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Hurricane Arthur Leaves Flooding Behind; Police: Dad Was "Sexting" as Son Died in Car; Violent Clashes Around Palestinian Teen's Funeral

Aired July 04, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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

ANA CABRERA, CNN: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, Arthur makes landfall. High winds, heavy rain and tens of thousands of people in the dark. We are tracking the path of the storm.

Also --

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's got this whole second life that he's living with alternate personalities and alternate personas.

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CABRERA: What was Justin Ross Harris doing as his son suffered and died in a sweltering car? Cops say he was sexting with up to six women. We're digging through the disturbing new evidence.

A 4th of July immigration showdown, another bus load of immigrants heads for a California town today. Will protestors block the road again?

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's sitting on about a 3-foot ledge or so.

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CABRERA: And rescue mission, a chopper saves a hiker trapped 5,000 feet up. We'll take you inside the mission to get him down safely. Let's talk live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Good morning. Happy Friday and happy 4th of July. I'm Ana Cabrera in for Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me. Unfortunately, our 4th of July begins with one heck of a storm. Hurricane Arthur is crashing the party for millions of Americans on this Independence Day. This morning, Arthur has weakened just a little bit, now a Category 1 storm. But still whipping up strong winds and dangerous waves.

You can hear the powerful wind there as Arthur slammed ashore with 100-mile per hour winds slashing the central coastline of North Carolina. Power lines toppled, 20,000 homes and businesses left in the dark. Now a new threat in pockets along the coast, flooding.

We are covering all the angles for you this morning. Meteorologist, Indra Petersons, is in Kill Devil Hills, and Karen Maginnis is in the CNN Weather Center tracking the storm's path. But let's go first to Joe Johns. He is in Nags Head, North Carolina where businesses and road ways are flooded out -- Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ana, this picture sort of illustrates what we're up against here on the outer banks. This is water that has come in off of Roanoke Sound and spilled onto a parking lot. It hasn't made it to the road. In fact, it started receding as we've been here. Nonetheless, there are some big problems. For example, these buildings like many buildings sitting out on the Sound have septic tanks.

There's concerns about those septic tanks being compromised. So I don't want to walk around in this water too much, but I can tell you it's about 8 to 9 feet deep at its deepest point. The biggest problems, of course, further down the road in Hatteras Island area. Now Hatteras Island is still cut off from the rest of the outer banks. That's because authorities are trying to assess what's happening on the roads.

There's a road and a bridge called the Bonner Bridge. That bridge has had structural concerns before and they're trying to assess with engineers whether it's safe for people to travel. If it's not safe for people to travel, anybody who didn't evacuate from that part of this area won't be able to get up here.

So a difficult situation. There are scattered reports still of power outages here and the question of course is what's happening to the roads and when will things get back to normal. There is optimism from the state of North Carolina that they will be able to open that road by sometime tomorrow.

But some people suggest that might be optimistic when you look at the fact that this was a Category 2 storm. Other storms have caused bigger problems, not just because of water, but also because of sand on the bridges. So we're monitoring the situation. We'll get back to you -- Ana.

CABRERA: You can see how it's still a dangerous situation there, especially when you mention 8 to 9 feet of water in some places. Joe Johns, thank you for that. From Nags Head to Kill Devil Hills now. That's where we find CNN meteorologist, Indra Petersons. Indra, it looks like the storm is past where you are, but are people still in danger here?

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: This is the concern. It's like a sigh of relief. Gusts are still out here, but obviously about 30 miles per hour. You're starting to see a break in the sunshine. With all of this comes a new danger. What we're worried about now of course is the strong rip currents. All this water yesterday that came all the way up, that water's now making its way back out.

What's underneath the water has changed, right. So the way it came in, can't go back out the same way. The water looks for those passages where the sandbars are broken down and it rushes through very quickly. You can see easily here behind me, look at all the beachgoers, they're thinking the sun is up. This is going to be our new threat.

That's just one side of this. We keep talking about, this is the ocean. That's the concern. When what you just saw Joe Johns dealing with, that's because the winds switched directions as it came in from the east. That's where that storm surge came up and that's going to take hours to recede. Still more dangers out there, guys.

CABRERA: Indra, thanks for staying on top of it for us. Also staying on top of this storm is our CNN Weather Center team and meteorologist, Karen Maginnis, is joining us this morning. Karen, a lot of people are still wondering who might be in the storm's path still and just how bad could it get.

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, and we've seen this -- Indra said it and I'll repeat it, that is that this is a category one, but it made landfall as a category two. That means the wind speed has decreased, 90 miles per hour. When it came ashore, it had 100 miles per hour. Friday going into the afternoon hours, it should be about 2:00, right off the coast of New York City.

