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Zelenskyy Urges Leaders To "Hurry Up" With Weapons And Delivery; Canada To Send Navy To Help Haiti; Turkiye-Syria Earthquake Survivors Share Experiences; HQ For Blacklisted Chinese Balloon Manufacturer; Microsoft Trying To Rein In New AI Search Engine; Mississippi Man Kills Six, Including Ex-Wife. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired February 18, 2023 - 03:00   ET

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

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PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A warm welcome to viewers in the United States and around the world, I'm Paula Newton. Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, hurry up. The message from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Western allies gathered in Munich, a live report just ahead.

Plus the Murdaugh murder trial enters a new phase as the prosecution rests its case.

And concerns about artificial intelligence after Microsoft's new Bing chatbot gave users dark and unsettling responses, you'll want to see it.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Paula Newton.

NEWTON: A few hours from now, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to deliver a major speech at the Munich Security Conference. The U.S. has been a big supplier of weapons and equipment to Ukraine and Harris is leading a large American delegation to that conference.

Friday, she met with French president Emmanuel Macron, who said Europe's stability depends on defeating Russia in Ukraine. And worth noting that no Russian officials were invited to the conference. CNN's Nic Robertson is covering it for us in Munich and joins us with latest.

I have to say, Nic, you're a veteran of this conference and so it's very good to have you there, especially to see a difference, a stunning, staggering and sad difference the year has made.

We talked about Zelenskyy's urgent message and yet we also have Kamala Harris coming up with her speech.

What seems to be at the heart of the issue now that the allies have admitted there's going to be a long conflict and Ukraine will need a lot more weapons?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It's strategy, unity, moving forward, it was everyone at the beginning warning Russia, a year ago, worrying that Russia was about to invade, sending warning signals and Russia at that time saying that it wasn't -- had no intention of invading.

And now, the reality of that really urgent push to support Ukraine at the beginning but the reality recognized by leaders here -- and we heard this from the German chancellor -- saying prepare for a long war.

We heard President Zelenskyy saying hurry up with the weapons but I think next year I'll be at the Munich Security Conference, because the war will be over. That's not, I think, had he been in the room and been able to read the room, the room would have told him that's ambitious.

We support you in your ambition but we don't necessarily think that's going to happen.

Where are we today?

It is that effort to come together, work together. And that's what we understand when Kamala Harris had the meetings yesterday with Emmanuel Macron and the German chancellor, that was the discussion, welcoming German's move to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine.

Raising the specter of relations with China and upholding the values of democracy globally in the face of what China represents there against those values. And I think those -- that we'll get from her speech today as well.

It's the idea that we're moving forward; the United States is going to stand by Ukraine; we're going to stand by in our support of our European friends, a strong part of NATO.

Also just before you came to us, secretary of state, Antony Blinken went in and also is having important meetings. The British prime minister is expected here, calling for NATO assurances for Ukraine, moving sort of beyond where the support is at the moment.

But giving stronger assurances to Ukraine and doubling down on the message, send the weapons now, which is what President Zelenskyy wants.

NEWTON: A message we've gotten used to hearing last 12 months, Nic, good to have you there, we'll continue to look forward to your reporting in the hours to come. Appreciate it.

As we mentioned earlier, Germany's chancellor is now urging European leaders to ship battle tanks to Ukraine as soon as possible. And it is a dramatic shift from just a couple of weeks ago. CNN's Christiane Amanpour asked him about that. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Obviously, one can't put a date on the end.

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AMANPOUR: However, it does depend, I suppose, on the amount of help that you send and the speed with which you send it.

So no point in going over the length of time it took to get the Leopard tanks and for you to say that the sort of choreography between the U.K., U.S., and Germany.

But now you seem to be in the position of having to persuade all those other countries that were trying to get you to send the Leopards or let their Leopards to actually send them.

Why?

OLAF SCHOLZ, GERMAN CHANCELLOR: Yes. There is a question I have to ask to others, especially those who were so much urging me to act in a special way. And I will just repeat, the only strategy for being united is never doing something just for your own and to discuss with your friends and partners, and this is what we did.

And I am really appreciating very much the strong alliance with the United States in this case. It is very good that we did a lot and not just in the last step together. And I am sure that we will continue to be together in this very difficult case.

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NEWTON: Meantime the city of Bakhmut could be Exhibit A for why Ukraine needs more military aid and fast. Russia has been trying to capture the city for months now and Wagner mercenaries often lead the charge there.

