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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Towns On Lockdown In Upstate New York; U.S. Considering "Lily Pad" Strategy In Iraq; Official: Father In D.C. Murders Strangled, Burned; Germanwings Criminal Inquiry; Stocks Down On Greek Drama. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired June 12, 2015 - 05:30   ET

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

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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A possible breakthrough in the manhunt for two killers who escaped from prison. Blood hounds may have picked up their scent. A new perimeter setup, could investigators be close to catching these men?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: A stunning development in the police killing of a boy, who was playing outside with a pellet gun. Will the officers be charged with murder?

BERMAN: The United States increasing presence in Iraq set to open new military bases. We're live with the new details on the White House plan to fight ISIS.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.

ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It is Friday. It's 30 minutes past the hour. We begin with the search for two escaped inmates on the loose in upstate New York growing more desperate entering its 7th day.

The latest potential breakthrough has investigators focused on a wooded area three miles from the maximum security prison where these two Richard Matt and David Sweat escaped.

Police believe search dogs have picked up their scent, life in the region on hold for thousands. Towns are on lockdowns. Schools are closed. One law enforcement official warning the longer the search goes on the more likely it is these two killers will commit new crimes. We get more from CNN's Miguel Marquez.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, Christine, the search is still very much on here just east of the prison where these two individuals escaped. We are about four miles from the encampment that officials found.

They say that the scent dogs are still searching the area behind us. We are about four miles from there. This roadblock has been tight now that night has fallen. People in this neighborhood are paranoid even afraid to leave their own homes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't sleep last night. I got home in time before they blocked our road off, but shortly after I got home, they closed both ends of the road and they would not let my sons come home last night.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel I'm going crazy indoors. I feel like a prisoner in my own home because I have got all the doors locked. I closed the windows. I have ladders outside. I imagine things. I look out the window often. Everywhere I drive to work, I'm scanning to see if I see any unusual activity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: Officials say they have thrown everything at this. Some 600 leads have come through that they are trying to pour through and figure out which are the best quality leads. They have some 500 searchers here on the scene. A helicopter was up earlier and they expect to search until they find them -- John, Christine.

ROMANS: All right, Miguel, thank you for that. Now details this morning about the female prison worker, who may have helped the two convicted killers escape. It turns out corrections officials received an anonymous complaint about Joyce Mitchell over her relationship with one of the inmates.

She was not disciplined. Mitchell has told investigators inmate, Richard Matt, made her, quote, "feel special." So far she has not been charged.

BERMAN: A big development coming out of Cleveland. A judge ruling that there is probable cause to charge two police officers in the fatal shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice last fall. That ruling comes from a Cleveland municipal court judge.

The community leaders asked that judge to intervene insisting they do not trust prosecutors, but this judge's ruling at this point is largely symbolic.

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MICHAEL MALONEY, ATTORNEY FOR OFFICER FRANK GARMBACK: It is important to realize we are in no different spot than we were 24 hours ago or 10 hours ago. The prosecutors still have to make the decision.

RACHELLE SMITH, COMMUNITY ORGANIZER: It was great to see people using the tools that are available to them in the system and taking them and using them to find justice no matter how small the steps are.

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BERMAN: No matter what this judge said, it will be a grand jury that will ultimately decide what the officers are charged. Tamir Rice was playing with a pellet gun when he was shot dead just seconds after officers arrived on the scene.

ROMANS: All right, the U.S. looking to deploy a new lily pad strategy to combat ISIS in Iraq. Joint Chief's Chairman General Martin Dempsey says the best way to defeat the terrorist is to expand America's footprint in the region. That means setting up a network of bases in Iraq with hundreds of U.S. troops deploying to train Iraqi forces.

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JOHN KIRBY, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: The key component of the strategy is to improve the Iraqi Security Forces, improve their capabilities and their confidence on the battle field.

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ROMANS: Some of the proposed locations in Iraq for the lily pad base locations include Baghdad, Tikrit, Kirkuk and near Mosul.