Because Boston just kind of just out here a little bit, you're going to be a little bit more vulnerable. So about 2:00 in the morning on Saturday, we're looking at a very heavy surf, beach erosion and wind damage. So there's still a lot of issues to be had here. And this will become a tropical storm and then exit tropical into the next 48 and then 72 hours affecting mostly the Canadian Maritimes.

This is an interesting picture. You can see drier air is trying to intrude across the western and south western edge. What does that mean? It means we could see if I remember weakening. It will happen fairly quickly. But the National Hurricane Center will give an update coming up at 11:00. Right here along the coastal areas of North Carolina still breezy. It's Virginia and northward that have to be concerned.

CABRERA: We can't emphasize enough the dangers of those rip currents. I know in 2009, six people died in tropical storms because of rip currents. So Karen Maginnis, thanks for monitoring all of this.

Some jaw-dropping new details in the case against Justin Ross Harris, the Georgia man charged with felony murder in the death of his son, Cooper. That toddler left in a hot car for hours last month in what Harris claimed is a tragic mistake. Prosecutors alleged Harris led a double life. They're saying he sent explicit photos to women. Friends and supporters were stunned to hear this new. More now from CNN's Victor Blackwell.

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VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What was Justin Ross Harris allegedly doing while his 22-month-old son, Cooper suffered in the back of this scorching SUV.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was having up to six different conversations with different women. The most common term would be sexting.

BLACKWELL: Stunning claims of raunchy text messages, suspicious internet searches and a plan to kill his son.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Evidence is showing us he has this whole second life that he's living with alternate personalities and alternate personas.

BLACKWELL: Harris shackled and sullen as Detective Phil Stoddard with the Cobb County Police Department detailed X-rated messages allegedly exchanged the day Cooper died including with a then 16-year-old girl.

UNIDENTIFIED ATTORNEY: Were photos being sent back and forth between the defendant and these women on that day?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. There were photos of his erect penis being sent and women's breasts being sent back to him.

BLACKWELL: No visible reaction from the 33-year-old wife, Leanna Harris, who sat with her family and supporters in a packed courtroom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was a loving father. He loved his son very much. We went on family vacations together and he was a good dad.

BLACKWELL: But just five days before Cooper's death, Detective Stoddard says internet searches revealed that Harris watched videos online about the dangers of being trapped in a hot car. And that Harris visited a web forum devoted to the child-free lifestyle.

UNIDENTIFIED ATTORNEY: So you have evidence that he typed in a Google search for child-free.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: True.

UNIDENTIFIED ATTORNEY: We're getting so far afield from the events of June 18th. This has nothing to do with those events whatsoever. The status of his marriage and fantasy life has nothing to do with the events of June 18th. This isn't relevant to anything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Judge, this goes to his state of mind in the two weeks leading up to the death of this child.

UNIDENTIFIED JUDGE: So this occurred within two weeks.

UNIDENTIFIED ATTORNEY: Yes, Your Honor.

UNIDENTIFIED JUDGE: Overrule the objection.

BLACKWELL: The detective also testified the couple had financial problems and took out life insurance policies on Cooper.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They had two policies on Cooper. The first policy was a $2,000 policy.

UNIDENTIFIED ATTORNEY: The second one, was this something back in 2013.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, November 2012 is when he signed up for it.

UNIDENTIFIED ATTORNEY: Was it something he still had at the time of the child's death?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's correct.

UNIDENTIFIED ATTORNEY: And how much was it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a $25,000 policy.

BLACKWELL: Stoddard laid out the strange way he was Harris reacting the day Cooper died.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He started off trying to work himself up. He's walking around, rubbing his eyes. Looked like he was trying to hyper ventilate himself. No real emotion coming out of him except for the huffing.

UNIDENTIFIED ATTORNEY: And through the time you're talking with him about his son and his son's death, did you ever see any tears coming from him?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

BLACKWELL: Even more bizarre how witnesses say Leanna Harris reacted at the day care when she was told that Cooper was never dropped off.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In front of several witnesses, all of a sudden she states, Ross must have left him in the car. They were like, what, there's no other reason -- explanation excuse me. They try to console her. They're like no. There's a thousand reasons. She's like, no.

BLACKWELL: Then another shocker.

UNIDENTIFIED ATTORNEY: Were there any injuries to the child's face?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were.

UNIDENTIFIED ATTORNEY: What were those?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The way it's explained, there were several marks on the child's face that would have come from the child or a scratch being made while the child was alive. And then not healing, not scabbing over or anything like that and just -- soon after he passed away.

