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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Pistorius Guilty of Culpable Homicide; Ohio Teen Prison Escapee Caught; U.S. Surveillance Flights Over Syria

Aired September 12, 2014 - 04:30   ET

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

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news: just moments ago, Oscar Pistorius found guilty of culpable homicide in his girlfriend's shooting death. Will the Olympic hero be sent to prison? We are live in South Africa with what comes next.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning. A high school shooter, a teenage killer, in a prison break. He sets off the statewide manhunt. We will tell you how this young man escaped from that prison and what we're learning about how he was captured.

ROMANS: Happening now: hunting ISIS in Syria. Surveillance flights are tracking as we learn the terrorist organization may have tripled in size. We are live with the latest on the threat from ISIS.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BERMAN: I'm John Berman.

Thirty minutes past the hour right now.

ROMANS: Happening now in South Africa: the judge announcing her verdict in the murder trial of Oscar Pistorius -- guilty of culpable homicide. The former Olympian already cleared of the most serious charge. The judge ruling yesterday the prosecution failed to prove premeditated murder beyond a reasonable doubt.

Kelly Phelps live from Pretoria this morning.

And we know that he stood to hear the verdict. We know that Oscar Pistorius emotional at times in the courtroom. What's happening now?

KELLY PHELPS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: The judge have just finished recapping her finding on all of the charges against Pistorius. So, we have now, finally, have confirmation that he has been convicted of culpable homicide as well as the unlawful -- sorry, as well as the negligent discharge of a firearm in a public place, and that was due to the incident in a crowded restaurant when a friend passed him the firearm and the firearm discharged while in his position. She has now recapping some other tangential legal issue relating to the potential liability of other participants in that incident.

So, the trial has really now reached its climax and wrapped up.

ROMANS: What happens next here for Oscar Pistorius? He'll need to be sentenced, much of that is going to be the discretion within the legal framework of South Africa -- discretion of the judge. Could he spend time in jail? How much time in prison?

PHELPS: He absolutely to spend time in jail. It is not unheard of for a sentence to be attached to culpable homicide. There was a recent case of culpable homicide in which 10 school children were killed as a result of negligent driving. And the driver of that taxi was, in fact, in prison for eight years.

So, it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility that he could get a custodial sentence. Many culpable homicide charges do also result in suspended sentences. And it will all depend on the individual features and characteristics of this particular case and this particular accused person. And that will need to be hashed out and battled over by either said, the state and defense at the sentencing hearing, after which the judge will render her opinion in consultation with sentencing principles.

ROMANS: So, Kelly, yesterday, when we were hearing this judge read out all of the testimony, all of the witnesses and give her sort of legal views on all of that, you could see that the judge was very -- you could see which way she was going, and she was knocking down that premeditated murder case all day yesterday. Any hint from her attitude or what she is saying about where she maybe leaning on the sentencing front?

PHELPS: Well, it is too soon to really draw conclusions from that because there's a much broader array of evidence that is held to be pertinent to sentencing than is allowed to be admitted in a trial. We know from the evidence that has been put forward in the trial that she considered Pistorius in a very unsympathetic light in terms of how he had performed during his time at the stand. And at sentencing, that would certainly count against him.

But, of course, there is far more broad evidence that she still is yet to even encounter that is directly relevant to sentencing. So, she'll need to weigh that opinion in the balance of all the aggravating and mitigating factors. So, we really, it would be in a sense irresponsible to draw predictions and conclusions at this early stage.

ROMANS: I have to say, Kelly, your analysis and your -- all of your work for us during this whole long trial has just been really, really eye-opening. Thank you. I know there is more to come with the sentencing part of this. But I just like to thank you for making it so clear for all of us here to understand.

Kelly Phelps in Pretoria, thank you.

