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Teacher Dead, Student Suspect In Court; Obama Staffer Axed For Twitter Tirade; Prince George Christened; DUI Confessor Sentenced To Six And A Half Years; Coach Surprises Student Athlete

Aired October 23, 2013 - 14:30   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: For the very first time in the Boston bombing investigation, prosecutors publicly confirm now one suspect allegedly participated in a triple murder. Court documents show the dead suspect, the older brother here, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was fingered for alleged involvement in a case back in 2011 involving three bodies with slit throats, covered in marijuana, found near Boston. His accuser, this man here. This is Tsarnaev's friend and fellow Chechen who was shot dead after attacking an FBI agent in the same interview after accusing his friend. And CNN confirmed this information months and months ago. A federal law enforcement source told CNN back in May that Tsarnaev's friend had linked him to the triple homicide. So this whole thing went public this week when prosecutors in the case against Tsarnaev's brother, Dzhokhar, referred to the triple murder in those court documents. So we're getting that publically now.

And while we're on the topic of Boston, nerves are on edge, but for a much different reason. Boston, as many of you know, preparing to host a major, major sporting event tonight, six months, just about to the day, after that marathon bombing. So, tonight, Boston plays host to game one of the World Series. Security is incredibly tight. And I will be in Boston tomorrow with a full report.

So join me, special show, live from Fenway Park. We have been working on this for a little while here so you will see some familiar faces, survivors of the bombings, some celebrities, players themselves. Joining me tomorrow and I can tell you that we have been making some phone calls and have a couple secrets. Our sources with the hometown team are allowing us to share ahead of this extra special game two. We'll see you tomorrow at 2:00 live from Fenway Park.

First Nevada, now Massachusetts, yet another school in crime scene tape instead of in class after a second case in two days of a student allegedly killing a teacher. Just a short time ago, prosecutors outside of Boston charged this 14-year-old student with murder.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Philip Chism, by way of arrest -- of this year in Danvers. It's alleged on 10-23-13, Mr. Philip Chism did assault and beat Colleen Ritzer with intent to murder such person and by such assault and beating, did kill and murder such person in violation of General Law Chapter 265 Section 1.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I want to bring in HLN's Jane Velez-Mitchell from New York. Just to talk about this case, and let me just begin, Jane, here he is, 14 years of age, faces a murder charge. How rare is that that he is 14 and facing that kind of charge?

JANE VELEZ MITCHELL, HLN HOST: Well, unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be that rare anymore. Just a couple days ago, as you mentioned, we had a 12-year-old with a semiautomatic who police say gunned down his math teacher and wounded a couple other kids. What is going on in this country? I think it's time to officially declare it a crisis, a crisis of youth violence. And I think there's a growing intolerance for it.

In fact, the judge was asked do we want to screen this young man here, his face, and he said no, show it. This young man is 14, but he's 6 feet tall. He towers over the adult who is standing next to him and he's only 10 years younger than the teacher that he's accused of beating to death.

We've got a real problem in this culture because we've got young people who are able to function in society as adults. And so if you are murdered, if, you're going to hurt just as much if you're murdered by a 14-year-old as if you were murdered by a 50-year-old. I think there is a growing sort of populous sentiment, enough, what can we do about this?

How can we prevent this next tragedy? We have such a reactive system of justice. We wait for the horror to occur and then we throw everything, everything at it. And say money's no object. What about putting the money before so we can stop the next situation like this?

BALDWIN: The teacher, as you point out, was 24 years of age. Body found in the woods not too far from the school, but back to your point about how he is taller. Just sheer physical appearance in the courtroom today, how do you think his appearance as a 14-year-old, but perhaps looks a little older, how may that play when it comes to the grand jury?

MITCHELL: Well, we don't know what the grand jury is going to do. They're going to hear the evidence. They could decide to charge him as an adult. We'll have to see how that plays out. But this situation, you look at it and say, what happened here? Now, very beloved teacher, 24 years old, my heart goes out to her family. Let's point out the obvious. She's very good looking. She's beautiful. She's young. She's only ten years older than the young man charged with killing her. Is that part of the dynamic?

