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Judge Rejects Federal Plea Deal for Ahmaud Arbery's Killer; Interview with Mayor Sam Liccardo (D) San Jose, California: City Council Adopts Ordinance Requiring Gun Owners Get Liability Insurance, Pay Fee; Minnesota Police: 1 Student Killed, 1 Critically Injured in Shooting Near School; At Least 13 Black Colleges Get Bomb Threats as Black History Month Starts. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired February 01, 2022 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: A judge rejected a federal plea deal for Travis McMichael, one of the three men convicted for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. Travis McMichael and his father Gregory are now deciding if they still will plead guilty to federal hate crime charges. That trial is supposed to start on Monday. Arbery's family opposed the plea deal.

His mother told the federal judge at a court hearing Monday: Please listen to me. Granting these men their preferred conditions of confinement would defeat me. It gives them one last chance to spit in my face after murdering my son.

Lee Merritt is an attorney for the Arbery family. Lee, thank you for being with us. First, let's start there and just explain the opposition. Why the family says there should be no plea deal in this federal case.

LEE MERRITT, ATTORNEY FOR THE FAMILY OF AHMAUD ARBERY: Thank you for asking the question from the family's perspective. I lot of people don't understand this seems like almost a good thing. The federal government is moving forward with a plea deal that involves the significant sentence for these men but for Wanda Cooper Jones, she's fought to have them remain in state of Georgia prisons. She knows that time is a little more difficult than what is commonly known as "club fed."

BLACKWELL: So, let me ask you this, because there seems to be a discrepancy, you made it clear here on CNN, the morning of the sentencing for the state trial back in early January that the family opposed a federal plea deal.

But this is what we heard from the DOJ from the prosecutor here in which she says that she checked with the attorneys for the family before signing the proposed agreement reflecting the defendants confessions to federal hate crimes. The civil rights division consulted with the victims attorneys. The Justice Department entered the plea agreement only after the victims attorneys informed me that the family was not opposed to it.

To that, you say what?

MERRITT: We certainly spoke with Christine Clark. She's an excellent head of the civil rights division and an excellent civil rights attorney. We had a misunderstanding is how we define it. We were familiar with the sentence. And as I mentioned a moment ago, the family is fine with the sentencing but the transferring terms of confinement was not an issue that was discussed, is Wanda Cooper Jones described in her statement. She's not interested in having these men choose their preferred accommodations.

BLACKWELL: So, let's just be clear. Specifically, your fine with the 30 years. It's that it shouldn't be in federal prisons. You believe that they should be remanded in state prisons, correct?

MERRITT: That's correct. That's how the law works. These men were first sentenced at state prison. It's the stiffer penalty. It's one of the stiffest penalties under the law, life without the possibility of parole. And so, that needs to be served in its entirety before you would move on to a federal sentencing.

BLACKWELL: OK. So said, and family have said, that they will fight a plea deal. And now that I understand it specifically about where they are held and how long that you'll fight it. What are your options?

MERRITT: Well, right now, the judge has granted us our options. This trial can go forward. That the federal government will either win or lose. The truth is their incarceration is already set. They are residents of the Georgia State Penitentiary.

[04:35:00]

If the trial comes out -- if there's a guilty verdict, they will receive a sentence that will be secondary to the state sentence.

But the rejection was only for Travis McMichael, not for Gregory McMichael, not for -- we don't know if there's going to be a deal for William "Roddie" Bryan. Are you fighting a deal for them as well?

MERRITT: There is no deal for William "Roddie" Bryan. The rejection was for both because the court made that clear. And so, they will have to either decide to move forward with their guilty verdict and be sentenced either way or it will proceed to trial.

All right, Lee Merritt, thank you for your time.

MERRITT: Thank you.

All right, and update now to the story we have been following. After a feud with family of teenager who died in 2013. A Georgia sheriff is now offering a half million-dollar reward in the case. So, listen to this. Kendrick Johnson was found dead in a rolled-up gym mat at Lowndes County High School, that was 2013. Last week Lowndes County Sheriff asked to close the second investigation into his death without filing charges. He said the 17-year-old's death was a weird accident. Johnson's family criticized his report and yesterday the sheriff released a statement.

