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26 Hours of Terror; Second Mistrial for John Gotti Jr.; Virtual Dementia Tour

Aired March 10, 2006 - 15:30   ET

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

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to LIVE FROM. We're offering you something very special today. Kyra Phillips has had exclusive access to the family, the survivors of the courthouse shooting in Atlanta last year, Brian Nichols' killing rampage that ended on the doorstep of a young woman named Ashley Smith.
Kyra is out at the courthouse today to bring us some more of her reporting that you are going to see in a documentary over the weekend, but first to Kyra at the courthouse.

Kyra, I'm just so impressed at the relatives, the survivors, the widows of the victims of the courthouse shooting and how candid they were with you about where they're at today.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it's pretty incredible the access that we have had and the interviews we have been able to do. We have talked with Claudia Barnes, as you know, the widow of Judge Rowland Barnes. We had the chance to talk to Deborah Teasley for the very first time. She hasn't talked to anybody. And we were very lucky to spend time with her.

As you know, her husband, Sergeant Hoyt Keith Teasley, he was the only sheriff's deputy that pursued Brian Nichols the day that everything happened one year ago tomorrow. He chased him down the stairwell of the courthouse you see behind me. He ran out into the street to try to stop Brian Nichols.

And, as we know, Brian Nichols shooting behind him was able to hit Teasley and unfortunately he died right there in front of the courthouse.

It's been a really rough year for a lot of these family members, so we have wanted to make sure we put together a piece to not only take you back to how everything unfolded, but we wanted you also to see how everybody is dealing with everything that happened one year ago tomorrow, how they're doing with it right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS (voice-over): The week after the shootings, Atlanta mourned. A series of vigils and funerals. At the memorial service for Judge Rowland Barnes, 3,000 people remembered him as a man of honor, a man with a sense of humor.

A quartet sang one of his favorite songs, a tune he and his wife performed in a charity skit. Today, Claudia Barnes is having a difficult time, especially when she thinks about her husband's killer.

(on-camera): If you could come face-to-face with him, what would you say to him?

CLAUDIA BARNES, WIDOW OF JUDGE ROWLAND BARNES: I wouldn't want to come face-to-face with him. You know, I know everybody has a soul that you hope they get their soul right with God before they die. In the flesh I don't like him.

PHILLIPS (voice over): As part of her grieving process, Claudia wanted to talk to Brian Nichols' parent. They had a tearful meeting in November outside the courtroom where Nichols' pre-trial motions were heard.

C. BARNES: I feel sorry for his parents because anybody that has children knows that you can't do anything but raise them the way that you want them to come out, and if they do something different and embarrass you, there's nothing you can do about that. And my heart goes out to them. Because they can't help what he's done. And I had to let them know that.

PHILLIPS: Barnes doesn't blame Nichols' parents, but she had her doubts about Ashley Smith. Ashley agreed to meet just before Christmas.

C. BARNES: I felt like I needed to ask her if she was involved in any of this, to see he had an accomplice. I needed to know personally whether or not she helped him get away from the courthouse. At this point in time, I do believe that she's for real on her story.

PHILLIPS: But believing Ashley Smith doesn't remove the hurt, and it hurts most after work.

C. BARNES: During the day when I have to go to my job and do normal things and have the stress of the day of everything that I have on me right now, at night when I lay down, he's not there.

PHILLIPS: To help deal with it, a new puppy.

C. BARNES: Sweetie.

PHILLIPS: Everyone touched by the tragedy has different questions they're trying to answer. For former prosecutor Gail Abramson, the main one is what if she had been in the courtroom on time?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know that he pointed the gun right at where I would have been sitting. But it's hard to think about, you know, and what might have happened. Sometimes it kind of scares me, you know, like, that I escaped death.

PHILLIPS: The past year has also been rough for Judge Barnes' 28-year-old daughter Kylie. To honor her father, she wants to become a lawyer, but her dream is on hold.

