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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Pistorius Gets 5 Years for Homicide; 5 Children Return to School; ISIS Renews Push for Territory

Aired October 21, 2014 - 05:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Breaking news this morning: high drama from South Africa. Just minutes ago, Oscar Pistorius sentenced to five years in prison for culpable homicide for shooting and killings his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, firing through the door of his home.

Reeva Steenkamp's lawyer telling reporters justice was served today. You are looking at Pistorius when the sentence was read. And this trial where there was so much drama, so much emotion, he was stoic as the sentence was read. Five years in prison.

Joining us now live from the courthouse in Pretoria, CNN's Diana Magnay.

Diana, Oscar Pistorius now in a holding cell.

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Or maybe not yet.

The pictures we have, this car has Reeva Steenkamp's parents. They just got in as you can see. Huge attention from the media.

I don't know whether they gave any comment. They didn't like they did, to see whether they felt that this was a satisfactory sentence. Five years in prison for Oscar Pistorius.

And it's certainly not the 10 years that Gerrie Nel, the prosecutor, was asking for, but nor is it three years correctional supervision that the defense team were asking for. A sentence that many people felt was far too light.

And there was such powerful things said by the judge in that sentencing. She said, we must be sure that society does not feel there is one set of rules for the poor and the vulnerable in this society, and there is another set of rules for the rich and famous.

And this is something that I've heard over and over again when I talked to people in South Africa, about what sentence they want to see for Oscar Pistorius. And so many people say just because he is rich and famous does not mean that he should escape jail.

And I just asked someone outside the court, John, what he felt about this sentence. And he repeated that. He said that he did feel that he was getting off lightly, that it was because he was rich and famous.

But you felt when you were listening to that sentence that the judge was very, very clear about the balance that she was trying to tread between restorative justice and the appropriate punishment. This was all about degrees negligence, how she felt how negligent Pistorius had been in this case, compared to other culpable homicide verdicts.

And she said, you know, he shot four shots, four bullets into that very, very small room. There was nowhere for an intruder, if that is what he thought was there, to go, to escape, there was escape. Very different to other moments where someone killed someone with just one shot. She said he was knowledgeable of firearms. He should know how to handle that kind of thing. So, these things weighed up in terms of the sentence that she put down.

And she also said right at the beginning and I think this is important if this matter does go to appeal, that there is a range of sentences that can be considered appropriate, in a way it couches her decision, saying that it is possible for judges to make different decisions, but that she really did try and weigh this up very, very carefully.

I think what's important also to mention, John, about this five years imprisonment is that it is now up to the correctional services department themselves, up to their discretion as to whether they keep him inside for the duration of these five years or if he is let off for good behavior and then comes a mixture of community service and that kind of thing.

So, she's done her part. We'll now see whether Gerrie Nel decides to take this to the appeal court. We'll also, I would imagine at some point today, hear something from the Steenkamp family themselves -- John.

BERMAN: Five years, as you point out, Diana, doesn't necessarily mean five years in prison.

Our legal analyst Kelly Phelps there in South Africa, points out that the minimum he will serve in prison is 10 months -- 10 months at least in prison before the system, as you say, takes over and might allow him for some kind of work release or supervision on good behavior. A minimum of 10 months in prison, I suppose of maximum of prison term based on the sentence today of five years in prison.

What happens to Oscar Pistorius now? For the last year and a half since he shot and killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, he has largely been free. He's largely been living in a home as this trial and process continues. Now, as of today, he finds himself in custody.

MAGNAY: Things are going to change dramatically for him. As you said, while he was on bail, he was living at his uncle's house here in Pretoria. That is what he was hoping and family were hoping would continue.

Now, he will be going to Pretoria Central Prison. This has been one of the tenets of the sentencing, whether he will have the appropriate facilities with someone with disabilities such as him. And, in fact, Judge Masipa was incredibly scathing of the testimony of one of the provision officers who came in to talk about why she felt that facilities inside the South Africa's prisons weren't appropriate for a man with disabilities that Pistorius has.

The judge said her testimony had been very weak. It was based on sourcing, which was out of date and taken from the Internet, that essentially she didn't know what she was talking about, and that the judge felt that she was confident that disabled people were taken into South African prisons and that they would be catered full well.

