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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

CDC Issues New Guidelines for Ebola Prevention; Tensions High Again in Ferguson; Judge Reads Reasoning for Pistorius Sentence

Aired October 21, 2014 - 04:00   ET

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

JUDGE THOKOZILE MASIPA: This impact on others worldwide cannot be ignored, but it ought to be put into perspective. As state counsel pointed out to Mr. Foster (ph), if a sportsman was approached for assistance, it would not be clever not to be involved, as such involvement enhances one's career. The seriousness of the offense...

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: You're watching live coverage now of the sentencing hearing for Oscar Pistorius. The Judge Masipa there is issuing her sentence right now.

She's made it clear she does think the South Africa prison system can handle Oscar Pistorius and his physical disability. Of course, he was born without legs. We do not yet know if she will issue a sentence whether he will serve prison time. This is fascinating. We're going to get back to that in a little bit, but there is other news.

New this morning, the CDC issuing brand-new guidelines for the prevention of Ebola. What has changed and what you need to know.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CO-HOST: Protests and unrest in Ferguson overnight. Police and protesters face off, multiple arrests made, including a state senator.

BERMAN: And breaking overnight. Legendary fashion designer Oscar de la Renta has died. The fashion world, A-list celebrities, political legends paying tribute to this iconic designer.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is Tuesday, October 21. It's 4 a.m. in the East.

There are new developments to tell you about this morning and new guidelines in the fight against Ebola. The CDC, which has taken a beating in recent days over its handling of the crisis, announcing new guidelines for healthcare workers.

Now these guidelines focus on personal protective equipment or PPE. Advising more and better hands-on training, protective equipment worn so no skin is exposed, and health workers partnered up so someone observes every step involved in putting on and taking off the protective suits.

Now, the new guidelines came out Monday, the same day Ebola monitoring ended for dozens of people who had contact with Dallas's first Ebola patient, Thomas Eric Duncan.

CNN's Alina Machado there with more on that story.

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and John, the number of people who are being monitored is expected to decrease as more people reach the end of their 21-day monitoring period without showing symptoms.

So far, at least 43 people have been cleared here in Dallas County. These are people who had direct contact with Thomas Eric Duncan before he died, and this group includes five children who will be returning to school today for the first time in weeks.

There is some concern, though, here about how these children are going to be received, especially those who are related to Louise Troh, Duncan's fiancee. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

As a parent, I'm extremely concerned for Louise's middle-school son. Middle schoolers are some of the most ferocious and scary animals on the planet. And to be dropped into a pool of middle schoolers after all that he has been through, I need your help, parents. I need your help to create that young man with the kind of love you'd want your own child treated with.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACHADO: We are expecting Dallas County officials to give us an update later this morning on the people who are still being monitored -- Christine and John.

BERMAN: Thanks to Alina Machado for that report from Dallas.

Now, the administration's new Ebola czar, Ron Klain, officially starts his new job on Wednesday. And when he does sit down at his desk, he will face a daunting landscape.

Klain himself is being derided already by Republicans as a political operative. But others on Capitol Hill are calling him a tough and good manager.

Well, the number of Ebola cases in three West African countries continues to rise. Nearby Senegal and Nigeria have both now been declared Ebola free. That is good news.

More good news. In Spain, doctors expect to give nurse's aide Teresa Romero Ramos the all clear today if another blood test comes back negative for Ebola.

The second healthcare worker to be diagnosed with the disease in the United States, Amber Vinson, has hired a lawyer as she disputes the CDC's claim that she boarded a plane against its advice. Texas Governor Rick Perry is set to visit UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas later today to discuss that state's Ebola preparedness and response with reporters. Stay with CNN. We'll have more on that event as it happens.

ROMANS: ISIS militants are pushing back this morning, launching 15 near-simultaneous attacks on Kurdish forces in northern Iraq, including a truck bomb that killed six Peshmerga soldiers at the strategically crucial Mosul dam. The dam provides water and electricity to Baghdad.

On the border between Syria and Turkey, the city of Kobani is still under siege by ISIS, despite gains by Kurdish fighters who have been backed by U.S.-airstrikes and a new American resupply operation.

For more, stay with us. We're going to have a live report from the Turkey/Syria border coming up in about 20 minutes.

BERMAN: Tensions are boiling over again in Ferguson, Missouri, over the shooting death of Michael Brown. Several people were arrested Monday night, including a Missouri state senator.

