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Murdaugh Jurors Tour Crime Scene Ahead Of Closing Arguments; Report: Colorectal Cancer Rising Among Younger People; Peruvian Man Found Carrying Mummy In Delivery Bag. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired March 01, 2023 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:30:00]
OLIVER DARCY, CNN SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER: So it will be interesting to see whether people like her manage to survive this ever-growing scandal.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Yes, complicity through complacency. It's hard to argue with a sentiment like that.
Oliver, thank you so much for that.
Closing arguments are underway in the Alex Murdaugh double murder trial. This is coming after the jury visited the crime scene this morning, actually visited. As you can see, this is the area here. We have some brand-new video from the scene and we have the latest, coming up.
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[13:35:09]
KEILAR: Happening right now, the court taking a short break after the prosecution began its closing arguments in the double murder trial of Alex Murdaugh, the disgraced South Carolina attorney charged with murdering his wife and his son.
The jury was actually taken to the crime scene this morning. They spent more than half an hour viewing this property that you see here. It includes the dogs kennels and the shed where Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were killed.
CNN's Dianne Gallagher is outside of court in Walterboro, South Carolina, for us.
We're just getting that video in, Dianne, of the media's trip to the crime scene, separate from the jury. Tell us about this.
DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brianna, so the media got to visit -- a pool of media members got to visit Moselle, the property where Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were killed, just after the jury left the property.
I want to be clear, the jury doesn't have anyone guiding them through this. When they're visiting the shed and the dog kennels, which you can see on your screen, they didn't have anybody pointing any out to them.
But according to the pool, they were able to see from the road, one of the juries standing in the door way of the feed room area where Paul Murdaugh was killed, glancing up at the door frame, something that has been talked about over and over again during testimony.
According to the pooler, the grass has grown up around the area. They described it as feeling almost haunted. There was still a deflated football. But there was no sign of the massacre that happened on June 7th, 2021. No blood is left in there.
There is some changes, they said, that had been made with some new shelving and things like that, plywood in the area.
But according to the pooler, both she and another member of the media took steps, from that concrete slab at the feed room where Paul Murdaugh was killed to where Maggie Murdaugh was found, there by the edge of the shed.
And they said their bodies would have been about roughly 12 feet, 12 steps from each other. So extremely close when they died.
These are things that we expect the prosecutor, Creighton Waters, to bring up when we return from lunch, and his closing arguments begin.
He spoke for roughly an hour today, before we did break for lunch, trying to set the scene for the jurors as to why they say Alex Murdaugh, in their words, had so much stress and pressure mounting on him that he killed his own wife and son.
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CREIGHTON WATERS, LEAD PROSECUTOR: After an exhaustive investigation, there's only one person, who had the motive, who had the means, who had the opportunity to commit these crimes, and also who's guilty conduct after these crimes betrays him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GALLAGHER: Again, Waters will continue with his closing arguments, Brianna, once we return from lunch.
If we have time today, we do expect the defense to begin their arguments as well, depending on when we finish. We could potentially begin jury deliberations, but, again, it all depends on the timing of those arguments.
KEILAR: All right, we'll be waiting for that.
Dianne Gallagher, thank you, live for us from Walterboro, South Carolina.
Joining us now to discuss is a criminal trial lawyer, Sara Azari.
Sara, this is interesting. From the media pool, actually seeing a member of the jury looking up at a door of a shed where Paul Murdaugh's body was found.
What did the jury see at this crime scene? What would they have been looking for? How could that affect their view of this trial?
SARA AZARI, CRIMINAL TRIAL LAWYER: Yes, hi, Brianna. The visit today, the jury view was critical. It really is in these types of cases, for a lot of reasons.
Because, up until now, the jury has been hearing this two-dimensional account of intimate details of people, of the scene, how they were shot, et cetera.
Today, by virtue of this visit, they get a better sense of the spatial relationships, the distance, the timing.
The door of the feeding room is critical -- there was a lot of testimony about this -- and the position of the shooters and the two- shooter theory that the defense is going with, and how Maggie and Paul were killed.
This is something that makes it more tangible for the jury that they take back to the deliberation room, that they can have a better frame of reference, if you will, for all of the evidence that they've had heard.
That they can put that in the context of what they physically experienced because of this visit. So it's very important.
KEILAR: What are the risks involved here for the prosecution? Keep in mind, they had argued against the jury going to the property.
AZARI: Yes, they don't want the jury to have that experience. They would rather the jury just listen to their experts and the analysis that they provided.
[13:40:02]
But this actually allows the jury to do their own analysis based on what they've see. They don't like it. It helps them understand the defense better.
KEILAR: All right, Sara, thank you so much for that.
AZARI: Thanks.
KEILAR: We do appreciate it on this critical day in this Murdaugh trial.
And we'll be right back.
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KEILAR: TikTok is making kids take a time-out. The social media app says it will set the default time limit for users under 18 to one hour.
Kids will be able to turn off the feature, but this is one of the most aggressive moves yet to keep them from endless scrolling.
[13:45:02]
TikTok says the changes will impose a 60-minute daily time limit for teens. Again, this limit can be overridden with a passcode. If that's done, the app will automatically suggests setting a daily limit after 100 minutes of use.