UNIDENTIFIED ATTORNEY: Were there any injury to the back of the child's head?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

BLACKWELL: After three hours of stunning testimony, Judge Franks Cox denied Harris bond the defense maintaining.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not criminal negligence. It's horrible. Tragedy and an accident.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BLACKWELL: You heard the detective. They mentioned the two life insurance policies. We just received eight new search warrants for the Harris' computers and cell phones and iPads. What we're learning through the narrative is that not only were those life insurance policies taken out. According to police, after Cooper's death, Ross Harris started to ask relatives about how to file to get that money as part of those policies.

CABRERA: Wow. What else can we say? Victor, stay with me. Still to come here in the CNN NEWSROOM, Justin Ross Harris breaks down in court. But police say he shed no tears the day his son died. What do we make of this? We're talking about this with Jane Velez-Mitchell and Joey Jackson along with Victor Blackwell next.

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CABRERA: Welcome back. We want to dig deeper now in the case against Justin Ross Harris, the man in charged with killing his toddler son in a hot car. Harris now will stand trial now that a judge found there was evidence enough to move forward. Joining me from New York, HLN host, Jane Velez-Mitchell and HLN legal analyst and also a criminal defense attorney, Joey Jackson, and then here with me in Atlanta, Victor Blackwell.

Thanks to all of you for being with us this morning. Jane, let's start with you. What did you find most incriminating in the probable cause hearing we heard yesterday?

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HLN HOST (via telephone): I think it was the total portrait. Prosecutors were brilliant. They laid out a devastating portrait of a man sexually obsessed, self-centered, unhappily married, and who wanted a child-free life. He was living a double life. He was pretending to be this devout church going family man. Behind closed doors, prosecutors are saying, he's a cheater and a sexual pervert.

So I think we got a portrait in every little detail just painted a richer picture of a man who frankly is a man with -- if all this is true -- no conscience. The evidence is overwhelming. If it's true, this is actually one of the most vile sadistic crimes I've ever encountered in all my years. The capacity to allow your own flesh and blood toddler son to bake to death in a hot car while you're having sexually charged fun sexting with six different women, including a teenager, it defies the imagination.

So how does somebody get to a point where they are allegedly capable of doing something like that and that's what I thought was brilliant about what they laid out. They told a story that this guy was unhappily married. His wife admitted they had intimacy problems. He was unhappy at work. He was passed over for a promotion. They were arguing about money and then his secret world. The world that nobody knew about.

Visiting this Reddit site that talks about a child-free lifestyle, the obsession with death, looking at videos of people dying. It's just -- it was brilliant in the way that it really told a story from beginning to end. And at the end of it, you were like, my God --

CABRERA: You were kind of sick to your stomach, I know. I know. It was painful to hear some of those details that the detective had to say on the stand. Victor, you were in the courtroom.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

CABRERA: I know his church was really close, all of his supporters from church to friends were in that courtroom. Did you feel a shift in any of their demeanor as all of these details came out?

BLACKWELL: We certainly heard some gasps and we saw a few of the supporters kind of look at each other when they started to talk about the sexting and the details they had not heard about and when they called the church member up to the stand in part of the bond hearing and the state asked, well, did you know about these text messages. She said no.

And then he asked, is it possible that you really don't know a lot about Ross Harris. And she admitted, I only know him in a church setting. So that will be the limit, as we hear from a lot of the witnesses they'll call, about how much they know about this man. I'm sure a lot of those people who lined the walls here did not expect the details we heard yesterday.

CABRERA: Well, the defense certainly made a point of calling a lot of witnesses who had good things to say about Justin Ross Harris. Joey, I know as a defense attorney yourself, you must have been listening carefully to how the defense was going about its case. Do you think they made any really strong points and what mistakes might have been made?

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: The answer in terms of strong points is no. Let me just put this in context, Ana. This is a probable cause hearing. What does that mean? It means that you just have to show enough to the judge to establish that he's not being unlawfully detained and there's a basis and a reason to hold him over for a trial. So two things stick out at me.

One is motive. The second is malice. If they can establish the motivation that they did. Why would a father do this to a child? Why? It doesn't make sense to any of us. After yesterday, it does and then you go to the issue of malice, which is they didn't have to establish that of course because they just have to show criminal negligence for the second-degree child abuse charge.

To lay that out and put it in context of a probable cause hearing, no injury, you're not trying to establish guilt. It makes me wonder what else do they have that they didn't reveal yesterday, and then as the investigation unfolds, what else is going to be revealed. That would concern me as a defense attorney because now I'm thinking this could very well escalate to capital murder case in which they elevate the charges.