There was blood found on the second floor of the school. What happened? Did she walk in on him? And again, we don't want to convict him, let the whole system play out. In terms of what we know, did she stay late because we know she likes to stay late and help kids after school and walk in on him doing something? Did he perhaps have -- could he have had some kind of fixation on her?

We don't know exactly what happened, but I'll tell you one thing, Brooke, when it comes to these cases, it's usually only a handful of possibilities. Human beings are very predictable when it comes to crime. And it generally has to do with a handful of things. It can be either a money or a romantic issue, a fixation, it can be about some aspect of criminality happening after school. We don't know. We don't have the answers, but human beings, only usual a couple things that will motivate them to do something like this if in fact he did it.

BALDWIN: He was new to the school, a couple months, played JV soccer, a pretty good kid according to the students, but we don't know. You know they are going to figure it out eventually. Jane Velez-Mitchell, thank you very much.

As we're talking about the victim, the 24-year-old teacher, we can tell you the family of this young woman released a statement. Let me read it to you right now. They're saying at this time, we are mourning the tragic death of our amazing, beautiful daughter and sister. Everyone that knew and loved Colleen knew of her passion for teaching and how she mentored each and every one of her students. We would like to ask everyone to respect our privacy at this most difficult time. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

Coming up next, the White House fires a national security staffer for insulting tweets about President Obama's advisers. What does that say about culture in D.C. and how he got away with it for so long, two years. My panel debates next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Here we go, let me read you a couple tweets. One, I'm a fan of Obama but his continuing reliance and dependence on a vacuous cipher like Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to the president, concerns me. How about this one? Look, Darrell Issa is an ass, but he's on to something with the Hillary Clinton whitewash for accountability in Benghazi.

These are not the only tweets out there critical of the president and his administration, but these tweets didn't just come from anyone. No, no, they were written by someone inside the Obama administration. For two years as the scathing tweets kept coming, White House and State Department officials has been on the hunt for this staffer behind the alias, his Twitter handle was @natsecwonk.

Now, they got him. They got their man. Jofi Joseph, a director for the National Security Council. No surprise here when I tell you he has been fired, but as I mentioned, for two years, this guy has been insulting the foreign policy community and revealing internal administration information in 140 characters or less even flaunted it. Tweeting this, anonymity is essential to snarky Twitter accounts.

Back with me, conservative radio host and CNN commentator, Ben Ferguson, and Marc Lamont Hill, host of "Huffpost Live." Guys, good to see you. Marc, you get first crack at this because, you know, you, my friend, take people on all the time on Twitter. I mean, what is it you think that brings out such aggressive behavior among people online? MARC LAMONT HILL, HOST, "HUFFPOST LIVE": The internet allows people to be who they are in their heads. We think mean things all the time whether it's in an elevator, someone next to us in our office space. We're just too polite of a society to say it out loud. What Twitter allows you to do is hide under a shroud of anonymity as be as mean as we all want to be inside. I have never had a mean person say a mean thing to me on the street ever based on what I do in public, but every single day on Twitter, I get 50 to 100 --

BALDWIN: Never?

HILL: Not one person has walked up to me and said I was a jerk, but I get it about 100 times a day, not just from Ben, but other people, too, on Twitter.

BALDWIN: I do want to read, people can be nice and not so nice. I can attest to that. He has tweeted out this apology. Let me read this. "It has been a privilege to serve in this administration and I deeply regret violating the trust and confidence placed in me. What started out as an indented parody account of D.C. culture developed over time into a series of inappropriate and mean-spirited comments, I bear complete responsibility for this affair and I sincerely apologize to everyone I insulted."

So I mean, I think the real question is how did he get away with this for two years? None of us knows the answer to that. But you know, I think to Marc's point, Ben, as we move into this digital space where these people are hiding behind these Twitter avatars and spewing hate, and we have free speech, but at what point should there be ramifications, repercussions for all these people who are doing this?

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, there has to be some sort of line that you can't cross. I mean, this guy worked for the administration. Obviously, he should be fired. He's lucky so far they haven't charged him with any crimes yet. If he actually did put out there secrets that may have been classified, we don't know that yet for sure. And that's probably why his apology was, I'm so sorry, please don't charge me with anything.