It was really that point in her sentencing this morning that you got the impression that she was definitely going to go for a jail term. But I think as you said, as we were discussing with Kelly, the fact this doesn't mean five years in prison means she has tried to balance the arguments in mitigation and aggression of a heavy sentence.

The question is, will people within South Africa be satisfied with that kind of a sentence and I think she made some powerful points on that issue, too, saying that there is a very big distinction between what society wants and what is in the public interest and that it is in the court has to serve the interests of justice and not those of society.

Very, very important points -- points that really are representative for justice in any country, John.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Diana, she also talked about degrees of responsibility, degrees of negligence. It was really interesting, you pointed out, as you said, he aspired to be a gun collector and he was someone who used and knew firearms. He had a high degree of responsibility to know that he should not to shoot four shots through the door. And it was incredibly negligent, his behavior. That's why she gave him a prison term.

MAGNAY: Absolutely. Gross negligence was the way she described it. This is a problem that many people have had with this culpable homicide verdict. The fact he stood there and shot four shots into a door, into a room with very little room for maneuver for whoever was behind the door. She said it wasn't as though he thought there was an animal in there. He thought there was an intruder.

And shoot at hip level rather than higher up, which he had mention in his testimony, didn't satisfy her opinion that this was a minimal degree of negligence. And I think that was very, very important.

Gerrie Nel and many people here saying if you fire four shots into a door, you know very well that the person behind that door will be killed if there is nowhere to escape, that that factored heavily in her decision today to put him behind bars.

All right. Diana Magnay for us, live outside the courthouse in Pretoria. So much going on. We're going to check back in with you in a little bit because I know there will be more reaction. Both the prosecution and defense have the opportunity now to perhaps appeal. So, we'll check in with you and see if we have word on that.

ROMANS: All right . There are other developments and new guidelines this morning in the fight against Ebola.

The CDC, which has taken a beating in recent days over its handling of the Ebola crisis, the CDC announcing guidelines for health care workers. These guidelines focus on personal protective equipment or PPE, advising more and better hands-on training of protective equipment worn so no skin is exposed and health workers partnering up so someone observes every step involved in putting on and taking off the protective suits.

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

CNN's Alina Machado is there with more on that part of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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 the 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. 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 the children are going to be received, especially those who are related to Louise Troh, Duncan's fiancee.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLAY JENKINS, DALLAS COUNTY JUDGE: 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 treat that young man with the kind of love you 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 still being monitored -- Christine and John.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Alina Machado, thank you for that.

BERMAN: The administration's new Ebola czar Ron Klain officially starts his job on Wednesday. And when he sits down at his desk, he will face a daunting task. We'll have more than one desk. It would be such a big job.

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

The number of Ebola cases in three West African countries is rising, but in nearby Senegal in Nigeria, they have both now been declared Ebola free. That is good news.

Also good news, in Spain, doctors are expecting to give Teresa Romero Ramos the all clear today if another blood test comes back negative for Ebola.

The second health care worker diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, Amber Vinson, she's hired a lawyer as she disputes the CDC's claims that she boarded a plane against its advice.

In Texas, the governor there, Rick Perry, is set to visit UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas later today to discuss that state's Ebola preparedness and response with the reporter. CNN will cover that event as it happens.

ROMANS: All right. Eleven minutes past the hour.

Indra Petersons has an early start on your forecast this Tuesday morning.

Good morning, Indra.

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning.

I wish I got better news than yesterday, but unfortunately, I think we all know it is getting worse and worse here. All eyes on the potential nor'easter that is looming out there. All that cold arctic air making its way into the region. Meanwhile, a low is expected to develop along the coastline. The contrast between the two brings in that potential nor'easter.

Look at the cool air that's already in the Ohio Valley. So, highs in 50s, another 10 degree drop for Chicago today. High there about 52 degrees.

You can actually see light showers already out there from a system making its way through. Look at the cold air diving down from Canada. This is just one side of it. The other side of the equation, of course, is the low that is expected to develop along the coastline. That is what will bring in the strong winds and heavy amounts of rain, really expected up and down the northeast coastline.

So, here we go, let's take it day by day. We are talking about potentially 3 to 5 inches of rain out to Maine. But, still, you look at one to two inches to New York City. It is not bad with rain Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday. You may not be happy.

So, here you go, overnight tonight, as that low develops overnight, stronger winds to make their way in. Tuesday scattered showers not really the big day of the event.