Let's get the latest from CNN's Ian Lee in Cairo. Ian, after promises and positioning by the U.S. government to get out of Iraq, the reality on the ground is they need more U.S. advice and more U.S. expertise to fight ISIS?

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Christine. If this new path works, they hope to replicate, the military does going to the White House hoping (inaudible) elsewhere.

[05:35:10] What we are looking at here, though, is centers of security operations inside the conflict zone, this first one going to be near Ramadi and Fallujah. What they will be doing is training Sunni fighters as well as Iraqi security forces on everything from communications and how to shoot as well as control of the combat environments and how to navigate around it.

That will be crucial when they try to retake the populated urban centers and how to move through them. They will also to be working on command and control and logistics and resupply. These were three things that contributed to the fall of Ramadi.

Now the things that the U.S. troops won't be doing, they are not going to the frontlines. They will not be calling in air strikes. They do hope the closeness to Iraqi security forces makes it easier and quicker to call in air strikes -- Christine.

ROMANS: If they won't be at the frontlines, but they still will be where there is a lot of fighting and could potentially become targets. That is why so many people get concerned when they hear about more U.S. commitment to the region. Ian Lee, thank you so much.

BERMAN: President Obama made a surprise visit last night to the ballpark. He went there to watch the congressional baseball game, but not really. He was really there to lobby Democrats.

ROMANS: A different game.

BERMAN: Exactly. You can see Nancy Pelosi there. He spent 15 minutes with Nancy Pelosi. He needs Democratic votes to get one of his signature measures pass the House. Critical trade bill faces the House right now, at least a step in getting that trade bill through. Our senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, tells us it

is the Democrats who could wind up killing it.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, the White House is going to be waking up with some big worries over whether its trade agenda can survive the next 24 hours on Capitol Hill.

Lawmakers are set to vote on two major pieces of trade legislation. One that funds a program that helps workers to losing jobs to outsourcing and other that grants the president so-called "fast track authority" to negotiate trade deals.

In a furious scramble for votes, the president called House Speaker John Boehner and deployed top administration officials such as White House Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough to Capitol Hill to twist the arms of House Democrats who oppose the president's trade agenda.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest talked about that effort on Thursday. Here is what he had to say.

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JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The fact is everybody from the president on down, including many members of his team at the White House and his economic team across the administration, are making an aggressive case to members of Congress about why they should support this.

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ACOSTA: These trade votes in the Congress are a key test to the president's influence on Capitol Hill. A defeat could potentially block the president from finalizing a Trans Pacific trade deal he has sought for years. One the White House firmly believes is crucial to keeping the U.S. competitive with China -- John, Christine.

ROMANS: Thanks for that, Jim. Now the administration says this deal is critical for American exporters and will be fair for American workers. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker told me American business deserves fair access to rapidly growing middle classes in Asia.

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PENNY PRITZKER, COMMERCE SECRETARY: For the first time, labor standards are enforceable within these trade agreements and resources are being set aside to increase the amount of enforcement that we're doing. By raising labor standards for our trading partners, we are making the American worker more competitive globally.

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ROMANS: Now the Democrats who are against this bill, John, they say it will kill American jobs. They say the U.S. has not enforced important labor provisions in prior trade deals and the exporters and manufacturers are the ones who the middle class workers are the ones who (inaudible).

BERMAN: There is decades of that blood here for some Democrats, you know, who remember that --

ROMANS: Some hear the words trade deal and they say no way. All right, major shakeup at the top of a couple of big, big important companies, Rupert Murdoch is stepping down as CEO of 21st Century Fox. The 84-year-old is one of the most influential media executives in the world.

Murdoch has built an empire including 21st Century Fox film studio, the Fox Broadcast Network and Fox News. Questions this morning about how his sons, James and Lachlan, will fill his shoes, James will be CEO and Lachlan will be chairman with father.

We're told Rupert Murdoch is expected to keep going into the office every day. He still has a big controlling stake.

