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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Castro Held on $8 Million Bond; Castro's Daughter Speaks; Jodi Arias, Convicted and Committed
Aired May 10, 2013 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ZORAIDA SAMBOLIN, CNN ANCHOR: Confession. Reports that Ariel Castro confesses to some things.
Details of a decade of torture and torment for three captive women are emerging and they are horrific. We have the latest live from Cleveland.
And a CNN exclusive, shot and devastated by all the revelation. Ariel Castro's daughter speaks for the very first time.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Then, first, Jodi Arias is put on suicide watch after her murder conviction and now, she's in the psych ward. So what prompted this move? That is coming up.
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to this special edition of EARLY START. I'm John Berman in New York.
SAMBOLIN: Nice to see you, John.
I'm Zoraida Sambolin live in Cleveland. It's Friday, May 10th. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East.
We begin with horrifying details about the private hell those three women endured for 10 long years inside this house on Seymour Avenue right behind me.
Prosecutors say Ariel Castro operated a private prison and torture chamber right inside his home. He is being held on $8 million bond this morning, charged with kidnapping and rape. And an aggravated murder charge could come next for the alleged killing of fetuses as well.
And we have a CNN exclusive this morning: the daughter closest to Ariel Castro speaking out about the charges against her father. Listen to her describe the moment when she learned he had been arrested.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANGIE GREGG, ARIEL CASTRO'S DAUGHTER: It feels like everything crashed down. Like, I just wanted to melt into the floor, like, I just wanted to die. I have no problem cutting him out of my life. I have no problem doing that. I never want to see him again.
(END VIDEO CLIP) SAMBOLIN: We'll have much more of that exclusive interview with Ariel Castro's daughter. That is coming up in just a moment.
But, first, more on Castro's day in court, an exclusive look into the backyard of his home and his past.
Let's go live to Pamela Brown. She's right outside the home of the freed kidnapped victim Gina DeJesus.
Good morning to you, Pam.
PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you.
As the women heal and recover, we hear from sources that Ariel Castro has confessed to at least some of his actions related to his behavior toward these women over the past decade.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): These exclusive pictures obtained by CNN give us the first glimpse into Ariel Castro's backyard, though much of it is obscured by tarps, you can see junks strewn all around. And this eerie image of a white cross spotted by a neighbor.
At his first court appearance, Castro looked despondent, repeatedly looking down and seemingly making eye contact with no one.
TIMOTHY J. MCGINTY, CUYAHOGA COUNTY PROSECUTOR: We evaluate whether to seek charges eligible for the death penalty.
BROWN: Following his arraignment, Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty made it clear additional charges could likely be added. Castro already faces four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape.
MCGINTY: For each and every act of sexual violence, rape, each day of kidnapping, every felonious assault, all his attempted murders and each aggravated murder.
BROWN: An initial police incident report says one of the women, Michele Knight, became pregnant at least five times during her captivity, and that each time, Castro starved her and punched her repeatedly in the stomach until she miscarried.
For reasons still unknown, Amanda Berry was able to give birth to her baby and Castro forced Knight to deliver it according to the report. When the child stopped breathing, Knight gave the baby CPR.
As investigators sift through 200 pieces of evidence taken out of this house of horrors, one in particular is getting attention. Details of a note written by Castro in 2004 have surfaced. According to law enforcement sources, Castro wrote about being abused by a family member, in an attempt to justify his own actions.
Sources say Castro has been cooperating with investigators and has confessed to some of his actions. Ariel Castro's daughter Arlene gave an emotional interview to ABC News.
ARLENE CASTRO, ARIEL CASTRO'S DAUGHTER: I would like to say that I'm absolutely so, so sorry. I really want to see you, Gina. And I want you to meet my kids. I'm so sorry for everything.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: And we are learning from the Ohio attorney general that a rush order has been placed on the result of the DNA test for Ariel Castro, and we are expecting those results some time today. And as I mentioned, we are here outside the house of Gina DeJesus, who is recovering and healing with her family. You can see behind me there are lots of balloons outside the home. Certainly a lot of community support for this family and the other families here affected by this.
SAMBOLIN: Pam, can you tell us more about what Castro reportedly wrote back in 2004?
BROWN: Well, Zoraida, we know investigators went through evidence and among the evidence taken from the home are these notes written by Ariel Castro back in 2004 according to sources. These are pretty lengthy documents we are finding out. And in these documents, in these notes, basically Castro is rationalizing, justifying his actions and talking about the reasons behind his actions after abducting the women allegedly more than a decade ago, and then his actions towards them over the couple of years before he wrote that letter.
