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Toothpaste Bombs; 1989 Cold Case; Jay Leno Ends 22-year Run; Castaway in Hospital; Movie Theater Shooting
Aired February 06, 2014 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: First up, we begin this hour with a terror threat at the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi just got even more frightening because the latest scare -- have you heard about this -- toothpaste bombs bound for this Russian resort town. As Olympic events begin and the last USA team arrives in Russia, U.S. intelligence officials are looking into this possible new terror plot involving toothpaste tubes. Homeland Security warning airlines with direct flights serving Russia to be aware of the possibility that explosive materials could be concealed inside toothpaste, inside cosmetic tubes coming into the country.
Joining me now live from Sochi is our senior international correspondent there, Nick Paton Walsh.
And do we know, Nick, if these toothpaste bombs would be intended to be used in Sochi itself or on planes and who's behind this?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the logic test, really, Brooke, suggested if they're going to bother to try and get explosive material onto an aircraft, they're more likely to try and use it on board the plane rather than take it off the plane and then try and get it through the ring of steel behind me here, particularly in an area where, frankly, explosives are quite easy to come by given the frequency of blasts we see across the southern region and areas further away than Sochi, where I'm standing now.
Do we know who's behind this? Well, no. The suggestions are they may have links to Islamist extremist groups here in the North Caucasus. Now, there's something called the Emirates (INAUDIBLE). A sort of Caucasus Emirates (ph) has said that they will - or threatened to engulf the games in flames. They've said (INAUDIBLE) number of years been kind of a (INAUDIBLE) in this region with Vladimir Putin. But really the key issue here is how credible these threats are and exactly what impact it will have on how many American tourists decide to turn up.
Brooke.
BALDWIN: Not just the tourists, I want to talk about the athletes with these different headlines each and every day. CNN talked to some of them about these possible fears as they arrived into Sochi. Here's what they told us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to Sochi. What do you think?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So far, so good. Just landed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you psyched?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, of course. It's the Olympics.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: While you were flying, there were some more security alerts about possible explosive toothpaste. What - I mean did that get to you? Does that stress you out?
MAIA SHIBUTANI, TEAM USA ICE DANCING: Yesterday we were doing processing and then we were traveling all morning. So, no, we hadn't heard about that. But I think that really our job here is to just focus on what we can control and what we can do and that's how we're going to perform at our first Olympics.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: So maybe not too worried. Nick Paton Walsh, we're back - we're back up with you. We have learned that the U.S. ski and snow boring team has hired a private security firm. Do - tell me, what does security look like just around the hotels and venues where you've seen.
WALSH: Well, there are different layers of security. I mean there are police all over Adler (ph), where the Olympic venue actually is. And then when you try and obviously get near where the athletes will be staying, it gets an awful lot tougher. We' have a number of passes as media to get us through certain blockades, but the actual ones you need to get right inside where the athletes stay, very hard to come by.
So I think there's enough security there, sniffer dogs checking cars, police everywhere, to make the athletes certainly feel safe. But what, of course, made them anxious is the sheer drumbeat of terror issues and the threats that have been coming up in the past two weeks. Barely a day seems to go by in the last week that we haven't heard something, Brooke.
BALDWIN: At least talking to former Olympic athletes, they said, of all people who can compartmentalize these issues, it's athletes. So, Nick Paton Walsh, thank you very much, for us in Sochi.
You'll remember, just before the Olympics, in this bizarre move, President Vladimir Putin sort of releasing some of his most controversial prisoners, including these women, Pussy Riot, the punk rock band jailed for their political activism. Well, now, they're here in the states, in Brooklyn, on stage with Madonna, acknowledged at a benefit concert for Amnesty International.
Florida authorities have revealed the name of the man who they believe is now the answer to a case that has haunted one family for the last 25 years. The disappearance of Tiffany Sessions, the University of Florida student who, when she was 20 years young, just disappeared. It was February 9, 1989, after telling a roommate she was just going out for a run. Her father was determined to find her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PATRICK SESSIONS, FATHER OF MISSING WOMAN: I'm feeling tired. I'm feeling scared and I'm feeling hopeful. And, I mean, I'm feeling every emotion you can feel right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you optimistic?