The Brown family is making a new push for an indictment as we find out more about the forensic evidence and whether it supports or damages Officer Darren Wilson's account of what happened. Our Sara Sidner has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Protests again overnight here in Ferguson, where we saw at least two people detained, including State Senator Jamilah Nasheed. She was taken in handcuffs by police, along with another person. She was standing in the middle of the road, police said. They gave her several warnings. When she did not do as they asked, they handcuffed her and took her in.

We do know that this is the 73rd day that there have been protests since the killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown at the hands of Officer Darren Wilson.

There is also information that has been leaked from a law enforcement authority. CNN finding out that there has been some forensic evidence that the grand jury has been looking at, and we now know what some of that is.

Blood stains have been found inside of Darren Wilson's car, on Darren Wilson's gun and on his uniform. That blood, according to our source, was that of Michael Brown's. It does indicate there was some sort of struggle inside of that car.

What it does not tell us is what happened after that. There are many witnesses that said that Brown eventually tried to surrender by putting his hands up, and he was shot and killed them. Others are saying he was still coming at the officer. And that is also the officer's testimony.

Lots of people talking about some of these new revelations, some of this forensic evidence that they hadn't heard of before, and certainly tensions high here. And they will continue to be high as the grand jury deliberates. We are expecting the grand jury to give their decision sometime in mid-November.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Sara Sidner, thank you for that, Sara.

And a legendary fashion designer Oscar de la Renta has died. He dressed socialites, Hollywood stars and first ladies for a half century. His most recent coup was designing the dress Amal Alamuddin wore at her wedding to George Clooney.

Laura Bush issued a statement saying, "We will Oscar's generous and warm personality, his charm, and his wonderful talents. We will always remember him as the man who made women look and feel beautiful."

No word on the cause of death. Oscar de la Renta was 82 years old and just featured in "Vogue" magazine with the new Mrs. Clooney and her -- a fitting for her dress.

BERMAN: Look, when you think about it, I mean, Nancy Reagan. I know he designed for Laura Bush, the 2005 inaugural, you know, Hillary Clinton. Like redesigned her entire wardrobe in the late '90s. And you know, Michelle Obama was -- also wore him. This guy, he gets around. Let's just say that. He will be missed, to be sure.

President Obama finding himself in a touchy situation, literally. The commander in chief swung by a polling center in Illinois Monday night to cast an early ballot in the state's midterm election. That is when he ran into a man with a smart remark.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, don't touch my girlfriend.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I really wasn't planning on it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am sorry. Please excuse him.

OBAMA: There's an example of a brother, just embarrassing me for no reason. Just for no reason whatsoever.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I knew he was going to say something smart but I didn't know what he was going to say.

OBAMA: Now you'll be going back home and talking to your friends about this. I can't believe -- what's his name?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mike.

OBAMA: "I can't believe Mike. He's such a fool."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really. He really is.

OBAMA: "I was just mortified. But fortunately -- fortunately the president was nice about it. So you know, so it's all right." You're going to kiss me, give him something to talk about. Now he's really jealous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: That was a little awkward. In the end...

ROMANS: I never talk to somebody when I vote. When I vote -- I'm very serious about it when I vote.

BERMAN: I want to make sure I don't make a mistake. It's very, very complicated. You know, you saw the president getting the last laugh there. Actually, many of the laughs.

ROMANS: I don't think it's complicated for him. He probably does a straight line ticket, don't you think?

BERMAN: You never know.

ROMANS: It's probably the easiest thing in the world.

BERMAN: You can see, she did manage to get a kiss on the cheek.

ROMANS: All right. Let's get an early check on our weather with Chad Myers this morning.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: A very good early morning to you. Some rain across the East Coast today. Low pressure just off the East Coast. Driving some of that warm air, the humidity, the moisture that's coming off of that warm Gulfstream water back into the northeast. So it's going to be a slow day today for airport travel and maybe even a slow day for driving around the northeast, especially this morning in the dark.

Sixty-six, the high in New York today; 68 in D.C. but 51 in Chicago. So the cool air is still back out there to the west. It will be swinging on by again for tomorrow.

The high pressure is great sunshine all day, but the air is just not warming up with the northeast flow aloft, keeping that air coming in from the north and keeping it cool, for sure.

Here are your highs for tomorrow: 55, Chicago; 61, Minneapolis and a high of only 55 in New York City. It's time to find the coats.

Back to you.

ROMANS: That is very true. Chad Myers, thank you.

Time for an early start on your money this morning. Asian shares are down after a new report showed slowing growth in China. Chinese GDP rose 7.3 percent last quarter. Hey, it sounds great compared with the rest of the world, but that's the weakest pace since the financial crisis.

