the ground to shield them from high winds and also from debris getting underneath these things, and then picture like these missiles, these missiles just kind of go straight down to the ground. They're like spikes that actually hold this guy in place. There you go. Great shot of that and all of this keeping them safe. They've actually tested up to EF-5 winds and just seen very minor damage.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: So do they penetrate the wall of the tornado? How do they get inside it?

PETERSONS: They literally drive. It's a car. They drive right inside of the thing. They put those spikes down, they hold themselves in place.

COSTELLO: It sounds like a really loud car wash to me. But I'm sure it's much more frightening once you're in it.

PETERSONS: If your ears work, right?

COSTELLO: Yes. That's right. This is incredible.

Indra Petersons, thanks for the explanation, we appreciate it.

In Southern California, firefighters are scrambling to contain this wildfire in Santa Barbara County. Since roaring to life yesterday afternoon, the flames have already raced across 1,000 acres. Crew has to evacuate about 6,000 people who are enjoying a long holiday weekend at a popular campground. Fires now moving away from homes and deeper into the Los Padres National Forest.

More than 2,000 Royal Caribbean passengers are being flown back to Baltimore on charter flights this morning from the Bahamas after their ship, Grandeur of the Seas, caught fire. Royal Caribbean diverted the ship to the Bahamas and canceled the rest of the trip. One of the passengers, Danielle Miller, talked with CNN about what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MILLER: The first thing I thought was the boat could have been sinking because when we went through that, it was extremely wavy, and we were rolling around our beds. When we were on the deck for about a half hour before they announced that it was a fire. But when we did get on the deck, we saw the lifeboat being lowered. So we were just freaking out and we saw a light sparking and catching on fire. But other than that we didn't see any smoke coming up from deck three and we didn't know it was a fire until they announced it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Still, Danielle and her friends say they will likely take another cruise in the near future.

CNN's Erin McPike is at BWI Airport in Baltimore, waiting for passengers to arrive.

Do we know what started the fire?

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, we don't yet know what started the fire. What we can tell you about it is that it started just before 3:00 a.m. on Monday morning. And once that happened, the crew got on the ship's intercom and also we're going through the cabins to wake up passengers, make them put on their lifejackets and go to some of these assembly stations where they waited for several hours.

We've actually seen some pictures of some of those passengers in their lifejackets in the ship's casino. Now once they put the fire out, they rerouted the ship to free port, some of the rooms were so damaged that the passenger had to get off the ship and stay in some hotel rooms there, others were able to stay on the ship, but today, Royal Caribbean is chartering flights, today and tomorrow, for all of those passengers to come back here to Baltimore.

The other thing we can tell you is even though we don't know yet what started that fire, Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein already made it to the ship yesterday to begin inspecting damage. And National Transportation Safety Board and the Coast Guard launched teams yesterday to get to the ship and investigate what happened -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So will the passengers be compensated in any way?

MCPIKE: They certainly will. They'll get a full refund for this particular cruise. Now of course it was cut short. They left on Friday. They weren't supposed to come back until this coming Friday, but yet, their vacation is cut short and they get to come here to rainy Baltimore, but on top of this whole refund, they will also get a voucher for another free cruise if they want to put themselves through it again, but the same ship was supposed to go on another voyage on May 31st, and the vacationers who were supposed to be scheduled to go on that also can't get on this damaged ship, so they will get a full refund as well and half off a future cruise, too -- Carol.

COSTELLO: It's raining hard, I'm going to let you get out of the weather. Thanks very much, Erin McPike.

It's raining hard.

It's less than two weeks until George Zimmerman goes on trial for the death of Trayvon Martin. And once again Zimmerman's attorneys are asking the judge to delay the start of the trial. The pretrial hearing started just a few minutes ago. The judge must also decide if a voice identification expert should be allowed to testify for the prosecution. Should there be a gag order imposed in the case? And should the jury be kept anonymous and sequestered during the trial?

Victor Blackwell is live in Sanford, Florida.

Good morning, Victor.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Right off the top, you mentioned the request by the defense to keep this testimony from an expert on voice analysis outside of this trial and that is because the defense team believes that it just does not meet the minimum standard, and the analysts agree. There were two teams that were hired by the prosecution to analyze the calls for help, the screams and the background of a 911 call on the night that Martin was shot.