The other thing from a defense perspective is the mother being embroiled in this by virtue of some conspiracy. So will we see charges elevate as to him and will we see charges against the wife, the mother of the child. So I'd be very concerned from a defense perspective based upon what I heard yesterday.

CABRERA: All right, Joey Jackson, Jane Velez-Mitchell, Victor Blackwell, thanks so much. We know bond was denied and so it moves onto the trial phase. We'll see what happens and the timing on all on that. We appreciate your time.

Some breaking news out of Jerusalem this morning where violent clashes have broken out at the funeral of that teenager who was killed, the Palestinian teenager. Tear gas, rocks, bottles all hurled at the funeral of Mohammed Abu Kadir, who was murdered in an apparent revenge killing for the death of three Israeli teens.

Senior international correspondent, Ben Wedeman, is live in Jerusalem now -- Ben.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. These clashes are ongoing. They've been continuing now for three and a half to four hours. What we have behind me is a group of Israeli policemen -- there's rocks coming in. I'm going to step aside. But I'll continue to talk with you.

This is the aftermath of the funeral of the boy. There were well over a thousand people attending that funeral. As soon as the funeral was over as sure as the rainfalls in December, the clashes began. And this is the third day of intense clashes in Jerusalem since the discovery of the body. And it doesn't look like these clashes are going to be subsiding on a daily basis.

Now the end of the Ramadan fast is about two and a half hours away. So we can expect a lull then. Often times what happens when the sun goes down and everybody's had their evening meal, the clashes begin again. Not just in this part, but the nine other neighborhoods in Jerusalem as well.

CABRERA: You mentioned days of clashes now. Are these clashes growing day to day?

WEDEMAN: Well, they're basically -- this is the most -- these are the most intense clashes we've seen in the last three days. By it's been a daily occurrence, all day, almost all night occurrence. The only real lulls are when the fast breaks in the evening and then the early morning when people are sort of resting from their exertions of the day before.

So the question is, is it going to continue. That is on the minds of many people. There are some people saying is this the beginning of a third Palestinian -- it's impossible to say. There are frustrations. There's anger among many Palestinians with the situation here in Jerusalem, in particular throughout the west bank.

And then there's the situation in Gaza. So you have many potential flash points. As you can see here in Jerusalem, this flash point is getting quite hot. CABRERA: Ben Wedeman, we appreciate your reporting and certainly please be careful while you're here. It's a delicate and complex situation. Let's bring in Aaron David Miller, a Middle East expert, vice president and scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center. He is joining us on the phone right now from Maine. Aaron, how concerned about you about what we're seeing there in Jerusalem this morning?

AARON DAVID MILLER, MIDDLE EAST EXPERT (via telephone): We've been lucky over the last 18 months that the Israeli-Palestinian region has been quiet. These killings of the three Israeli teens and then what appears to be a revenge killing of the teen has demonstrated this conflict has a kind perverse -- about it. They are literally yards, meters and kilometers apart and this is also occurring during the holy month. As Ben pointed out, offers a lull during periods when fasting begins, but it guarantees a certainly intensity is going to continue.

So -- and if that weren't bad enough, you have the intersecting problems of confrontations in Gaza and the prospects again of a kind of ethical cycle. We saw this, you have confrontations. If they lead to deaths, then you have funerals. And the funerals as we've seen produces additional confrontation. I don't believe, though, as bad as it appears that we're on the verge of a sustained explosion that it's going to end up in what they describe as a third --

CABRERA: That's an optimistic thought. Aaron, we're having a little bit of a hard time hearing you. What would it take do you think given the escalation of what we're seeing there to make sure that we don't go past a breaking point of some sort? Do different governments need to get involved at this point do you think?

MILLER: I think this now as a certain momentum of its own which is going to have to play itself out. They have tried to broker a cease fire between Hamas and Israel. Even Hamas do not have a stake in the kind of escalation that would lead to a massive and sustained confrontation. I don't think the bulk of the Palestinian public focused on other issues want -- as well. By the blood is up now and individuals acts unanchored from government and -- we just have to hope that rationality and the balancing force that often do regulate conflict in the Israeli-Palestinian arena come into play.

CABRERA: Thank you for your time.

Still to come, more undocumented immigrants are expected to arrive in California today and tensions are very high. Kyung Lah is joining us live. Good morning, Kyung.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And they're already gathered here. You can see that protestors on both sides of the immigration debate parked outside this border patrol station. We'll have all the details coming up.

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