Europe shares, though, are higher here. U.S. stock futures barely budging. Calm basically returned to the market on Monday after some really wild swings last week. Yesterday, the S&P 500 climbed about 1 percent. Tech-heavy NASDAQ rose even more, about 1.4 percent. The Dow eked out a small gain.

One stock to watch this morning, Apple shares are up before the bell on huge iPhone sales. The company reported selling 39 million iPhones in the past quarter. Just think of that: three months, 39 million. That includes two weeks of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus sales. Apple also sold a record 5.5 million Mac computers. Overall, Apple sales rose to $42 billion. And a lot of people I was talking to were thinking, you know, maybe revenue of about $40 billion would be good for them. Forty-two point one.

BERMAN: Not bad at all.

ROMANS: Not bad at all.

All right. It is judgment day for the Blade Runner. Oscar Pistorius learning his fate for shooting his model girlfriend any moment now. The judge is reading her sentence, as we speak. We are live from outside that courthouse.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: We're watching the sentencing of South African Olympian Oscar Pistorius, underway this hour in Pretoria. The judge is reading her sentence, going through actually witness by witness, her remarks about each of those witnesses in the sentencing hearing. Let's listen to what she's saying right now.

MASIPA: The court in that case found that the accused did not fire with gross negligence into areas where he knew that there might be people. He fired at an angle which was lower than that which he intended.

In respect of remorse from the accused, the court noted the following, I quote, "Mr. Foster was beside himself with grief -- grief. Pain and remorse to the extent that the police brought in a trauma counselor to the cells to try to help him. It is now almost two years later, and Mr. Foster is still clearly in a state of posttraumatic shock. I have never before seen an accused person as devastated and remorseful as he is. He has had therapy, initially apparently, from someone connected to his church, but since May of 2010, from a clinical psychologist to whom he was referred by his legal representative," closed quote.

A few months after this incident -- that's the incident in the fall (ph), Mrs. Ramala (ph) resigned from her job, as she felt she could no longer work and live in the place where Capuso (ph) had died so dreadfully. She felt that he had died like an animal. I again quote from the -- from the court. "She rejected offers of help and a possible trust fund to set up" -- I'll have to rephrase that. "She rejected offers of help and a possible trust fund set up to help her or to educate members of the family, and she asked that nothing of the sort be done. She's in great emotional pain at present and said that she thought that her pain would never end," closed quote. In imposing sentence, the court found that, I quote, "A court shall

strive for balance between the interests of society, the interests of the accused and the seriousness of the offense. A sentence which overemphasizes one element" -- dot, dot, dot -- "cannot be balanced and it is likely to be a wrong sentence.

"Finally, in imposing a sentence, the court should be merciful. This means that it should sentence the accused with a full appreciation for human frailty and for the accused. The accused's own particular circumstances at the time of the offense.

"Where the offense is one of negligence, I believe this is particularly the case for ordinary everyday people who are not criminals are capable for the kind of negligence that has tragic and life-long consequences. A court should strive to keep such a person out of prison where this is possible.

"As I've said, the loss of an innocent life is almost always serious, and society tends to be even more shocked when the victim is a child, as here. Members of the child's family are particularly badly affected. I have considered the needs of society, and I believe that these were the best served by its knowing and seeing that Mr. Foster is donating some of his time to the service of other less privileged people," closed quote.

The court further said the following, I quote, "It is being done for two purposes. To try to show society and the Capuso family that Mr. Foster is being punished, albeit relatively lightly, for what he has done and secondly, to assist Mr. Foster to interact with needful people and to help him to find some form of emotional equilibrium while doing so. I have decided that the appropriate sentence in this case is one of three years imprisonment, suspended completely for five years on condition that firstly, he is not again convicted of culpable homicide caused by an assault and committed during the period of imprisonment; and secondly, that he performs 300 hours of community service over one year, which commences running on the date of the sentence." Dot, dot, dot.

"He is to be placed under the supervision of Mr. Phillip Hall of the Rotary Club of Black Heath. Mr. Hall will decide upon the work which Mr. Foster is to do in assisting the Rotary Club in any of the various charitable undertakings which it engages in," closed quote.

Counsel for the accused submitted that the effects in the Foster case bore similarities to those in the present case. He considered that, in this instance the accused, by discharging four shots into the door, created a more dangerous situation. He argued on the other hand, Mr. Foster did not suffer from the disabilities and vulnerability of the accused in the present case and that the slow effect of the disability and vulnerability.