It's weird in society how people think -- they don't meet you and they'll say things after I do TV here, I hope you die. I wish you would put a gun to your head. I wish your family nothing but x, y, and z. And you're sitting there and you kind of have to laugh at it because you are saying, would you say that to my face? No, but people feel emboldened when they can be online, and especially behind those accounts.

BALDWIN: Isn't it cowardly?

FERGUSON: Sure, it is especially when you're doing a fake account. We see these kids that are bullying. Look at this young girl who committed suicide recently.

BALDWIN: The 12 years old.

FERGUSON: She was bullied by people hiding behind a computer screen and hiding behind fake text messages from fake numbers saying you'll never find me. I think that's some warped narcissism. This guy thought he was never going to get caught. He worked at the White House, thought he was a professional.

BALDWIN: Go ahead, Mark.

HILL: This is what is stunning to me. What Ben just said, he didn't think he was going to get caught. This is somebody who is director of projects on non-proliferation. He was dealing directly with Iran. He knows our capacity to locate chemical weapons in Syria. He knows we can strike someone with a drone -- and he didn't think we could find an IP number?

BALDWIN: I don't know, but Marc, what about --

HILL: That's arrogance.

BALDWIN: It's narcissism, I think, was Ben's word. What about the bigger picture? I guess his point was parodies the D.C. culture. What do you think of that, Marc?

HILL: It's a weak, weak, weak excuse. First of all, he wasn't parodying D.C. culture or parodying anything in politics. He was echoing it, amplifying, the things he said about Sarah Palin, the things he said about Valerie Jarrett. He was bipartisan, but he was absolutely being the Washington mean insider that he now says he was parodying. I think it's a weak excuse to try and get out of the fray here.

BALDWIN: Marc Lamont Hill, Ben Ferguson, let's all play nice on Twitter because goodness knows others are not always so nice. Thanks guys very much. Appreciate it.

Prince George had a pretty big day with his mom and dad. Prince George was baptized today, so cute, a small private christening at St. James Palace in London. The royal baby wore an elaborate lace and satin gown for his first public appearance in three months. The gown, by the way, is a replica of an 1841 gown used for previous royal christenings like his dad, Prince William.

Queen Elizabeth, the baby's great grandmother, wore blue. There she is in that hat for today's event. Seven godparents, seven, were named, including a close friend of Princess Diana. After the service, the royal baby's grandfather, Prince Charles, hosted a private tea for guests.

Coming up, something that will inspire you today, we all need this, right? Doctors, nurses, patients, parents, kids inside this kids' hospital, team up. You'll hear the story behind this video.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Matthew Cordle confessed to hitting and killing a man after drinking and driving, said he would take full responsibility, and today, he learned the full extent of what his actions will now cost him. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW CORDLE: My name is Matthew Cordle. On June 22nd, 2013, I hit and killed Vincent Canzani. This video will act as my confession.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Weeks after that YouTube confession really went viral back in June. Cordle did turn himself into police. He pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide and driving under the influence, and today, the 22-year-old was sentenced before an Ohio judge. He will be spending six and a half years in prison, have to pay a fine of $1,075 and he will never be able to drive again.

HLN legal analyst, Joey Jackson, joining me now. Joey Jackson, does the sentence fit the crime?

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: I think it's appropriate, Brooke. When the justice system mets out these crimes, judges have to balance the equities and in doing that, Brooke, what they look at is punishment, right, but they also look at deterrents and they look at rehabilitation and you have to factor all that in mind.

Now I know he accepted responsibility. He turned himself in. He made this video, seems contrite, completely sorry about what he did, but there's still a measure of punishment that has to be meted out, which I think the judge did and also had to balance the victim's family and what they felt.

There was a split between the ex-wife who said, look, he's sorry and my former husband wouldn't have wanted him to ruin yet another life, but at the end of the day, the judge did what was necessary and appropriate -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: But what makes the story so unique is this video confession that he uploaded to YouTube. I'm curious if this helped or hurt the sentence from a judge's perspective?