So we are learning, also, that he talks about abuse from a family member and he uses that in these notes to justify his behavior.
SAMBOLIN: All right. Pamela Brown live outside Gina DeJesus' home -- thank you very much for that.
And the daughter who was closest to Ariel Castro is also speaking out exclusively to CNN. Angie Gregg is angry and she is so heart broken. She says she never saw signs of that horror that was allegedly unfolding right inside her father's house and she wants the world to know her family does not have monster in their blood.
Laurie Segall with the interview you will only see on CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GREGG: My husband and I are in complete disbelief that the friendly, caring, doting man I knew as my daddy was, in fact, the most evil, vile, demonic criminal that I have met or heard of over the past 10 years.
LAURIE SEGALL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is part of the letter Angie Gregg wrote after learning her father was allegedly behind the brutal kidnappings in Cleveland, Ohio. Now, she's speaking out.
GREGG: And to go to the vigils, to show these girls a footage of their parents' pleas for their return, to rape, starve and beat human innocent beings, I'm disgusted.
SEGALL (on camera): You've learned that your father wasn't the guy you thought he was.
GREGG: No.
SEGALL: What is that like?
GREGG: It's like a horror movie. It's like watching a bad movie.
SEGALL: Only you're in it.
GREGG: It's -- only we're in it. We're, you know, the man characters. And I never suspected anything was going on, but the more I sit and dwell on it, I think of things that make a whole lot of sense now
SEGALL: You look back and say, OK, you can piece together, you're beginning to piece together a puzzle. Where were the signs?
GREGG: Well, he never wanted to leave the house more than a day at a time. He was adamant, and the fact that he wanted to leave home early morning and he had to be back by evening.
SEGALL: Were there certain areas in the home that were just off- limits?
GREGG: Ever since my mom lived in that house, the basement was always kept locked. I have never been upstairs in the house and I never had reason to be. I asked him if I can see my room for old time's sake, and he says, oh, honey, there's so much junk up there. You don't want to go up there.
SEGALL: When you think about, you know, what might have been and what was behind those doors, how do you -- how do you cope with that?
GREGG: I mean, it all makes sense now. Now I know.
It's hard, but I have -- I have no sympathy for the man. I have no sympathy. He was just another person who's lied and deceived and manipulated people.
And I could never forgive him. I could never forgive him. If he would have asked me this last week, I would have told you he's the best dad and the best grandpa.
SEGALL (voice-over): Now Angie realizes Ariel Castro may have fathered a daughter with one of the women he allegedly held captive, meaning she may have a sister.
GREGG: He showed me a picture that was in his cell phone randomly, and he said, look at this cute little girl. It was a face shot. And I said, she's cute, who is that? You know? And he said, this is my girlfriend's child.
And I said, dad, that girl looks like Emily. Emily's my younger sister. And he said, no, that's not my child, that's my girlfriend's child by somebody else.
SEGALL: Angie says she was always close with her father but she says she witnessed abuse in their home.
GREGG: He was pretty jealous. He was always saying that my mom was, you know, messing with certain neighbors, things like that. And I've seen, I've seen him basically stomp on her like she was a man, like he's beat her pretty bad several times.
SEGALL: Her mother passed away from cancer-related complications in 2012.
GREGG: I've lost my mother, now I've lost a father, but I don't -- I don't cry for him.
SEGALL (on camera): If you had a message for him, what would it be?
GREGG: All this time -- why? Why -- I don't even know what to say. Why, after all this time, why did you do it in the first place? Why did you take these girls?
And why did you never leave? And why did you never -- why did you never feel guilty enough to let them go?
SEGALL: What message do you have for these women and their families?
GREGG: I feel so much -- so much sorrow that you had to endure this. I'm glad that you're back home with your family, finally, because they never stop thinking about you. They never stopped -- they never forgot you.
You know, right now, these girls need to heal.
SEGALL: Do you feel that you're going to need to heal, too?
GREGG: Oh, I'll be fine. I wasn't submitted to the horror that they were.
SEGALL: In a day you have lost the man that raised you, that must be hard.
GREGG: He's nothing but a memory anymore. He can never be daddy again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAMBOLIN: Laurie Segall is going to join us live a little bit later at "STARTING POINT" at 7:00. And we'll talk more about this interview and some of the details she got out of there.
And, John, I got to tell you, you know, you watch this and just think, how did this man allow all of these people inside to this house knowing now what we know was going on inside of that house? It just baffles your mind.