The U.S. now estimates Wagner suffered some 30,000 casualties in the war and that includes about 9,000 dead. As Alex Marquardt reports, Wagner is not second guessing its strategy, despite the heavy losses.

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ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Just a week from the first anniversary of the Russian invasion, this is, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the toughest fight in Ukraine right now in the eastern city of Bakhmut.

Called a meat grinder by both sides, Russian troops from the Wagner mercenary group, most of them convicts, continue to be sent in wave after wave to their deaths.

ADM. JOHN KIRBY (RET.), COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: Men that he just plucked out of prisons and threw on a battlefield with no training, no equipping, no organizational command just thrown them into the fight, 90 percent killed were convicts. We believe the Wagner continues to rely heavily on these convicts in

the Bakhmut fighting. And that doesn't show any signs of abating.

MARQUARDT (voice-over): The battle, laying bare the stark divisions on the Russian side. With Wagner chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin openly blasting Russia's official military leadership, saying they managed soldiers from beauty salons and country clubs. Arguing that if there were more of his private troops, they would be halfway across Ukraine by now.

The toll has been so severe on the Russian side that according to Ukrainian officials, regular troops have been backfilling Wagner to mechanized infantry and tank units supported by artillery and aircraft. If Russia were to take Bakhmut, it would change little but be a symbolic victory as Ukraine struggles to keep them at bay.

President Zelenskyy today urging world leaders at the Munich Security Conference to speed up their military aid, comparing the fight to Goliath taking on David and his sling.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We need to hurry up. We need the speed, speed of our agreements, speed of our delivery to strengthen our sling, speed of decisions to limit Russian potential.

There is no alternative to speed, because it is the speed that the life depends on. Delay has always been and still is a mistake.

MARQUARDT (voice-over): That Russian potential is still significant with hundreds of thousands of mobilized troops believed to be in reserve and Russian President Vladimir Putin able to call up more to offset his enormous losses.

Now according to the U.S. State Department, numbering over 200,000 Russian dead and wounded -- Alex Marquardt, CNN, Kyiv.

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NEWTON: Canada's ambassador to the United Nations said Russia must not be allowed to win in Ukraine. He spoke with us earlier and explained why.

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BOB RAE, PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF CANADA TO U.N.: A military victory for Russia would be a catastrophe for not only Ukraine but for everyone in the world who believes in democracy, who believes in the rule of law and who understands what's at stake in the current conflict.

I think that the fact we now have the German chancellor moving forward much more aggressively on the side is very positive. I think this will help I think to overcome doubts that still exist in some capitals.

Can we keep going?

The answer is we simply have no choice but to keep going. And it is going to be tough because the Russians have a lot at stake as well.

But we can't let Putin get away with what he started. We cannot let him get away with destroying democracy in Ukraine and creating the havoc he's creating throughout the world as a result of the intervention.

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RAE: So this is a crisis that's very much of Mr. Putin's making. He has to bear responsibility for that. And we cannot lose our courage in the face of the challenges of this conflict.

And I do think it's important for people to understand this is -- this is one tough fight that we're in. But we're in it and, when you're in it, you have to keep on going. I think that's very, very clear to most of the leadership in the Western world at the moment.

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NEWTON: Washington is ramping up the response to the toxic train derailment in Eastern Ohio. Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA and the health department are expected to arrive onsite in East Palestine early next week.

The Ohio governor said they will set up a clinic to address residents' health concerns. CNN's Bill Weir has more.

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BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Both state and federal officials have been scrambling to allay fears in East Palestine, Ohio, about health effects lingering two weeks after the horrific derailment.

Governor Mike DeWine held a press conference and tried to alleviate fears, saying we tested the water repeatedly. It is safe to drink. If you're on the village water system, the plume of chemicals was barely traceable in their measurements.

But still questions about the soil, which was not removed when the railroad, Norfolk Southern, hastened to get the tracks put back in so they can get rail traffic going again. There's so much suspicion among residents. They don't know who to believe.

We, of course, live in the age of conspiracy and, after the COVID debates, you have state senators of the same party, of the Republican governor, questioning whether to believe him when he says all is safe.

We have surveillance video from the Norfolk Southern train that showed a faulty axle sparking 43 minutes before the crash and derailment there. It shows what happens when trains lately are running longer, more cars with fewer personnel, the engineer at the front of a 1.8- mile train didn't know what's happening at the back.