BERMAN: He can do whatever he wants.

ROMANS: All right, over at Twitter, the CEO Dick Costolo is out. Twitter has struggled to add new members to generate revenue from ads. Many investors have been calling for him to step down for the past year and now that he has the stock is up before the bell.

Twitter chairman and co-founder, Jack Dorsey will be the interim CEO while the board looks for a new leader. Jack Dorsey has one of the best Twitter handles in history, @jack. I guess, when you start the company --

BERMAN: If only I started Twitter @berman.

Disturbing new details this morning concerning the murders of a Washington, D.C. family held captive in their home. We will tell you what investigators are now revealing about this case next.

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[05:43:48]

BERMAN: We're learning more this morning about the grizzly scene inside a Washington, D.C. mansion where three family members and their maid were murdered. A law enforcement official telling CNN, the father, Savvas Savopoulos, endured unimaginable torture. Justice correspondent, Pamela Brown, has the latest for us.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, John and Christine, we are learning more about some of the evidence taken from the home, that mansion where the quadruple homicide happened including a bloody baseball bat, hair follicles, footprints as well as fingerprints.

Investigators hope that these clues will lead them and to perhaps more suspects involved in the case beyond Darren Wint who is now behind bars. He worked for the family's company more than ten years ago when his DNA was allegedly found on a piece of pizza crust in the home.

Also a law enforcement official tells me that Phillip Savopoulos, the father was strangled in addition to being beaten, stabbed and burned. I've been speaking to experts about this, what does that mean?

And they all say that this shows whoever did this was enraged and had hostility toward Mr. Savopoulos. It is such an intimate way to kill someone. We know that Mr. Savopoulos had apparent trauma to the rear of his head according to court documents.

But the source I've been speaking with says it is unclear whether that was from the bloody baseball bat found in the bedroom where the three of the victims' bodies were found.

[05:45:10] Also the officials says investigators are still going through phone records and texts trying to pin down who else may have been involved in the quadruple homicide. Who else may be a suspect here?

The official says there are multiple search warrants related to the case that have not been unsealed, which is an indication the authorities are trying to keep a close hold on a lot of the information and leads they have.

What we do know, what we are being told is that police are looking at two women who purchased money orders from the $40,000 dropped off to the home while the victims were being held hostage.

A separate law enforcement official tells me that investigators have been perplexed as to why Savopoulos' assistant, who dropped off that $40,000 to the home changed his story multiple times.

But at this point, we are being told investigators don't believe he was complicit in the crime although they have not reached any conclusion. This is still a very active investigation -- John and Christine.

ROMANS: Yes, real mystery, Pam, and a tragedy for that family. Pamela Brown, thank you for that. We'll take a look what is coming up on "NEW DAY." Alisyn, joins us now. Alisyn Camerota, hi, there.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Hi, Christine. Great to see you. So, of course, we are following the latest in the search for those convicts. The manhunt still focusing on that are just outside the prison. There is new information this morning about the woman who helped them allegedly escape.

We will speak with the district attorney who is leading the investigation and my old friend CNN's own, John Walsh. We will also talk with a psychologist about the woman and what drove her to help murderers.

Plus, a Cleveland judge now ruling that there is enough evidence in the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice to charge those two police officers. We will speak with an attorney for Tamir's family about what happens next. We will see you at the top of the hour -- Christine.

ROMANS: Great, what a lineup. All right, thanks, Alisyn. See you soon.

A new criminal investigation launched in the Germanwings crash that killed hundreds of people. The pilot deliberately flying that plane into a mountain, but could others be found culpable in that crime? What did they miss all those years? We are live after the break.

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[05:50:54]

ROMANS: A French prosecutor has opened a criminal inquiry into the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525. A panel of judges will now decide whether the airline or any individuals should be held responsible for failing to monitor the mental health of the plane's co- pilot Andreas Lubitz.

Lubitz was seen by at least seven doctors including three psychiatrists in the months before he crashed that jetliner into the French Alps.