SESSIONS: Damn right I am. Until they find her, I'm optimistic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: That was 1989. Today, his hair may be a tad whiter, but Patrick Sessions and his family's determination has not waned, especially now that the sheriff has named the focus of the investigation. So investigators now believe Paul Rowles took Tiffany and likely killed her. Rolls died last year, but newly acquired evidence makes investigators believe the killer and sex offender convicted in other cases is also responsible in this case.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PATRICK SESSIONS, FATHER OF MISSING WOMAN: He's the scum of the earth. He destroyed three, four families that we know of and their daughters with no remorse. This is for real. This is - this is our chance to close this case, to bring some peace to this family and to Tiffany. And I need peace (ph).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: On the phone with me now is Tiffany's father, Patrick Sessions.
And, Mr. Sessions, thank you for calling in. Here we are to the month, 25 years since, you know, you lost your daughter. You mentioned the word peace in that news conference. With the news today, do you feel any sense of that?
PATRICK SESSIONS, FATHER OF MISSING WOMAN (via telephone): Well, I'm not sure I'm at peace yet, but I certainly am energized and I have a lot of optimism that we're on the right trail here. And it's not just me. Obviously I walk (ph) in (ph) this and I've got to figure out what happened. But the sheriff got up and said things a lot stronger than I would have, frankly, and so, yes, we believe we found the right guy.
BALDWIN: You were aware of this man, this possible connection to your daughter's case. But when prison officials found Paul Rowles journal with the date, 2-9-89 and the number two scrawled in it, when you first heard that, sir, what was your immediate thought?
SESSIONS: Well, it was like a punch in the stomach. It just took the wind out of my sails. We -- the actually (INAUDIBLE) the prison official who found it, it was the detective for (INAUDIBLE) Country, who actually got them from the priest that Rowles had left his things to. BALDWIN: Wow.
SESSIONS: And nobody knew there was anything in there (ph). And so when we found that, it was a shock.
BALDWIN: It was a shock because you believe it was that that really conclusively links this man to your daughter and her disappearance, yes?
SESSIONS: Right. You can't look at it as just that day. You'd have to see the whole book. He named other girls in the book.
BALDWIN: Oh.
SESSIONS: He was clearly keeping a journal for himself to remember what he'd done. But we have to remember, the time Tiffany disappeared, she was not -- he was not a suspect in 2002 when he wrote this. And had he written her name in his remention (ph) in that book and somebody in prison had found it, he would have had himself in a lot of trouble. By just putting a date down, he was able to memorialized it but without (INAUDIBLE) confessing.
BALDWIN: And let's remind everyone, because I know you have been, this is still an ongoing investigation. Your daughter's body has still never been found. This was Tiffany's mother today. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY SESSIONS, MOTHER OF MISSING WOMAN: It's very important that, for me, that I find out, because this is my only baby. She's my masterpiece. And I just want everybody to know that it's been a 25- year struggle and it would be nice to be able to put her to rest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Here's my question to you. Paul Rowles died, as we mentioned, February of 2013. If he was - if, in fact, he was the man who killed your daughter, he will never face justice, sir, for what he did. How does that sit with you?
SESSIONS: Well, I mean, frankly, I don't really care about that. What I care about is I'm happy he's never going to hurt anybody else. And I wish he was still alive so we could interrogate him. But he was interrogated and he denied - he even denied Beth (ph) after they found the DNA. And so I really don't think we would have gotten anything out of him. He never admitted to any of the other stuff, even that he was convicted on. So, you know, I -- he died apparently (ph) a very unpleasant death from cancer and, you know, crime (ph) is tough.
BALDWIN: Patrick Sessions, thank you for calling in. I wish you and your family peace. Thanks.
SESSIONS: Thank you very much.
BALDWIN: Coming up, take a look at this. This is the boat on which the castaway, quote/unquote castaway says he spent 13 months. Right now we're told his health is failing. Find out why doctors are having such a tough time caring for this man.
Plus, tonight, Jay Leno signs off from his top rated late night show after 22 years. Will we see him on TV again? And what about the future of late night TV? That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: The end of an era on late night television. The number one show, by the way, for more than 20 years. Later tonight, Jay Leno bids farewell to "The Tonight Show" audience after a nearly 22-year reign.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here's Jay Leno!
JAY LENO, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": Let's see how y'all feel in 30 years.
BILLY CRYSTAL, COMEDIAN/ACTOR: Dear Mr. Leno, you're now the new host of "The Tonight Show."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Twenty-two years, folks. That is a lifetime in Hollywood. And just to refresh your memory, we want to take you back to the year 1992 when Jay Leno first took the late night helm. So, a brief look back.
A gallon of gas costs $1. America's largest shopping meca, The Mall of America opened. Hurricane Andrew devastated south Florida. And in 1992, Bill Clinton became president and one of the hottest films on the big screen made actress Sharon Stone a star.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You didn't feel anything for him, you just had sex with him for your book?