New concerns today about a jump in the number of young people diagnosed with colorectal cancer. The American Cancer Society says 20 percent of new cases are among people younger than 55, which is nearly double the rate from 1995.
Doctors are also seeing more advanced disease among all new cases.
Colorectal cancer is the second-most common cause of cancer death in the United States.
CNN health reporter, Jacqueline Howard, is joining us now.
Jacqueline, this is really alarming. We're talking about younger people. Do researchers know what's causing the increase among them?
JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Brianna, researchers are still taking a close look at that. You know, many factors can raise the risk of colorectal cancer-- diet, exercise, environmental factors, and so much more.
But the American Cancer Society does project that, this year, we'll see more than 150,000 colorectal cancer cases diagnosed. More than 50,000, sadly, deaths are expected this year.
Many of those may be among people younger than age 55. Because when you look at the proportion of colorectal cases, there has been at rise in those diagnosed among that age group.
The proportion was 11 percent in 1995. It went up to 20 percent in 2019.
And then when you look at the proportion of all new cases diagnosed at advanced stages, that the on the rise as well, 57 percent in 1995, 60 percent in 2019.
So those two areas seeing a rise in colorectal cancer among younger ages and then at advanced stages, are two areas where researchers, Brianna, are continuing to investigate.
KEILAR: So what do we do to reduce our risk?
HOWARD: I asked Dr. William Dahut -- he's the chief scientific officer for the American Cancer Society. I asked him that same question. Here's what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. WILLIAM DAHUT, CHIEF SCIENTIFIC OFFICER, AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY (VO): I think folks need to follow the guidelines for screening. I think there's clear evidence that if people follow guidelines for screening, they're more likely to find a cancer earlier when it's treatable, and less likely to have significant problems from the disease.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWARD: So, Brianna, it sounds like that is the takeaway message. Get screened if you're eligible. It's recommended for most people to start screening at age 45.
And then, of course, other ways to reduce your risk, healthy eating, exercise. All of that plays a role, like I said before, in reducing your risk of colorectal cancer -- Brianna?
KEILAR: Colonoscopy, age 45.
HOWARD: Exactly.
KEILAR: That's not too far off for me. All right, I'll make a note in my calendar, Jacqueline. It's a ways off for you, I'll say.
Jacqueline Howard, thank you so much.
HOWARD: Thank you.
KEILAR: Up next, talk about mummy issues. What a man told police about the mummy -- yes, this mummy -- in his delivery bag.
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[13:52:49]
KEILAR: All right, so try to wrap your head around this. A 26-year-old man in Peru is in custody after police found a mummy up to 800 years old in a food delivery cooler bag.
The man said he had named the mummy Juanita and said it was his spiritual girlfriend.
CNN's Tom Foreman joins us now.
So many questions, Tom, so many questions about this story. Let's start with how Peruvian police discovered the mummy.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, apparently, this guy and a couple of friends appeared to be drunk. They were near an archaeological site. Whether they were drunk or not, we don't know.
But then they go over and they have this big delivery bag, used by a food delivery app down there. And then the authorities look inside and they find this mummy inside.
This is wrapped head to toe, basically, in some loose sort of cloth wrapping. Very common for mummies to be found in that country to be prepared that way. This guy said, oh, I had this for a while, and I keep her with me.
Let's see. He says he sleeps with it, hangs around with him all the time. She's in my room.
He told another news agency that his father originally had this mummy and he that he somehow just came into it here.
Nonetheless, the authorities, I'm not sure they're buying any of this. So they scooped this mummy up and they took this guy into custody for further questions -- Brianna?
KEILAR: Yes, because so many questions.
FOREMAN: Yes.
KEILAR: And so he called this mummy Juanita.
FOREMAN: Yes.
KEILAR: This is actually, they learned, the mummy of a man.
FOREMAN: Yes, yes.
KEILAR: So what happens to Juanita? Or should we say Juan now?
FOREMAN: I think Juan would be a good choice. The authorities have taken it into their hands as a great artifact.
Bear in mind, I want you to think about the age of this.
KEILAR: Yes.
FOREMAN: So this is 800 years old. Genghis Kahn was still roaming the earth at that time. The crusades were still underway. And this is before the conquistadors had really started descending upon South America in general.
So it's a really important time in the history of the country for them to study and a true artifact of great value to them down there. But here is this guy just sort of parading around with this thing.
[13:55:57]
This sort of thing has happened before. You know, Brianna, the looting of artifacts -- in fact, this is how this all worked out. The looting of artifacts from all over the world happens all the time.
And sometimes it's just like this. Someone gets access to one for some reason, and they pack it up, and they carry it away. And it winds up being sold somewhere.
And mummies, interestingly enough, those from Egypt and from other places, have been very prized and have been passed around a lot of places.
Was that the case here? We don't know. What we do know is that it's an unusually strange story that this guy told to try to justify what's going on with him.
And this national cultural asset is now back in the proper hands, we hope.
KEILAR: Weirdest story of the day is all.
(CROSSTALK)
KEILAR: Tom Foreman, thank you so much.
And that does it for me. Thank you for joining us.
Don't go anywhere just yet. We have much more news still ahead.
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