JACKSON: I think it's a split. On the one hand, the judge doesn't want to send a message like you can do something like take someone's life, apologize, go on YouTube, and all will be resolved and forgiven. At the same time, the judge want to say it's important that you accept responsibility. So keeping in mind that the maximum, Brooke, would have been 8 1/2, and the judge gave him 6 1/2, I think the judge did take that into consideration. And no matter what the judge would have done, there would always be people who say it's not enough or it's too much. And I think that was what was balanced in this case.

BALDWIN: Joey Jackson, thank you very much.

Coming up, two math teachers killed in two days allegedly by students. I'm about to speak live here in studio with one teacher who was confronted by a 12-year-old in school with a loaded gun. Her story, you will never forget. That's coming up.

But first, in cases of gun violence, it's tough to train for the unexpected, but in emergency rooms, doctors and nurses are using these high-tech dummies to prepare for saving lives. Take a look at this "Technovation."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two liters of fluid.

BALDWIN (voice-over): The sights and sounds of an emergency room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you feeling?

BALDWIN: Conditions that trauma doctors like Robert Benjamin are trained to handle, but this is not an average work day.

DR. ROBERT BENJAMIN, LAKELAND MEDICAL CENTER: I had no idea that this was going to be that intense.

BALDWIN: The trauma team is training. Their patient is bleeding and has rapidly changing vital signs. But he's not in danger of dying because he's not real. This is a high-tech patient simulator.

BENJAMIN: You're able to do a neuro check, moving extremities, looking at his eyes, breathing and respirations were very accurate.

DR. LUIS LLERENA, CAMLS: Many times the learners know they're being trained. I'm just switching the scenario, dropping blood pressure. What are you going to do now?

BALDWIN: A control room team monitors the training and the patient simulator's vitals are manipulated by remote control.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He lost a total amount of 1500 millilitres of blood. His respiratory rate is now backed up to 45.

BALDWIN: Everything is recorded. Giving the team video to review and an experience that could help in real life.

BENJAMIN: We need to build up more trauma teams and they need to get the training in order to become those nurses.

BALDWIN: It's all staged, but for trauma training, this is as real as it gets.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Pretty nice way to end a team meeting inside a locker room at Northwestern University. The head basketball coach made a surprise announcement about one key player.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The guy through 12 practices who has done the best job of doing what he's supposed to do every day is James. And that's why I would like to say in front of the team right now that because of that, James is going to be put on full scholarship.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Walk-on player James Montgomery was overcome with emotion. Got a hug for the coach. Moments later, he shared the news with his mom and sister and they were so happy for him.

Now, to some of the hottest videos of the day, hit play.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN (voice-over): A Utah man facing charges after driving his truck up the steps of the state capitol. The 36-year-old started banging on the locked doors of the State Supreme Court and yes, he definitely got the attention of capitol security. Police say even a taser didn't faze this man, so they took him down with brute force.

The cat's out of the bag. Guards at a prison in Eastern Europe say this fuzzy feline is actually a drug mule. Officials caught the cat sneaking around the prison and attached to its collar, two bags of marijuana.

In Fargo, North Dakota, they call this bras on Broadway and you can see why. Look at this, more than 4,000 bras covering the side of this building. They will be on display all week long, all in the name of breast cancer awareness.

Roar indeed, this inspirational video of hope from children and staff at Dartmouth Hitchcock Children's Hospital dubbed to Katy Perry's hit song "Roar" getting more than 300,000 views in just a couple days.

And that's today's hit play.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: What is going on with the people in charge of our nation's nukes? First, these two commanders get in trouble for misbehaviour and now officers entrusted with launch codes are caught napping while the security door is left open? I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

Two days, two math teachers killed in America allegedly by students. What the murders say about security in our nation's schools.

And for the first time ever, the majority of Americans are in favor of legalizing pot. But is this the case of be careful what you wish for?

Plus, the dramatic sentencing for the man who confessed to driving drunk on YouTube.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm begging you, please don't drink and drive. Don't make the same excuses that I did.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: And the White House fires a national security staffer for tweets insulting president Obama's cabinet and advisers. But, he didn't stop there.