BERMAN: We do have more breaking news this morning. A teenage killer who escaped prison overnight is back behind bars in Ohio. Nineteen- year-old T.J. Lane was sentenced to three life terms in the 2012 killings of three students at Chardon High School. You may remember the smirk on his face in court. Lane broke out of Allen Oakwood Correctional in Lima Thursday night, along with two other inmates. The Ohio Highway Patrol set up roadblocks, troopers and helicopters to search the area. Six tense hours later, he was caught.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHIEF SCOTT NIDHUS, CHARDON POLICE DEPARTMENT: Chardon Police Department was alerted that T.J. Lane and two others had escaped from the Allen Correctional Facility in Lima, Ohio, last evening. I can now confirm that we heard from officials involved in the search that T.J. Lane is now in custody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The warden says Lane escaped by scaling a prison fence. Now, no word yet he got that part to begin. He was captured, though, just 100 yards away from the facility.

ROMANS: All right. ISIS has as many as three times more fighters than previously thought. That bombshell from the CIA, which credits stronger recruiting for the terrorist group's rapid growth from 10,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria, as to many as 31,000.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State John Kerry's swing through the Middle East appears to be succeeding. Ten Arab nations have signed on to fight ISIS. They're issuing a joint statement Thursday vowing to do their share. But Kerry insists the clash with ISIS is not a war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: I think that's the wrong terminology. What we are doing is engaging in a very significant counterterrorism operation. And it will go on for some period of time. If somebody wants to think about it as being a war with ISIL, they can do so. But the fact is, it's a major counterterrorism operation that will have many different moving parts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: CNN's Ivan Watson has been monitoring Kerry's trip around the region.

Ivan, is it mission accomplished? Is there more for the secretary to do on this trip?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It seems like there's a lot more to do, Christine. He's got to meet with the leadership of Turkey, which has traditionally been an American ally. It's a member of the NATO military alliance, but the Turks have not publicly come out supporting President Obama's campaign against ISIS yet.

And the Turks are a logical base to try to operate from. Turkey borders both Iraq and Syria. It borders territory that ISIS controls. Turkey has long been a kind of underground railroad for jihadists trying to get from Africa and Europe to Syria.

So, it's likely that John Kerry will be asking for the Turks to do more, to kind of crackdown on that flow of fighters through Turkey. In addition, in the past, Turkey has allowed the U.S. air force to use air bases to carry out missions against Iraq, for example, and it's unlikely, though, that the Turks want to come out publicly to allow that because the Turks have almost 50 of their diplomats and security officers and their family members who have been hostages since June in Iraq, all captured in Turkey's consulate in the northern city of Mosul.

They are terrified they could see repeats of the beheadings we have scene of those poor American journalists if they come out visibly in support of the U.S. and its campaign against ISIS.

So, John Kerry is going to be trying to push the Turks to do more, but his visit is coming in a few days after the U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel made his visit to Turkey and he did not come away publicly with many pledges of support from the Turks in this difficult and complicated campaign.

ROMANS: Their self interests, their regional interests and all kinds of competing alliances here, it's a remarkable situation. The number could be up to 31,000 troops, ISIS terrorists, that could be rallied or mustered, that's a bigger number than we thought, Ivan. That shows the force of the -- not only the fund raising, but also the ability to inspire new fighters to this group.

WATSON: That's right. And CIA officials have told CNN that part of the reason for the dramatic increase in their estimates of the number of fighters with ISIS, that is due to a couple of reasons. First, some of their military successes over the course of the summer, that served as a rallying cry for more recruits. There have been some militants both from within the Syrian rebel factions and from across the border in Iraq who joined their sides as well.

It attracted fresh recruits from places like Europe, for example, where thousands of fighters are believed to have come in from, and also it's just from defections as well. We've heard of some rebel factions that have switched sides, switched flags in just the last couple of months. It will be curious to see what this coalition, what the U.S. airstrikes over the course of the past month, which impact that might have on these fresh recruits that have joined ISIS. Could the casualties that they have suffered in a fresh defections away from ISIS. That's something we'll have to monitor.

ROMANS: Complicated alliances, indeed.

All right. Thanks so much.