BERMAN: You can see the daughter, the wheels spinning in her head, trying to remember all the details over the last 10 years. It's absolutely riveting, fascinating to see.
All right. Zoraida, thanks so much for that. We'll go back to Cleveland in just a moment.
Meanwhile, new this morning: high-speed, high-risk and now deadly. The death of an Olympic gold medal sailor raising questions about the safety of high-speed yacht racing. Thirty-six-year-old Andrew Simpson, who you see right there on the right of this picture, was killed when his yacht crashed in San Francisco Bay, trapping him underneath, under water, for about 10 minutes.
Here's Dan Simon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After the highest speeds, the 72-foot catamarans look as if they are almost flying. In the right conditions, they can reach speeds of 45 miles an hour. That's why a capsize can turn deadly.
It happened Thursday afternoon in the San Francisco Bay. A boat operated by the Artemis Racing Team went end over end, hurling its team of 12 sailors into the water. The crew representing Sweden had been practicing for this summer's America's Cup. Andrew Simpson, an Olympic gold medalist and well-known figure in the sailing world, died after being trapped underneath the vessel. A desperate scene unfolded on the shore as paramedics tried to save his life.
PAUL CAYARD, CEO, ARTEMIS RACING: It's shocking, it's an experience to go through and we have a lot to deal with in the next few days in terms of assuring everybody's well-being.
SIMON: Winds Thursday were strong on the bay but not abnormal. It's one of the reasons San Francisco Bay is considered a sailor's nirvana and why the America's Cup is being held here this summer.
JOANNE HAYES-WHITE, CHIEF, SAN FRANCISCO FIRE DEPARTMENT: You know it's a tragic day. This is someone that's very well-known and well- regarded as an expert racer. And everyone worked really hard to not have this outcome. These are always difficult things to report. And our hearts go out to family and members of the racing team of the Artemis.
SIMON: It wasn't the first mishap involving one of these yachts. Last fall, Team Oracle from the United States capsized its $8 million boat in a nearby part of the bay. But no one was seriously injured in the accident.
The team had another close call in 2011 when a smaller catamaran sent sailors flying through the air.
These boats are all harnessing new technology, allowing them to travel faster than ever before. It's not immediately clear what caused the Artemis boat to capsize, but with one of the sports star sailors dead and other high-profile incidents, the debate is growing whether these boats, engineering marvels they may be, are too dangerous for competition.
Dan Simon, CNN, San Francisco.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: We also have new developments this morning in the Jodi Arias murder case. Arias is now being held in a psychiatric prison ward. She's under constant supervision in this psych ward at the Lower Buckeye jail in Phoenix.
HLN's Dr. Drew Pinsky says he doesn't think Arias is faking it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. DREW PINSKY, HLN: If somebody's in a psychiatric ward, if a clinician takes that responsibility just to meet criteria to be there, that's not manipulation. On top of that, Christi, I would say if I were the warden and I had somebody doing a news interview where she just said, "I want to die", boom, that person goes in a locked facility.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: The sentencing phase of Arias' murder trial has been postponed until next Wednesday.
More tough questions expected today about the attack in Benghazi. John Boehner has called on the president to release certain emails the House speaker they show the White House wanted to change the Benghazi talking points before the election. So, this should be a big topic today in the White House press briefing. You can expect that.
The family of the late Ambassador Christopher Stevens, one of the four American who died in the attack last September, tells CNN they, quote, "deplore any effort to politicize this tragedy."
This morning, Minnesota is one step closer to becoming the 12th state to allow same sex marriage. Supporters mob members of the statehouse, chanting their thanks after the House there voted in favor of letting gay couples marry.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: The state Senate plans to consider the bill on Monday and it's expected to pass there as well. Governor Mark Dayton has pledged to sign this measure into law.
You have to check this out. A wild shoot-out at close range caught on camera. Man, surveillance footage of this fierce gun battle last July on a suspected marijuana grow house was shown -- excuse me -- was in a Miami courtroom yesterday. The video shows one of the suspects got out of the car and shot at police officers and FBI agents. This was awful. A detective was seriously hurt. A suspect Gerardo Delgado was killed when police returned fire. Police said they found 80 pounds of marijuana inside that house.
Still ahead, more big news, controversial burial. Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev finally laid to rest in a secret grave site. We'll have the details, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAMBOLIN: Welcome back.
I'm Zoraida Sambolin, live in Cleveland.
The details emerging about the case of these three women held in captivity are just absolutely unthinkable.