Now the analysts say that there is a minimum, the industry standard is a minimum of 10 seconds cumulatively to analyze. There were only eight seconds allowed. Now that is a technical reason. As it relates to the argument there is one analyst, Alan Reich, who says that the voice that was heard just before the shot was fired was Trayvon Martin saying stop. Now he says that because he believes that the voice came from the younger person instead of the older person.

Of course that would not work well to the defense's storyline. So he's asking for a hearing to make that testimony and the information inadmissible -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Is it likely the trial will start on time?

BLACKWELL: It is. The judge in this case, Debra Nelson, has displayed a commitment to start on time. Jury selection is scheduled for June 10th. There is this third request from the state now for a gag order as well. Now the first two were denied. But their claim is that if Mark O'Mara and Don West, the attorneys for Zimmerman, continue to talk to the media, it's going to be very difficult to get an impartial jury.

COSTELLO: All right. Victor Blackwell, as we're watching Mark O'Mara, Zimmerman's attorney to plead his case before the judge in court this morning. We'll get back to you in the next hour of NEWSROOM.

Victor Blackwell, reporting live from Sanford, Florida.

Just ahead of THE NEWSROOM, six weeks since two bombs went off in Boston and victims are still pulling shrapnel from their wounds. You'll hear their story, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It's 18 minutes past the hour. Time to check our top stories. Senator John McCain has met with rebel commanders in a surprise visit to Syria. The commanders pleaded with McCain for weapons and ammunition as they keep up their fight against armed forces. McCain's supports arming those rebels. He's the highest ranking American official to visit Syria since the country's civil war broke out two years ago.

President Obama and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie are reuniting on the Jersey shore. A bit later this morning, they'll be getting a look at the progress since superstorm Sandy. These scenes are just before the November election when that storm hit. At the time, Christie caught flak from Republicans for inviting the president to see the destruction first hand.

New Rutgers athletic director Julie Hermann says she will not resign over allegations she abused players when she was a volleyball coach at the University of Tennessee. Hermann was hired by Rutgers to help rebuild its sports program after basketball coach Mike Rice was fired for abusing his players. Players on Hermann's former team in Tennessee accused her of verbal and mental abuse. She says that's simply not true, and Rutgers is backing her up.

It's been six weeks since bombs ripped through the Boston marathon, killing three people and injuring nearly 300. And as survivors try to heal from both the mental and physical scars, investigators continue their search for answers.

Our national correspondent Jason Carroll joins me now from Boston.

Good morning, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you, Carol.

You know, behind me, when I look at this memorial, you can still see so many people coming out, bringing by cards, bringing by flowers, so the memorial here, still very much an active part of the city. Meanwhile, investigators are still trying to determine if those suspects had any help at all in making those bombs.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL (voice-over): Federal investigators continue to focus on Tamerlan Tsarnaev's extended visit to Dagestan last year. Tsarnaev had told friends he could not relate to American culture. Did he spend six months there to reconnect with his homeland or was he trying to make contact with the Islamic militant groups?

We do know he visited this mosque, so did Mahmud Mansur Nidal. Nidal later joined a militant group and was killed in a firefight with Russian forces.

Still unknown whether Tsarnaev met Nadal or any other militant. Investigators believe he and his younger brother, Dzhokhar, who wait his next court appearance in a federal prison, may have acted as so- called lone wolves. But they are still investigating Tamerlan Tsarnaev's contacts overseas and at home.

His wife, Katherine Russell, according to her attorney, continues to cooperate with investigators. He says, "She understands the government's position and why they want information."

But the constant questioning may be taking its toll. "It's very difficult. She is a young woman trying to bring up her baby without a dad and dealing with all this. The sooner all this is over, the better."

The bombing killed three people and injured 275. One remains hospitalized. Some of those released, still in rehabilitation, challenging at times for JP Norden who we first met two weeks ago.

JP NORDEN, BOMBING VICTIM: I hate going down there. When I get down there and I'm done, I feel awesome, you know?