Johnson's parents have called me a liar and continue to state that Kendrick was murdered. Because of these statement, I'm personally with my own funds offering a reward of one-half million dollars to anyone who comes forward with information that results in the arrest and conviction of the person for the alleged murder of Kendrick Johnson.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: That's interesting.

BLACKWELL: Yes, so he's saying if you got it, show it. And I'll put my own money up if you bring someone in and they are convicted and we'll see what happens here.

CAMEROTA: Yes, we will. I mean, it sounds like he's frustrated but he's also sort of taunting anyone who might have evidence and will see if that proves it. Thanks for the update.

Meanwhile, San Jose wants to become the first city in the nation to require that most gun owners pay a fee and carry liability insurance. A gun rights group is already suing to block this ordinance. The city's mayor joins us next.

[04:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: The mayor of Little Rock Arkansas wants to declare a state of emergency to address a rash of recent shootings.

BLACKWELL: A mother and her 1-year-old child who were waiting in line at a food truck are among the 12 people shot in Little Rock since Friday. Mayor Frank Scott Jr. took to Twitter overnight.

Tweeting in part: This past weekend's unacceptable shootings prove we must do more.

And the mayor of San Jose, California is taking a unique step to try to curb gun violence in gun harm. The city council passed a measure that would require gun owners to carry liability insurance similar to auto insurance. It also requires gun owners to pay an annual fee. It's set to take effect in August pending final approval.

CAMEROTA: San Jose would be first ever U.S. city to enact a law like this for gun owners. A gun rights group has already filed a lawsuit to block it.

The mayor of San Jose, Mayor Sam Liccardo, joins us now. Mayor, great to have you here. So, this was your brain child. This was after a state of mass shootings that you and your city lived through. And so, explain how this works. If you make gun owners have insurance, what's going to change?

MAYOR SAM LICCARDO (D) SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA: Well, in the same way that drivers are required to have insurance. We know the insurance companies can incentivize safer behaviors. It means that drivers years past when airbag, when antilock brakes first came out, they'd be incentivized to buy those cars because they would be able to take advantage of reductions in premiums, similarly to safe driving records.

So, we also want to encourage gun owners to be safer. Whether they're buying a gun safe, using a trigger lock, (INAUDIBLE) a gun safety class. There are ways that we can make gun ownership much safer, and that is really important in a country where more than 4 1/2 million children live in a home where a gun is kept unloaded and unlocked.

BLACKWELL: So, I read the ordinance and you say that insurance companies can do that to incentivize safe gun ownership but are you aware any insurance companies do. How does this get to making gun violence less common in your city?

LICCARDO: Well, we do know that insurance companies are doing it. We've reached out to more than a dozen insurance companies that routinely offer this coverage for homeowners or renters policies. So, we want to get insurance companies who are directly engaged in its way to encourage more safety without direct government involvement. We think there's maybe a better path to reducing gun harm than necessarily having government decide what is reasonable safe behavior.

With regard to the horrible episodes like we just saw in Little Rock and the horrible shootings, I think one thing we need to understand, first, that gun violence and gun harm is much broader than what we see in the headlines. The majority of the deaths are gun inflicted are by suicide, not by homicide. More than a third of the gun inflicted injuries that get into emergency rooms every day in our city and throughout the country as a result of unintentional shootings. So, these are law-abiding gun owners who are inflicting harm on themselves and on others in these are preventable tragedies.

These are horrors and devastation that we can prevent, if we have investment for example, in two-sided prevention programs, mental health, domestic violence reduction programs and that's really where this fee comes in.

[04:45:03]

We can use this revenue -- actually it would be a nonprofit foundation doing so in proving program, evidence-based programs that can reduce violence to our communities.

CAMEROTA: The NRA doesn't like this. No surprise. And so, they talk about how it doesn't apply to criminals. That's one of their points that they don't like. They say law-abiding gun owners should take further offence to the fact that San Jose's effort doesn't even contain the pretense of targeting criminals who misuse firearms. San Jose's ordinance quite literally cannot apply to criminals who illegally possess firearms. Do you have a response to that?

LICCARDO: Well, as I said before the vast majority of deaths in this country are either self-inflicted with a firearm or accidental shootings. And so those are overwhelmingly lawful gun owners. And there are things we can do, gun safety classes for example, suicide prevention efforts that can prevent that harm. That's critically important.