Once you get through Wednesday, strong winds and heavy bull's-eyes of rain. By Thursday, a slow-moving system. We are still talking about rain and yes wind. Of course, the system is making its way to the northeast. More of the bull's-eye continues up north.

That is one side which is rain and the other side is winds. Not too bad today. You have to wait for the system to build. Eventually, we'll be talking 30, even 40, possibly, 50-mile-an-hour winds in addition to the rain.

So, we're going to be talking about this, I don't know, for a couple of days, guys.

ROMANS: You've got to find the galoshes.

BERMAN: The bad news is it's going to rain. The worse news, it's going to rain for a while.

PETERSONS: Bandwidth, I want to make it worse.

ROMANS: I also want to point out that this morning, Heathrow, 10 percent of flights are canceled at Heathrow this morning. So, business travelers, be weary if you're flying overseas today. It's a bad weather in London.

All right. Time for an early start on your money this morning. Asian shares down after a new report showed, yes, slowing growth in China. China's GDP, 7.3 percent. It sounds great, right? But that's the weakest pace since the financial crisis.

European shares are higher. U.S. stock futures are slightly higher. It feels calm has returned to the markets, at least for now. Yesterday, the S&P climbed about 1 percent. NASDAQ rose 1.4 percent. The Dow eked out had a tiny gain.

Watching Apple this morning -- shares up before the bell on huge iPhone sales. The company sold 39 million iPhones in the last quarter.

BERMAN: A lot of phones.

ROMANS: That includes just two weeks that iPhone 6 and 6 plus sales.

Apple sold a record 5.5 million Mac computers.

Overall, Apple sales rose to $42 billion. The target from a lot of people I talked to on the street was $40 billion in sales would be a win for Apple shares, $42.1 billion.

BERMAN: They beat it.

All right. Fourteen minutes after the hour.

ISIS continuing its fight for control this morning, launching more than a dozen coordinated attacks on forces in northern Iraq. That as the battle for Kobani heats up with a new type of U.S. involvement. We're live in the region.

ROMANS: Breaking news this morning. The Blade Runner sentenced to five years in prison. We are live in Pretoria outside the courthouse. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: A new push by ISIS this morning, launching new strikes on northern Iraq, including a truck bomb that killed six Kurdish fighters, the Peshmerga militia, at the strategically crucial Mosul dam. That dam provides water and electricity to Baghdad.

Meanwhile, in the border between Syria and Turkey, the city of Kobani is still under siege by ISIS militants. That despite a heavy round of U.S. airstrikes. That despite an American resupply dropping medical supplies, food and weapons to the Kurdish fighters in that city.

I want to go to our senior international correspondent Ivan Watson with more on the ground there.

Good morning, Ivan.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

We want to show you footage that CNN obtained of the medicine that was delivered in the air drops reaching the besieged town of Kobani behind me. A doctor we have been in touch with for weeks who had to move his clinic at least four times because it had been shelled at different locations. Speaking to the camera and describing how he had received medicine and aesthetics and bandages and antibiotics, all the types of precious medicine life-saving stuff they need to help civilians and fighters who have been hit in this ISIS siege and asking for more assistance.

Now, we know that the U.S. has been carrying out air strikes against the ISIS attackers around the town behind me. We had these air drops coming from U.S. C-130 planes and now, Turkey and the government in northern Iraq of the Iraqi Kurdish region announcing they will be sending Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters through Turkey to help reinforce the Kurdish militants who've been defending this city now for close to a month and they will be bringing in a will be sending Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters through Turkey to help reinforce the Kurdish militants defending this city now for close to a month and they will be bringing in a more heavy weaponry according to a senior Kurdish official I have spoken to help the Kurdish defenders here.

And also sending in important symbolic message according to the official I talked to. The Americans and Turks and Kurds are all fighting together against what he describes as ISIS terrorists -- John.

BERMAN: Fascinating development that Ivan Watson describes right there. Some Iraqi Kurdish forces through Turkey to help reinforce the besieged city of Kobani. The Turkish people won't let -- the Turkish government will interpret (ph) Kurds going. But this is a very interesting development. It could turn the tide there.

Ivan Watson, our thanks to you.