Ariel Castro's daughter says now his father is a monster. But was he always? Neighbors say he was a nice, fun man who enjoyed music and riding his motorcycle. Coming up, who is Ariel Castro? We'll give you an inside look into the man behind the house of horrors -- John.
BERMAN: All right. Thanks, Zoraida.
We have some new developments to tell you about in the Boston marathon bombings. A secret resting place for bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, police in Worcester, Massachusetts confirmed that Tsarnaev has been laid to rest but they will not say where. This after weeks of searching for a place to bury him.
The news comes as lawmakers are grilling law enforcement about the marathon bombings.
CNN's Paula Newton is following that for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAUL NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the first time, lawmakers in Washington got a crack at parsing details of the Boston bombings and at intelligence failures with Republican Chairman Michael McCall saying he feels the bombers succeeded because the system failed.
Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis testified the FBI did not tell him Russia had warned the U.S. of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the bombing suspects.
REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R), TEXAS: If you had this information before the bombing, would you have done -- your police force and you, would you have done anything differently?
EDWARD DAVIS, BOSTON POLICE DEPARTMENT: That's very hard to say. We would certainly look at the information. We would certainly talk to the individual. NEWTON: But in a statement released after the hearings Thursday, the FBI said Boston police officers serving on a Joint Terrorism Task Force had access to a database that detailed the investigation into Tsarnaev.
As testimony unfolded in Washington, the drama at this funeral home over, the body is gone, Tamerlan Tsarnaev has been buried in an undisclosed location.
SGT. KERRY HAZELHURST, WORCESTER POLICE: As a result of our public appeal for help, a courageous and compassionate individual came forward to provide the assistance needed to properly bury the deceased. His body is no longer in the city of Worcester and is now entombed.
NEWTON: Tsarnaev's uncle Ruslan Tsarni confirms to CNN that he took his nephew's body out of state to be buried and has not even told Tamerlan's parents where their son has been laid to rest. He also confirms that no second autopsy was ever performed.
The touchy issue about where to bury Tsarnaev unnerved many for different reasons. Those who felt he didn't deserve an American grave. Those who felt uncivilized to do anything else, but more than anything it diverted energy from victims and their families.
Paula Newtown, CNN, Boston.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: Our thanks to Paula for that.
It's 22 minutes after the hour right now. And coming up, bank heists, they don't get any more brazen than this: a worldwide gang of criminals hacking ATMs and stealing 45 million bucks in just a matter of hours.
Also, pay per view on YouTube? Will you have to use our credit card to watch your favorite videos? Isn't the Internet supposed to be free? Details coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: We're minding your business this morning.
Stocks took a break from the recent rally on Thursday. But what does that mean today?
Zain Asher is here to tell us everything.
ZAIN ASHER, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, stock futures are big- time right now, so we may actually end the week with some solid gains despite yesterday's losses.
All right. I want to talk to you, John, about YouTube. Most people watch YouTube videos for free.
BERMAN: Yes.
ZAIN: But now YouTube is trying to find a way to cash in on its content. It launched the pilot program. So now if you subscribe to send videos, you will have to pay. Those fees range from 99 cents a month to $7.99 a month in some cases.
But right now, it's still a pilot program, so they are only testing it out as channels like "Sesame Street", for example, "Ultimate Fighting" as well. And YouTube content creators have basically complained to the company, saying that they need to find better ways to monetize the popularity of its videos. So, it's doing just that.
Also, if you like YouTube videos, the FCC is trying to make Internet connections on claims on being faster. They are trying to make Wi-Fi on planes a lot speedy. So, if you've ever used Internet on the plane, you know just how slow it is. They doing this by increasing the wireless capacity and they're saying that it will hopefully lead to lower prices as well.
BERMAN: So, will you able to watch YouTube videos on planes perhaps faster, but you have to pay for it.
ASHER: Exactly.
BERMAN: So, a little bit of good news and bad news.
Zain Asher, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
Up next, inside the mind of Ariel Castro. Brian Todd reports on the warning signs that may have been missed in the suspect's dark past. New details.
You're watching EARLY START.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAMBOLIN: We are live in Cleveland where the accused kidnapper and rapist Ariel Castro is behind bars and now he is talking. And exactly, who exactly is the man accused of the heinous and inhumane crimes? We dig into the life of Ariel Castro.
BERMAN: Plus, an international cyber thief ring steals $45 million, almost all of it cash from banks around the world. How on earth did they pull this off? Someone has some explaining to do.