CARROLL: JP and his brother, Paul, both lost a leg during the bombing. Jacqui Webb's injuries would have been worse had it not been for the brothers.

JACQUI WEBB, BOMBING VICTIM: They were throwing me over the barrier when it went off ultimately saving my life.

CARROLL: Weeks into the healing, shrapnel and other debris literally starting to surface.

(on camera): These dots that were seen here, those are tiny pits of metal that's still in your fingers?

WEBB: And they just, you know, pull them out.

NORDEN: Last week, I had a B.B. come out right here.

CARROLL: So, this was a B.B.?

NORDEN: Yes. Right here. And you can see that this one is trying to force its way out. This one in my elbow is trying to force its way out.

CARROLL (voice-over): The brothers honored at a Bruins playoff game Saturday. As for the city, Boylston Street looks normal again. But to some Bostonians, it will never be.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It doesn't feel right. I don't know. It doesn't seem real. It feels weird that it's so normal again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a place that I think will always kind of hold a special place in my heart, and it's somewhere that I think I will never forget.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: So, now, Carol, just about six weeks out from the bombing or so, the victims are hoping that they are not forgotten in the weeks and the months to come -- Carol. COSTELLO: I cannot believe shrapnel still comes through the skin. Is it painful?

CARROLL: Well, that was incredible and this is not just happening to the Nordens, but many victims as well. And it's not just shrapnel. It's B.B.s, wood coming to the surface as well. And some things had to be removed early, such as food that was caught underneath the skin.

But it's amazing in terms of part of the healing process, that these things start to rise to the surface. Apparently, it's not painful, Carol. They say, for example, with the B.B.s, when it comes to the skin -- just to be a little bit graphic -- it's sort of like, one of the Norden brothers told me, like a zit. You just pop it, and it comes out.

COSTELLO: Unbelievable. Wow.

CARROLL: Yes.

COSTELLO: Jason Carroll, thanks so much.

Still ahead in THE NEWSROOM, we're just getting in new numbers on home prices, and you might be happy about 'em. We're going to break them down for you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: You can tell a lot about the economy by looking at home prices. And this hour, some new numbers are out.

CNN's business guru, Christine Romans is tracking the latest report for us.

So, hopefully, you're going to tell us something good.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I am, Carol.

Well, you know, this is more evidence that the housing recovery is real. This is not a boom in the housing market. We are not back to boom times, but this a recovery and these numbers show it.

Home prices up 10.9 percent year over year. That's the biggest gain since April of 2006. This is the Case-Schiller index. It's 20 cities measured, only two of the 20 cities saw month over month price declines. That would be New York and Minneapolis.

Some of the biggest year over year gains, Carol -- Atlanta, 19 percent rise in home prices; Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Francisco, all gains more than 20 percent. A few reasons for those rising prices, especially in those cities, lots of investor activity.

Also, many of the cities that are bouncing back were some of the hardest hit in the crash. They are nowhere near their peak levels. But they are bouncing pretty sharply.

And foreclosures are falling. They are down 23 percent year over year. With fewer foreclosures, you're seeing price increases that look a little bit better.

Still important to remember, home prices are down, you know, about a third almost from the highs of 2006. And, Carol, we keep hearing that inventory is still limited. That means demand might not be as hot as it looks. In some neighborhoods, they got 50-year lows, Carol, of available homes for sale. You know, people just can't afford to put the house on the market quite yet, because they're so under water.

I want to show you mortgage rates quickly, because this is what's really been driving things: 3.59 percent for 30-year fixed, 2.77 percent for 15-year. If you've got a 30-year, boys and girls, in the 5 percent or 6 percent range, and a lot of you do, it's time to get refinanced, because these rates are still low, and they've been kind of drifting up a little bit the past few weeks. But those are still pretty low mortgage rates, Carol.

Well, I'm trying to convince CP Brian (ph) to refinance. So, I want you to send him an email.

ROMANS: He needs to. He needs to. Oh, yes, I'm going to email him right now. Brian, jeez, refi.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Thanks, Christine Romans.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Coming up next on THE NEWSROOM, West, Texas, and the terrible explosion there. We'll talk to a first responder and survivor who was literally blown out of his boots.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)