ROMANS: All right. The day of reckoning for Olympian Oscar Pistorius. The South African sprinter sentenced minutes ago. Five years in prison for culpable homicide in the shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

The Steenkamp family is expected to hold a news conference within an hour. The prosecutor's office says it has not decided whether to appeal the judge's sentence. Again, five years in prison.

CNN's Robyn Curnow is standing by live in Pretoria for us this morning.

Good morning, Robyn.

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

I was inside that courtroom. I have been inside that courtroom for the past eight months just about every day. It has been so dramatic at times, having to expect.

Today in the final reckoning, utter anti-climax. In fact, there was zero emotion. In fact, all of us sitting in the court, including Pistorius and Pistorius family and Reeva Steenkamp friends and family, journalists and the public were silent, where we could not digest what we are hearing.

There was no obvious reactions from the main players. There were certainly outgoing he motion, shock, relief, nothing.

It was confusing. It took a while for everybody to look at each other and say is that it? People were confused about what the five years meant.

Speaking to our legal analysts afterwards, this is what it means. The judge specifically said a maximum of five years in prison. Under certain statutes of South African law, that means he may only serve a sixth of that sentence. So, defense lawyers, criminal lawyers telling us that he could effectively be out within the next ten months. That's at the discretion of the authorities here and a policy decision.

Really what does that mean for Oscar Pistorius now? He walked away very quietly, very understated into the cells beneath the courtroom, the stairs leading down behind the dock that have been there the whole time in a way looming, threatening.

Today, he stood up quietly, barely acknowledged his family, although he did look one or two of them in the eye. There was certainly no crying, sobbing, emotion. None of that. He was accompanied by police officials here and he just disappeared down the stairs.

We understand he is probably still in the cells in the building in the high court beneath me in the basement cells. At some point, he'll be put in a police van. He'll be taken to the central prison here in Pretoria, we understand, although it hasn't been confirmed, which is just a few blocks that way.

Within six hours, he'll be processed by the authorities there and they will assess whether they will give him a hospital wing, whether he will be sectioned off from the main general public, perhaps, in the prison. This was something he wanted. His defense wanted because of his disability. They felt he would be vulnerable with the ordinary inmates. There was a suggestion he would get his own cell in the hospital wing.

How that plays out in the next few hours is unclear. But what is very clear is that Pistorius said to me, I have seen him in the last few weeks and he said to me clearly, "I am not scared of jail." He had somehow come to terms with the possibility of it. He said he wanted to make good, he wanted to give back while he was in prison, and that he was looking at perhaps helping people learn to read or start some sports club.

So, in the last few weeks, those around him, his legal team, whether it was his psychologist, you know, or just realization from him he will have to serve some sort of time, he had come to terms with it. He walked away looking like a man, perhaps, who had accepted the responsibility and was willing to deal with what was now in front of him. Notwithstanding, I spoke to his brother and sister yesterday. They said they are nervous for his safety because of his vulnerability within that prison population.

ROMANS: Robyn Curnow, I think the headline there is that he was prepared to go to prison. He is not afraid to go to prison. He is going to prison, a five-year sentence.

This judge finding he was grossly negligent and he had a high degree of responsibility for using the firearm, and he shot four times through that door, he killed that young woman and deserve to go to prison for it.

Robyn Curnow, thank you so much.

BERMAN: And the judge clearly offended that he would not be safe within the South Africa prison system.

ROMANS: Right.

BERMAN: All right. Twenty-five minutes after the hour.

I want to turn to a cheerier subject. We're talking about game one of the Fall Classic. Finally, after nine weeks off, it seems, they will play game one of the World Series tonight in Kansas City. Will justice prevail? Will the Royals continue their magical post-season magical ride? Andy Scholes live with the "Bleacher Report", next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Leave it to Major League Baseball to take a nine-week gap with the drama of the playoffs and the World Series. But it happens tonight, the Royals hosting the Giants. See if they can win the World Series after a 29-year drought.

ROMANS: Andy Scholes has everything for us in "The Bleacher Report". He's in Kansas City. Royal fans are ready for this game. ANDY SCHOLES, THE BLEACHER REPORT: Christine, they are. You know,

you walk around Kansas City and you can feel the excitement. Royals have waited a long time for this. They have not been in the World Series since 1985. With that drought, it ends here tonight.

Now, the fans, they've had a lot to cheer about during this playoff run the team is on right now. The Royals won eight straight games to start the post-season.