Secondly, this is a tool that law enforcement can use to differentiate law abiding gun owners for those who are not, the crooks. That is every gun owner would be required if they're found with a gun or an officer suspects they have a gun, they're required to show insurance just like any driver would.

Very simple task and if they're unable to present that document showing that they have insurance and they paid the fee, then we can fine those individuals and more importantly, with the help of some state legislature we can actually seize the gun in situations where we know we have a combustible situation until that gun owner demonstrates that they are lawful and they are complying with the rules.

CAMEROTA: OK, well, Mayor Sam Liccardo, we'll be watching to see how this works. Thanks so much for explaining it to us.

BLACKWELL: Thank you, Mayor.

LICCARDO: Great to be with you both.

BLACKWELL: All right, the FBI is investigating a series of bomb threats targeting more than a dozen historically black colleges and universities. We have new details for you.

[15:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: We do have some upsetting breaking news out of Minnesota. One student is dead, another is injured following a shooting outside of a school in Minneapolis.

BLACKWELL: CNN security correspondent Josh Campbell joins us now with details. Josh, what do you know?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know that according to police, there is an active manhunt underway at this hour. This is in the Minneapolis suburb of Richfield. Authorities just wrapping up a press conference, not providing a lot of details. Because they say that the suspects in this case are still at large. What we do know according to police is just around noontime, shots rang out near this secondary education institution. This South Education Center being its name.

Authorities say that one student is dead. Another student is in critical condition. Now they again are describing these as suspects, plural. They haven't actually given a specific number but they say that there are at least more than one person that is currently being searched for by police.

Still a lot details unclear. We don't know if those suspects were firing at each other or if they were targeting the student who was killed and the student who was injured. But again, we're told that that manhunt remains active. The superintendent spoke just a short time ago at that press conference. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDRA LEWANDOWSKI, SUPERINTENDENT, INTERMEDIATE DISTRICT 287 IN MINNESOTA: To us, there are students that come through our doors every day. We care for them and this is a terrible tragedy and loss. We're deeply saddened by this incident and we'll do everything we can to work with -- to support the families, classmates and staff in whatever way possible.

There're really are no words to describe the bravery exhibited by our staff and local authorities today. No one should ever have to respond to a tragedy like this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: So obviously, a community there in mourning. We do know that parents are being reunited with their students. But again, another American family now, two families grieving. One student deceased. Another is injured as police continue to look for the suspects who are involved in this shooting.

CAMEROTA: Just sickening, Josh. Before we knew that you were going to be covering this breaking news, we wanted to ask you about what's happening with these bomb threats at more than a dozen historically black colleges and universities. What do we know about what's happening there?

CAMPBELL: It is a frightening start to Black History Month here in the United States. We're learning there have been at least 13 incidents in the past two days as you look at the map. You can see how widespread of an issue this is. Up and down the eastern seaboard as far west into the state of Louisiana.

One institution, Howard University, in the nation's capital actually received two bomb threats, they say. We know federal, state, local law enforcement officials are currently trying to identify the person or persons who are responsible for this so that they can attempt to apprehend that person.

[15:55:00]

But again, obviously, very troubling. We know that this situation remains ongoing and you can't overlook the fact that race is clearly a factor here. We're talking about historically black colleges and universities facing these bomb threats -- Alisyn, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Yes, Howard University, my alma matter, two days in a row now these bomb threats there canceling classes. Josh Campbell, thanks so much. CAMPBELL: Thanks.

CAMEROTA: Well, tension continues to run high between Ukraine and Russia of course. CNN is on the border to show you the reality on the ground. That's next.

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CAMEROTA: Well, more proof that businesses are struggling to find workers. Domino's Pizza is now offering to pay you to pick up your own pizza.

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BLACKWELL: A shortage of company drivers is putting a strain on Domino's sales. So, they are offering a $3 credit to online customers who pick up their food. The offer runs until May. I'm not into it.

CAMEROTA: I feel like Domino's doesn't taste as good if I have to pick it up.

BLACKWELL: Yes, and as high as a gas is you might as well walk. $3? That's not going to cover much.

CAMEROTA: They're you go.

BLACKWELL: All right. "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.