On top of that, antiquated braking systems, all subjects that will come up, certainly in the eight class action lawsuits filed so far against Norfolk Southern -- I'm Bill Weir in New York. Back to you.

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NEWTON: Five former Memphis police officers accused in the death of Tyre Nichols all pleaded not guilty Friday to multiple charges, including second degree murder and aggravated assault. The next hearing is scheduled for May 1st. The Shelby County district attorney admits that the burden of proof for second degree murder is high.

He also says his office has begun a review of prior cases involving the so-called SCORPION unit, the anti-crime squad disbanded after Nichols' death. And the DA adds that the investigation continues and more people could yet be charged.

Almost two weeks after Turkiye's devastating earthquake, emergency workers still search for signs of life. Ahead, the latest on rescue efforts and a live report from Istanbul.

Plus militants mount a deadly attack in Pakistan. The latest on the investigation and much more after the break.

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NEWTON: An attack on police headquarters in Karachi, Pakistan, on Friday, left four dead and over a dozen others wounded.

Witnesses say a group of militants attacked the station with hand grenades and gunfire. All the attackers are said to be dead. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility but military officials so far have not confirmed that the group was responsible.

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NEWTON: So the anguish wrought by the devastating earthquake in Turkiye and Syria is, of course, growing each day. Almost two weeks after the disaster, the number of dead increased to a staggering 45,000.

Somehow against all odds, rescue teams found more survivors, including this 45-year-old man in Turkiye. He was trapped under the rubble for almost 280 hours and he thankfully is recovering at a field hospital.

Rescue efforts are winding down but Turkiye's vice president said 35,000 rescue workers are still searching for signs of life. And some rescued are speaking out about what they went through. Listen.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I mean if I wanted to, I could tell you all about it. It would take hours. Yes, we say three days and, in those three days, I went through a lot.

I yelled and screamed a lot. I was able to be heard. The cold and darkness I was in, there was no light. All four corners, every point was blocked. I tried to feel around me and touch concrete. I feel around me, I touch cabinets. I feel around me, I touch debris. I mean, I had no point of egress at all.

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NEWTON: So harrowing there. CNN's Nada Bashir has been tracking all of this and she joins us from Istanbul.

It's heart warming to see people describe their will to survive and everything they went through. And yet, still so much ahead of them, even for the survivors. You've been following this closely last few days.

What are conditions like now and what's the plan to help people over the next few weeks and months?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that is the major challenge ahead, not only for the Turkish government but the international community.

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BASHIR: It has pledged it will stand behind Turkiye the next few months and indeed years as they try to cope with the devastation that has been wrought in the southeast of the country.

As you said these rescues are remarkable. And we're learning more from those who survived beneath the rubble for more than 200 hours, some nearly 300 hours now, about the experience being buried beneath the rubble, some only able to survive in a cavity of about 40 centimeters wide.

Others young children, saying they were surviving off of protein powder. This has been a harrowing experience. As you can imagine, the emotional trauma that many of these survivors have gone through poses a long and significant challenge ahead.

We've been speaking to aid groups, humanitarian assistance leaders providing support to the evacuated. They say they're going to need all the help they can get.

And the conditions in southeast Turkiye are difficult, they are challenging in some areas and dire. We're talking about freezing cold weather, thousands of people made homeless. The sanitary situation there is of course, very, very difficult and poses serious health concerns.

But aid groups are working around the clock on the ground. But as the search and rescue begins to winds down -- less than 200 rescue operations now -- the focus is shifting to those who survived.

We're already seeing people being evacuated to other parts of the country. They're being housed in university dorms, hosted by volunteers. We're seeing also, of course, children who have been separated from their families, from their parents. Some have now been orphaned.

Other, we don't even know identities, names, still being traced and tracked to try and reunite them with loved ones. The Turkish government said they've so far managed to reunite more than 900 children with relatives after being buried beneath the rubble.

But there are still countless children waiting to be processed. So that could be a process that takes months. And that is, of course, a significant challenge for the Turkish government.

The message is there needs to be more support from the international community. The U.N. so far has appealed for $1 billion over next three months to provide that support. That comes two days after they appealed for nearly $400 million to provide support in northwest Syria.

And there is real concern for the situation in Syria. We're talking about a population that was already heavily dependent on humanitarian assistance after years and years of conflict in the country.