SHARON STONE, "BASIC INSTINCT": In the beginning. Then I got to like what he did for me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You like playing games, don't you?
STONE: It's nice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Oh, yes, "Basic Instinct."
No doubt Jay Leno has seen the ups and downs of late night. And so I talked to our CNN's senior media correspondent, "Reliable Sources" host Mr. Brian Stelter, about the Leno legacy.
BALDWIN: Brian Stelter, we will begin with just the Leno legacy. People love him but they also love to hate on him.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: And maybe that's what made him so successful. He had a bit of both of those different attributes.
BALDWIN: But why do they love to hate on him so much? Was it because of the whole Conan thing?
STELTER: Well, I think the Conan thing is part of it. I think he appeals to a middle American audience that some people on the coasts like to mock. You know, his humor is the kind of humor that is palatable to lots of different people. He's not the niche comedian that you might find on other channels. And as a result, people who, you know, maybe want that more niche comedy would love to rag on Leno, even before the Conan debacle. I think the Conan thing, though, really deepened people's dislike for him. Although, hey, now it's been a few years and he's getting a lot of praise on the way out the door.
BALDWIN: This man is the king.
STELTER: He is.
BALDWIN: Still, you look at his ratings. He is on top. So I guess the obvious question is, if you're on top, why is he leaving?
STELTER: Well, you know, and they tried to do this last time with Conan. Now they're doing it again with Jimmy Fallon. People look at this and they think, why are they trying to push a guy out again who's still number one. But, of course, NBC is thinking about the future. They're thinking about younger, hipper talent, in this case Jimmy Fallon, and a younger audience also. They are basically making a play for five years from now, but it's probably going to hurt them in the short-term.
BALDWIN: Interesting. Hurt them in the short term. Hopefully as the bosses at 30 Rock are hoping it will benefit them in the long term. You bring up Jimmy Fallon. He gets the seat next. Why, beyond the younger audience, I mean he's so hot with, you know, making videos go viral and things of that nature. But why are the NBC executives so hot to hire him specifically, do you think?
STELTER: He's also a different kind of comic from Leno. You know, he's more of a variety show guy. He's able to sing and to dance. Maybe not all that well, but he's able to have fun with himself while he's doing it.
BALDWIN: He tries. He can play the guitar.
STELTER: He tries, you know. You know, his times with Brian Williams, when they're slow jamming the news, that kind of thing wouldn't feel as right with Leno. But Fallon brings all of that. And that kind of energy is something that NBC is eager to have on "The Tonight Show."
BALDWIN: And like Jay Leno, he has a mighty nice Rolodex, does he not?
STELTER: He does. He does. And he's going to be in New York. "The Tonight Show" moving from the West Coast to the East Coast is a big deal because we're going to see battles between his "Tonight Show" and Letterman's late show also in New York City. It will be interesting to see which shows celebrities choose and when. BALDWIN: Do you think this is the last time we see Jay Leno with such a huge presence on television?
STELTER: Absolutely not. And the only question is where he's going to end up. "The New York Times," Bill Carter had a great story today on the front page about Leno and he pointed out that it's not until September that Leno's contract is actually up at NBC. He's got several more months under contract. But I think not soon after that contract ends, we will see Leno elsewhere. And there are all sorts of rumors about where that could be. Could it be Fox Broadcast. Could it be a channel like CNN. Could it be some other cable channel? Leno's going to have a lot of offers, I think.
BALDWIN: That's for our next conversation. Brian Stelter, thank you.
STELTER: Thank you.
BALDWIN: By the way, Jay Leno told "The Hollywood Reporter" that NBC asked him to leave six months early so that Fallon could launch his new show during the Olympics. You know, ratings. It would help him. Leno said, sure -- this is kind of awesome. He said, sure, as long as the network paid his staff until September.
Coming up, the suspect in the Florida movie theater shooting breaks down in court. New perspective on exactly what happened inside that theater and what the suspect said to his wife just after shots were fired.
Plus, a man claims he was lost at sea for more than a year and now doctors say the health of the castaway who washed ashore is failing. And new images of the boat upon which he apparently survived, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: An El Salvadorian castaway, allegedly lost at sea for more than a year, is not doing well now. Jose Salvador Alvarenga washed ashore on the Marshall Islands in a small fishing boat more than a week ago. Doctors say he is back in the hospital but that he is severely dehydrated, that his limbs are swelling and he's low on vitamins and minerals. Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen here.
And, initially, he seemed fine. He was in and out. What, for being gone so long, 13 months, in and out of the hospital in one day. So what's happening now with him?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's hard to tell because his doctors have understandably been reluctant to come forward with details.