BERMAN: U.S. surveillance planes are flying over Syria, already tracking ISIS targets ahead of airstrikes being discussed by the president. Turkey and Germany have already made it clear that they will not participate in air strikes. U.K. is a maybe.

Only Syria and Israel is on record supporting President Obama's strategy to destroy ISIS. In fact, Syria's deputy foreign minister calls President Bashar al Assad a natural ally for the U.S.

Let's get more now from White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John and Christine.

Well, we just heard the president's strategy. It's interesting now to hear from that the White House that they are currently reviewing targets inside Syria. They wouldn't characterize the number of these, the scope of the operation to be planned inside Syria, what exactly these targets are.

They say they are the result of expanded intelligence gathering in the region and they are under review among the White House, the Pentagon and national security advisors. This doesn't mean, though, necessarily that airstrikes are imminent.

What the White House is doing right now is trying to get Congress on board. That is showing some promise with support from, for example, Speaker of the House John Boehner.

But there are still some big questions, including from critics like Senator John McCain, who is asking, why didn't the president listen to some of his advisors in the past when they said he should be training and arming Syrian rebels back then? And he points to an interview the president did just a few weeks ago where he called it a fantasy that they would arm these rebels.

For its part, the White House says, OK, that interview was just referring to the situation back then. The president says that the rebels were just this ragtag band of pharmacists and doctors and the like. They say that was back then when they were talking about possibly arming them to fight Syrian President Assad. That the situation now, though, has changed, that after more than a year of U.S. assistance, these rebels are more organized and strong. The U.S. is also trying to gather international support with Secretary Kerry in the Middle East.

But it's interesting to hear from the U.K., I mean, the U.S.'s closest ally, the foreign minister said, let me be clear. There will be no British air strikes inside Syria. But then the prime minister suddenly backed it up and said, oh, no, no, well, nothing is off the table. All these options are being reviewed.

The White House says it is encouraged by what it calls robust international support for the president's plan, including, it says, within the Middle East -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: Michelle Kosinski at the White House -- thank you for that.

Embarrassed and appalled by the U.S. government, those words from the mother of James Foley, one of two American journalists beheaded by ISIS. Diane Foley insisting officials in Washington did not do enough to rescue her son while he was in captivity. She tells CNN's Anderson Cooper, her efforts to get her son freed were viewed, in her opinion, as an annoyance by the U.S. government. And she had especially harsh words for the FBI.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Did you know that what was happening to him and where he was?

DIANE FOLEY, JAMES FOLEY'S MOM: Anderson, to be honest, that part was rather frightening. We tended to know everything before the FBI or anyone else. Everyone was kind and supportive, but the FBI used us for information.

COOPER: Really? They came to you for information?

FOLEY: Absolutely.

COOPER: About his location?

FOLEY: Absolutely, absolutely. Oh, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Diane Foley went on to tell Anderson officials in Washington threatened her with prosecution if she tried to raise money -- ransom money to free her son.

U.S. national security advisor Susan Rice defends the government's work in the Foley case, telling CNN she and government officials, quote, "worked very hard to try to be supportive, to try to provide whatever information we could.

Diane Foley has launched a foundation to save others from the trauma she has experienced. She said the James Foley Legacy Fund will help other journalists reporting from the conflict zones and their families. It should be pointed out that he was a freelance journalist. He did not have the infrastructure around him like other journalists do in the region, which makes that fund a really great boon for other reporters like him who are there.

BERMAN: Another great organization, the Committee to Protect Journalists, which does a lot of work in --

ROMANS: Yes.

BERMAN: The Baltimore Ravens back on the field without suspended running back Ray Rice as new controversy swirls around NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: This morning, ESPN is reporting Ray Rice told NFL commissioner Roger Goodell when they met back in June, that he punched his then fiancee in an elevator. He contradicts what Goodell is saying that he only learned what happened after seeing the video for the first time this week, that his June meeting with Rice was, quote, "ambiguous concerning details."