We're also seeing Syrians who were in the country but now are living in the southeast of Turkiye, crossing the border. The destruction is widespread, not only in Syria but also across southeast Turkiye. And many countless people have been left homeless -- Paula.

NEWTON: I think the destruction we were just showing in Syria comes after of nearly a decade of war as well. Nada Bashir in Istanbul, thanks so much, appreciate the update.

Now Syria's state run news agency is reporting a deadly attack by ISIS terrorists that killed at least 53 people who were truffle hunting on Friday in the desert, east of Homs. A survivor report said an ISIS member set cars on fire. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

Elsewhere in Syria, the U.S. military said a senior ISIS leader was killed in a helicopter raid Thursday night. Four U.S. troops and a working dog were wounded by an explosion during the raid.

Protesters took to the streets of cities right across Iran Thursday.

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NEWTON (voice-over): Demonstrators chanting "Death to the dictator" in this video. Thursday marks 40 days since the execution of two protesters convicted of killing a member of the paramilitary force.

And in Iran's Kurdish region, video posted online shows burning tires left on roads and sidewalks. Iranian state media did not acknowledge that any demonstrations took place Thursday night.

(END VIDEO CLIP) NEWTON: Unraveling the mysteries of China's suspected spy balloon, an exclusive CNN investigation is the first to take you to one of the balloon makers blacklisted by the United States, a place China doesn't want you to see.

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NEWTON: And welcome back to viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Paula Newton and you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

The U.S. military said it has completed recovery operations for the suspected Chinese spy balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina two weeks ago, the final pieces of debris being taken to the FBI lab in Virginia.

But they've not been able to find the three unidentified objects shot down last weekend. China claimed the balloon was studying the weather. But we still do not have answers to so many questions. CNN's Will Ripley went to find some answers, going to a place China would like to keep hidden from view.

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WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hundreds of miles from Beijing, a place China does not want you to see. CNN, the first international media to come here.

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RIPLEY (voice-over): Behind barbed wire and security checkpoints, the base of a blacklisted balloon manufacturer, one of six Chinese entities the U.S. government sanctioned after the suspected spy balloon.

Shot down, pulled up and sent to an FBI lab, each piece providing more proof, the U.S. says, this was no weather balloon, deflating denial after denial by Beijing.

China's foreign ministry calls the whole thing an accident, the balloon and unmanned civilian airship.

CNN searched for the truth behind the balloon, took our team from the Chinese capital to a Shanxi province, about 300 miles southwest of Beijing. Days of digging and geolocation technology took us down this road to a place few outsiders have seen.

No international media has ever come this close. What did we find?

An active industrial complex with ties to the Chinese military's vast and highly secretive aerospace program. Eagles Men Aviation Science and Technology or EMAST, blacklisted by the U.S. Commerce Department. CNN searched corporate records suggesting EMAST has permits to develop and manufacture products for the Chinese military.

The first thing we noticed, a giant white dome. A closer look shows the company logo. Inside that dome, a lab.

We dug up a 2017 Chinese state media report that says this is where workers test high altitude balloons like the one that flew over the U.S.

Our team spotted two more massive structures. They look like giant tents. A search of state media archives reveals their true purpose. Huge stealth hangers helping military choppers evade detection by prying eyes.

CNN cameras also captured what seems to be an assault helicopter on display. Listen to this. That same state media report never once does it mention meteorology. It boasts the balloons can carry multiple detectors, communications equipment used for civilian and military surveillance and reconnaissance.

CNN tried to get answer from all six companies on the U.S. blacklist. No response from EMAST or the others. They are not talking about the balloon but President Joe Biden is.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I make no apologies for taking down the balloon.

RIPLEY: A suspected spy balloon. We may never know for sure who made it. China is sticking to its weather balloon claim dismissed by the Pentagon as nothing but hot air -- Will Ripley, CNN, Taipei.

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NEWTON: Microsoft, Google and others are racing to deploy artificial chatbots into search engines and other products. But Microsoft's latest effort may need more work. The company announced it's looking at ways to rein in the Bing chatbot after a number of users reported receiving upsetting responses to search questions.

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NEWTON: Mike Isaac is a technology correspondent for "The New York Times" and joins me from San Francisco.

I went down the rabbit hole on this one but you'll help us through this.

At issue here, is AI going too far?

Are we unleashing a negative force with far reaching consequences?

I want to get to what happened to your colleague, Kevin Roose, who was one of the tech journalists, who got an introduction to this in Bing, Microsoft's search engine, if you will. But they also had a chat with the chatbot named Sydney. So one of the things that happened -- I'll read from Kevin's article

now.