Let's go to Paris and bring in CNN's senior European correspondent, Jim Bittermann. Jim, with the mental health, there is secrecy between a doctor and a patient. When you have someone flying a plane with all those souls on board, the history of this pilot is very troubling.

JIM BITTERMAN, CNN SENIOR EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. The prosecutor said that he wanted to go into the detail of the secrecy law and how much information could be released to Lufthansa, the airline, before hand or should have been because obviously this was a troubled young man.

If you go back five years, he visited 41 different doctors in five years' time before they crash including neurologists and ophthalmologists. He was afraid he was losing his sight and in fact, he said that he only had 30 percent of his vision at night.

The doctors, according to the prosecutor, the doctors found no organic reasons suggesting that these were psychological reasons leading to vision problems. In any case, he was also losing sleep. He complained of sleeping two hours a night. He was on anti- depressants.

There were so many things going on in this young man's life and somebody should have sent up a warning flare. That is what the prosecutor is suspecting. He will look into German laws on privacy between doctors and patients to see if there is anything that should have been done or maybe something that should be changed -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right, certainly I'm sure the families are still really grappling with all of these new developments with his health, mental health. Thank you so much, Jim Bitterman, in Paris for us this morning.

All right, the world's oil supply is soaring. Some good news at the gas pump, folks. That's next.

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[05:56:59]

ROMANS: Happy Friday. I'm Christine Romans. Let's get an EARLY START on your money this morning. European shares are lower so are U.S. stock futures. Greek debt talks hit another roadblock. The IMF made the surprise decision to walk away from negotiations yesterday because of major differences. Yesterday, stocks climbed a bit. Good retail sales of the U.S. showing signs of strength in the American consumer.

All right, oil prices falling this morning, they are down about 1.5 percent right now that's because the world is awash in oil, folks. The supply from OPEC countries reached 31.3 million barrels per day last month, that's the highest level of output since 2012, more than the official target set last week.

OPEC is trying to hold on to its market share. The U.S. and other major producers are also holding steady on production. Global production outpacing demand by more than 2 million barrels a day. That means gas prices should continue to stay here or move lower.

All right, it should be a little bit harder for criminals to steal your identity and your tax refund next year and this is a joint effort of the IRS State Tax administrators and other tax companies.

Tax preparers all coming together so what does it mean for you? Well, the experience of filing your taxes should be largely the same, but behind the scenes, software makers are going to share information alerting the government to any attempt at hacks or suspicious returns.

This after a staggering rise in tax scams and hacks at the same time the budget for the IRS has been cut.

All right, a new breakthrough this morning in that big story, the manhunt for two killers who escaped from prison. "NEW DAY" picks it up next.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five hundred searches now. They've been sifting through some 600 leads that they are tracking down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tracking dogs picked up the scent of the two fugitives.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Joyce Mitchell was under investigation for a relationship with one of them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She befriended the inmates and may have had some sort of role in assisting them. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Cleveland judge ruling there is probable cause for charges.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The ruling that came down is non-binding. There is no arrest warrant out for these two officers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prosecutors are opening up a criminal inquiry into the Germanwings plane crash.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot, believed to have down the plane.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He saw 41 different doctors in the course of five years before the crash.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Friday, June 12th, 6:00 in the east. Chris and Michaela are off this morning. John Berman and Ana Cabrera join me here. Great to have you, guys.

So we do begin with the manhunt for two escaped convicts in upstate New York. Police dogs picking up a strong scent just three miles from the prison where Richard Matt and David Sweat broke free nearly one week ago.

BERMAN: Police also finding shoe imprints, food wrappers and other signs that the pair may have been in the area. This as new information is emerging about the prison employee at the center of this escape investigation.

Our coverage begins with CNN's Jason Carroll live in West Plasberg, New York. Good morning, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, John. That section of 374 that you saw shutdown yesterday still shutdown today. Local school district still not having classes today as well.