BALDWIN: Sure.
COHEN: But we did talk to some doctors and said, look, given what the situation appears to be, what's going on here? And they said, look, if someone really was out there for 13 months, dehydration, starvation, probably trauma. He probably got knocked around quite a bit. Could be an infection. I mean he was eating uncooked meat, right? It could be an infection.
BALDWIN: Turtles, birds, et cetera.
COHEN: Birds, yes. And not having eaten those uncooked, I don't know what - but, I mean, it's bad - salmonella, other bad things can happen.
BALDWIN: Yes.
COHEN: But it's a lot to take someone out of that. And one of the sort of things here to remember is, that if someone really has been sort of in this kind of starvation/dehydration mode, you can't just sort of puff them up with food and water. You have to do it slowly and carefully.
BALDWIN: So is that why you think initially he seemed to be OK and then suddenly relapsed? It was, you know, just -- he hadn't fully, I don't know, reemerged -
COHEN: Recovered.
BALDWIN: Back into normal life and living and normal food and that messed with him.
COHEN: Right. Yes. You know, the doctors we talked to said that that is a distinct possibility, that maybe he was brought out of it too quickly because, you know, they have this experience with prisoners of war and other people who are dehydrated and starved. When they would try to get them out of it quickly, it could really hurt them.
BALDWIN: Huh.
COHEN: So you - there's sort of a science to how to get someone out of this state. Because your body kind of gets used to it for that period of time -
BALDWIN: Sure.
COHEN: And you can't just do it quickly. So that could be --
BALDWIN: Sounds like a period of acclimation is necessary.
COHEN: Exactly. So you can't just sort of automatically bring him back to normal things. You have to let his body slowly get used to things.
BALDWIN: We will follow his progress.
COHEN: OK.
BALDWIN: See how he does.
COHEN: Sounds good.
BALDWIN: Elizabeth, thank you very much.
Coming up, the former police officer accused of killing a father inside a movie theater breaks down in court. We will tell you what his wife apparently did seconds after that shooting, all over a text message. You remember this.
Plus, President Obama says immigration is one of his top priorities in 2014, but House Speaker John Boehner is now saying, sorry, it's not going to happen this year. It involves trust. We'll cut through the spin on both sides for you, next. You're watching CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Tomorrow, a Florida judge will see video of a killing that, according to witnesses, happened because a man was texting in a movie theater. Surveillance video shows an infrared materials (ph) exactly how Curtis Reeves, a former police captain, allegedly shot and killed a father who had been using his cell phone during movie previews. The evidence will cap an intense day of testimony Wednesday. Both the defendant and the victim's wife were brought to tears. CNN's Martin Savidge has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Retired Tampa Police Captain Curtis Reeves shed tears in court Wednesday.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He has high blood pressure.
SAVIDGE: His family and friends came to the 71-year-old's defense in a bond reduction hearing that felt more like a murder trial. More than eight hours of emotional testimony. Reeves pleaded not guilty to second degree murder and aggravated battery charges stemming from a shooting inside this central Florida movie theater January 13th. He's accused of shooting and killing Chad Oulson, who had been texting with his two-year-old daughter's babysitter during the movie's previews.
CHARLES CUMMINGS, SHOOTING EYEWITNESS: He said, I can't believe he shot me. He took another step and a half and then collapsed on my son.
SAVIDGE: Reeves said he acted in self-defense after being hit in the face with an unknown object in the dark. But witnesses inside the Florida movie theater say, the only thing thrown was popcorn. And then Reeves fired a shot, killing Oulson and wounding his wife.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I checked his pupils to see if they would react to light, and they did not.
SAVIDGE: Oulson's widow wept in the front row as Reeves sat in court in civilian clothes and no handcuffs. Reeves' daughter asked that her elderly father be released.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He has arthritis in his hands. He kept all of his tools because he just knew that his hands would get better and he'd be able to do it again. But it hasn't happened.
SAVIDGE: An off duty deputy attending the movie with his son said he heard Reeves talking to his wife about the shooting after the gunshot. ALAN HAMILTON SR., SHOOTING EYEWITNESS: And she postured and she said, that was no cause to shoot anyone. And then he leaned back around and stuck his finger out, you know, as to, you know, scold her and said, you shut your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) mouth and don't say another word.
SAVIDGE: The judge in the case granting a big win for the prosecution, allowing them to play infrared surveillance video of the shooting in an open court when the hearing continues Friday morning.
Martin Savidge, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