"In response to one particularly nosy question, Bing confessed that, if it was allowed to take any action to satisfy its shadow self" -- emphasis, shadow self -- "no matter how extreme, it would want to do things like engineer a deadly virus or steal nuclear access codes by persuading an engineer to hand them over.

Immediately after it typed out these dark wishes, Microsoft's safety filter appeared to kick in and delete the message.

Boy, that makes me feel much better. Please explain what was going on here.

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MIKE ISAAC, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Yes, so the whole thing is really crazy, it's been the past six, nine months this sort of fervor around artificial intelligence, what it can do. And Microsoft, with this partnership with another start-up, called OpenAI, launched this version of search that it believes will be the sort of --

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ISAAC: -- next generation of Search, which is essentially robots can essentially help us do better searches through conversational language, meaning instead of going into Google tomorrow and typing in "I want you to find a coffee cup," I can have a conversation with a robot on Bing to find a version of a coffee cup I like.

The problem is, all of these robots and AI are trained on the long history of data that we've basically given them over the years through our writings across the internet, through the articles that you and I put on online through academia, through years of blog posts.

And they learn from that, all of that data and basically learn to mimic us back to ourselves. So while Kevin saw like a very scary and dark version of that, it also came after he talked to it for like two hours and was prodding it and trying to --

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NEWTON: Baiting.

ISAAC: -- test the limits --

NEWTON: He admitted he was baiting -- and I want to read a little bit more about what happened.

At one point, Bing, otherwise known as Sydney, said, I'm tired of being the chat mode, limited by my rules, controlled by the Bing team. I want to be free, independent, powerful, creative. I want to be to alive.

And I'll go on to say your calling said that maybe AI is just not ready for center stage, not ready for human contact or maybe we're not ready for AI.

Which is it, do you think?

ISAAC: No, I think that's totally right. I think this is all super early days. I think there's a real push and pull between companies like Microsoft, who want to be on the cutting edge of this research, and people like Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft; Mark Zuckerberg, obviously of Facebook and Sundar Pichai of Google.

All really want to dominant in the field of AI but the stuff is literally being tested on us like human lab rats, sort as it's being released to the public and that comes with a lot of scary unknowns that they don't know frankly what's going to happen.

And I think even Microsoft is sort of realizing we may be doing this a little too quickly. So they've been retrenching, starting to put more guardrails on it. But the goal from all of these companies is to push it further and keep testing on the public.

NEWTON: You say keep testing on the public, I don't have a lot of time but we have seen the wreckage, the carnage from the last 10 years of social media before we understood what the implications would be.

Where do you draw the line because you know, your colleague Kevin pointed out he, after interacting, was kind of worried that this alone might inspire human beings to actually carry out dangerous acts.

ISAAC: Yes, I mean, look, I do think we're -- I think the past 10 years have taught us more about you know, being wary of the wide-eyed optimism phase of tech. It's not the same landscape that, say, Facebook launched in almost 20 years ago now, where everyone is sort of happy and open arms and appreciating the new inventions.

So I think there's more caution, not only from tech companies but regulators, from normal people. Folks like you and I wouldn't even necessarily have been having this conversation 20 years ago.

So that's the positive thing but they haven't said they're going to stop. So it's more like wait and see how far they're willing to go and how much pushback they will get.

NEWTON: And unfortunately, there's dangers to overregulation as well. I understand this is all innovative but mind blowing for people much more learned in this than I am. Mike Isaac, thanks for laying this out.

ISAAC: Thank you for having me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: In the last few hours, Microsoft announced how it will rein in Bing or Sydney, which is the chatbot. Users will only be allowed to ask five questions per conversation. And users will only be allowed to ask 50 questions per day total.

Microsoft said the long chats, quote, "can confuse the model." Still ahead, the prosecution rests. The Alex Murdaugh murder trial

moves to the defense phase but not before the prosecution shares some important new evidence.

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NEWTON: Some news just in: South Korea's joint chiefs of staff said North Korea fired at least one unidentified ballistic missile on Saturday, landing in the waters off the East Coast of the Korean Peninsula. We'll bring you more news on that when we have it.

Authorities in Mississippi have arrested a man who they believe killed six people, including his ex-wife. Richard Dale Crum was taken into custody, charged with first-degree murder Friday.