Goodell is under fire for his handling of this case, of course. He has appointed former FBI director Robert Mueller to conduct an independent investigation, despite accusations that Goodell knew more about the tape that he's letting on. The Baltimore Ravens owner is defending his commissioner.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE BISCIOTTI, BALTIMORE RAVENS OWNER: I believe Roger when he says he never saw it. If the allegation is true that it got to the league office, then somebody was negligent and not getting that to Roger. I have known Roger for 14 years. He's dedicated his life to the NFL and as a man, I can't believe that he saw that video and gave a two-game suspension.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The owners really supporting him so far. They hire him, he pointed out.

BERMAN: Yes.

ROMANS: They hired him.

Meantime, CBS and the NFL network CBS dropped the Rihanna performance on Thursday night. The pop star until now was the most famous victim of domestic violence. As for the game, the Ravens beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 26-6. Despite the controversy around Ray Rice, the league made $10.5 billion last year. That number likely to go up this year.

The NFL has already locked in broadcast fees of about $5 billion for this year. That's almost a billion more than last year. Additionally, DirecTV pays a billion a year to show out of market gains nationwide. All that money works in favor of Roger Goodell who oversaw negotiations with the networks. NFL games consistently have some of the best ratings and advertisers love them because fans are likely to watch them live without skipping commercials.

BERMAN: And look, no advertiser, no company is getting wobbly like they did with Sterling and the Clippers here. They're standing behind me.

ROMANS: No, you're absolutely right. Time now for an EARLY START on your money.

U.S. stock futures lower this morning. European stocks mostly lower as well.

BERMAN: All right. He wants out of the Kansas Senate race, but it will be up to the state's highest court to decide if Chad Taylor's name will actually remove from the ballot. The Senate nominee announced last week he was dropping out of the race against incumbent Republican Senator Pat Roberts. But his withdrawal letter did not comply with the state law limiting the names can be taken off the ballot. The court will hold a hearing on Taylor's request next week.

This actually matters because there's a third party independent in the race who will pick up all of the Democratic votes, analysts say, and could have a shot at beating the incumbent Pat Roberts, putting an incumbent in jeopardy when they're trying to retake the Senate. So, there are national implications to this small issue. ROMANS: There always are.

BERMAN: All right. Fifty minutes after the hour right now.

Dramatic video capturing daring water rescues. Look at that picture, severe storms flooding the South and the threat not over yet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Dangerous flash flooding in Memphis, Tennessee.

Rescuers freeing this man from his sinking car, with the seconds to spare. The entire neighborhood north of downtown had to be evacuated, 4.4 inches of rain reported at Memphis International Airport, more than doubling the previous record set in 1965. The flash flood watch for that area remains in effect through tonight.

ROMANS: Record rainfall also rattling Mississippi. There's a state of emergency declared in Desoto County, three hours north of Jackson. One dramatic rescue after another triggered by the flood waters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm thankful they got us out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have people running around, knocking on doors and getting dogs out. Couches were floating in the bottom apartments. I mean, it was bad.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Over seven inches of rain has fallen in the area in the last four days. Wow, be careful out there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: New sanctions for Russia. How hard the Kremlin will be hit with when we get an EARLY START on your money.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: It's Friday. Let's get an EARLY START on your money to wrap up the week. Stocks around the world mostly down this morning. European shares lower, U.S. stock futures pointing lower. Not a great end to basically a mediocre week. But stocks still very close to records. The Dow and S&P down less than 1 percent from record highs.

The U.S. is expected to release details of new sanctions against Russia today. The new penalties to increase pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin. They are expected to match the sanctions the European Union is expanding, targeting Russia's financial, energy and defense sectors.

These measures are expected to hurt Western companies even further, especially in the energy sector. ExxonMobil has a multibillion dollar deal with Russia in the Arctic Ocean. Shell and BP also have partnerships there. You've heard from a lot of different kinds of companies doing business with and in Russia. But these sanctions are hurting them and will cause more uncertainty.