It is clear that the facts in Foster are dissimilar to the facts in this present case. It is so that, like Foster, the accused was reacting to a perceived threat and that, soon after the incident, he, like the accused in the Foster matter, tried to resuscitate the deceased and that he was very emotional and suffers for trauma even 18 months after the incident.

However, there are a number of important distinguishing features. One, in the Foster matter, the accused did not know that there was a person behind the door. In the present case, the accused did. He stated that after he heard the bathroom window slide open and the slamming of the door, the noise or movement in the toilet confirmed to him that there was someone in the toilet.

Two, in the Foster case, only one shot was fired, and it had been aimed above the roof, not into the door. In contrast, the accused in the present case deliberately fired four shots into the door.

Three, in the Foster matter, the aim was to frighten away the intruder, in the words of the accused. In the present case, the aim was to shoot the intruder.

Four, in the Foster matter, if there had been an intruder on the premises, he might have had the opportunity to flee or escape the harm or death. In the present case, the opposite is true. The toilet was a small cubical. An intruder would not have -- would have had no room to maneuver or to escape. And what is more, the accused knew this fact.

Five, the accused was trained in the use of firearms and intended to be a collector. In my view, a high degree of responsibility would be required from such a person.

Although it is so that in the Foster case, the accused did not suffer from the disabilities and vulnerabilities of the accused, I find that that fact, regardless the degree of negligence in this matter, is such that the sentence, as suggested by Mrs. Hill and Mr. Maranga (ph) would not be appropriate, considering the circumstances in the matter.

In the matter of the state, Mr. Ebunga (ph) Mdunge, spelled M-D-U-N-G- E, in brackets, capital r, capital c, 777 stroke 12. In original quote, closed brackets, "The accused and the deceased was sleeping at their home when at about 12:30 a.m., the accused was awoken by a noise as if a window was opening. He thought a burglar was trying to get into the house. Fearful for his life, he grabbed his firearm from his bedside pedestal drawer and made his way to the entrance of the room. He could hear the noise coming from the bathroom. Slowly he made his way to the bathroom door to investigate. As he reached the bathroom door, it suddenly opened. Startled and afraid for his life, he discharged his firearm, thinking the person who opened the door was a burglar. That person, however, was not an intruder, but his wife. He rushed her to hospital, but it was too late. The accused in Mdunge was arrested for murder, but entered a plea and sentence agreement with a national prosecuting authority," in brackets, NPA, closed brackets. "In terms of section 105 capital 'A' of the Criminal Procedure Act.

"In terms of the agreement, the national prosecuting authority..."

BERMAN: You are listening to the judge in the Oscar Pistorius case read her sentence. She hasn't quite gotten to what we are all waiting to hear, which is will Oscar Pistorius serve prison time yet. Judge Masipa meticulously going through other cases, describing how

the Pistorius case is similar or dissimilar to them. And it's very hard to tell which way she's leaning.

I want to go to CNN's Diana Magnay outside the courthouse right now.

And Diana, I've got to say: this is high, high drama right now. We're all looking for any sign of where this judge might be headed.

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It certainly is. And I think that she will be suggesting some kind of jail term.

She completely discounted the evidence of the probation officer who said that jail was not suitable for a man with disabilities such as Oscar Pistorius's. The judge turning around and saying that she believed much more of the testimony of the acting commissioner of correctional services, who had said that facilities are fine for people like him. And she said that inmates with disabilities had gone into prison before, so it was perfectly OK for someone like Pistorius to go in.

She made some very strong points already in this judgment. She's now on her conclusion. One of them was that there cannot be one set of rules for the poor and the vulnerable and another for the rich. A very strong message to the people of South Africa that just because Oscar Pistorius is this world-renowned athlete does not mean that he will be getting off lightly.

And she also talked about this balance between satisfying public opinion and the interests of society, making it very clear that they are not one and the same and that the court should not have to pander to the -- to what society wants, but that to a certain extent, it should be taken into account.

And there are many, many people in this country who feel that he shot four doors -- four bullets into that toilet door, knowing that there was very little escape for whoever was behind it, and that he should serve time in jail for that. And she hasn't come to her conclusion yet, John, but I feel that that is also what she will, in the end, sentence.

BERMAN: No doubt. You brought up some very good points. She made clear that the South African prison system can handle Oscar Pistorius. She's made clear that other cases that are somewhat similar, where there was no prison time, are very different than the Pistorius case and in some ways, Pistorius's offenses are worse than these other cases where there was no prison time.