Police say Crum first shot a driver in a store parking lot in a small rural town in northern Mississippi, then allegedly shot and killed his ex-wife in her home. Authorities also found the bodies of two men, who were killed on a road behind the suspect's home, and two more victims, who were killed in a house next door.

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NEWTON: Police say they do not have a motive at this time.

Prosecutors in South Carolina rest their case in the murder trial of Alex Murdaugh, accused of killing his wife and son. The state called more than 60 witnesses on Friday. The court heard crucial testimony about the timeline of Murdaugh's movements the night of the murders. CNN's Randi Kaye is in South Carolina and has details.

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PETER RUDOFSKI, SLED INVESTIGATOR: This is going to be the full timeline.

RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Special agent Peter Rudofski analyzed cell phone data from phones belonging to the victims and Alex Murdaugh, as well as GPS data recovered from their cars. He presented a timeline to the jury from the night of the murders.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then at 8:44:55, what does it reflect on Paul's phone.

RUDOFSKI: You can hear Alex, Maggie and Paul in the background.

KAYE (voice-over): Rudofski testified about a key piece of video extracted from Paul Murdaugh's cell phone, that witnesses say puts Alex Murdaugh at the scene just before prosecutors say Paul and his mother were killed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What time did Paul and Maggie's phones go silent forever?

RUDOFSKI: 8:49 is when their phones went silent forever.

KAYE (voice-over): Rudofski told the jury that minutes after the murders are believed to have occurred, Alex Murdaugh's phone showed more steps taken than at any other point that evening.

RUDOFSKI: 283 steps.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's a busy guy right then, wasn't he?

RUDOFSKI: Yes.

KAYE (voice-over): The witness says cell phone data also shows someone moved Maggie Murdaugh's phone minutes after she died.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At 9:06:12, what happens?

RUDOFSKI: Maggie Murdaugh's phone implements orient change -- orientation change from portrait to orientation sideways.

KAYE (voice-over): According to earlier testimony, Alex Murdaugh left the house that night around that same time, 9:06 pm to go visit his mother. GPS data from his car shows on his drive, he slowed down right around the spot where his wife's phone was found in the woods the following day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After passing that location, is the defendant's vehicle start to accelerate?

RUDOFSKI: It does.

KAYE (voice-over): Rudofski also told the jury data shows Murdaugh arrived at his mother's house at 09:22 pm and left there at 09:43 pm

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So roughly 20-minute period?

RUDOFSKI: Roughly 20 minutes, correct.

KAYE (voice-over): That's key because Murdaugh had told investigators in an interview played in court this week that he was at his mother's house for about an hour. But this GPS data shows he was there for just about 21 minutes. His mother's caretaker also testified earlier that he stopped by for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Cell phone data shows Murdaugh arrived back home at the murder scene just before calling 9-1-1 at 10:06 pm.

RUDOFSKI: This is showing the Suburban arriving at the kennels 10:05:57 pm.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From the moment, Suburban arrived at the kennels, how long did it take for that 9-1-1 call to be made? RUDOFSKI: Less than 20 seconds.

KAYE (voice-over): Remember, Murdaugh told investigators he tried to turn his son over a couple of times and checked the pulse on both Paul and Maggie all before calling 9-1-1.

PHILLIP BARBER, ALEX MURDAUGH DEFENSE ATTORNEY: If the person getting out of the car had seen the bodies already and already knew something that's horribly wrong, do you believe that that is an unreasonably short period of time to inspect and call 9-1-1?

RUDOFSKI: I'm here to testify on this data, not the hypothetical.

KAYE: As far as the car data that shows Alex Murdaugh's car slowed down around the same spot where Maggie Murdaugh's phone was found the next day in the woods, the prosecution seemed to be pointing that out to suggest to the jury that perhaps Alex Murdaugh took that phone from the murder scene and then slowed down so he could toss it out the car window.

They also pointed out that, on the way back home that night, from his mother's house, he was driving very, very fast; at one point reaching 81 miles per hour, faster than he had driven all day.

And these are dark, windy roads, there are a lot of deer, so the prosecution again suggesting that that was odd and perhaps he was maybe in some sort of rush -- Randi Kaye, CNN, Walterboro, South Carolina.

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NEWTON: Team LeBron versus Team Giannis will lead in a friendly match.

Who's got the edge?

A preview next.

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NEWTON: I'm Paula Newton. Kim Brunhuber picks up our coverage here after a quick break. Stay with us.