KYLIE BARNES, JUDGE BARNES' DAUGHTER: Right now I'm unemployed looking for a paralegal job, trying to get back on my feet mentally. It hasn't been easy. But I wear my scales of justice around my neck to remind me of my dream. I will persevere, and I will be an attorney.

PHILLIPS (on-camera): I think your dad would be pretty proud.

K. BARNES: I hope so. I was proud of him.

PHILLIPS (voice over): After 32 years as an "Atlanta Journal Constitution" reporter, Don O'Briant has left his job. Some people thought he was a hero for standing up to Brian Nichols.

DON O'BRIANT, CARJACKING VICTIM: I never have agreed with that label. I don't think I was a hero. I think I was just a lucky survivor. What happened on March 11th last year, it was the beginning of my second life. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I wanted to do what I wanted to do. And although I enjoyed what I was doing at the newspaper, there were other things I wanted to do outside of that.

PHILLIPS: Now he's playing guitar, writing and spending more time with his children and grandson.

O'BRIANT: Warren Zevon, the singer who died of cancer, told Dave Letterman what he had learned from his terminal illness. He said, enjoy every sandwich. And I think that's what people need to do. It's the small things in life that are important. It's not your job and it's not how much money you have, it's being able to look at a sunset and realize that you're going to be able to see one tomorrow.

PHILLIPS: Thirty-five hundred people attended the funeral of Fulton County Sheriff's Deputy Sergeant Hoyt Keith Teasley. He was remembered as a brave public servant who died trying to stop a killer. His widow, Deborah Teasley, is still struggling.

DEBORAH TEASLEY, WIDOW OF DEP. HOYT TEASLEY: Well, people kept telling me in the beginning, oh it will get better with time. No, I think it's getting worse than better for me. Because I guess everything is like settling down and, you know, you have got more time to think. Now I'm more emotional than I've ever been.

PHILLIPS: Today Deborah's life revolves around her daughters, Dionna (ph) and Akeisha (ph).

PHILLIPS (on-camera): What did you pick up from your dad?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Math.

PHILLIPS: Math?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He liked math.

PHILLIPS: He was good at math?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Always.

PHILLIPS: Well, is there a word in there that best describes your dad?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Clever.

PHILLIPS: Clever.

(voice over): And memories of her husband are never far away.

TEASLEY: And this is the area where I come and I pray with him. And I just feel closer with him by setting this up and displaying all his medals and awards.

PHILLIPS (on-camera): Is that his badge?

TEASLEY: Yes, that's his badge here.

PHILLIPS: I noticed the medal right here. Was that given to you? It's the killed in the line of duty medal. Is that right?

TEASLEY: Yes. Again, I decided just to keep it. Because I didn't want to put it in a box.

PHILLIPS: I don't blame you.

TEASLEY: Especially looking at this picture here right there, that makes me cry sometimes because he was just unbelievable. I just can't believe that it happened that day.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Carol, some pretty incredibly strong individuals and also Cynthia Hall, you'll remember, the petite sheriff's deputy, 51 years old, who was overpowered by Brian Nichols. You remember he beat her nearly to death in that holding cell.

Well, she survived as well and we finally got a chance to hear from her and she's had severe brain damage, and she has a hard time communicating what she really wants to say. She's a single mother of two and the toughest part right now is she is going to have to have medical treatment for a really long time and she recently lost her health insurance.

LIN: God, Kyra. You know, I'm just watching. In watch your piece, it just breaks my heart for these families and so many of us know how they feel. And I'm wondering, Kyra, what are they going to do when the trial starts? Do you know whether they've made a commitment to go personally? Do they want to see Brian Nichols sitting there as a defendant?

PHILLIPS: Wow. That's a really good question, because all of them have very mixed feelings. All of them told me there's part of their -- part of them really wants to say something, wants to get feelings off their chest.

But there's another part that they don't even want to look at them. They don't want to see him. They don't want to hear his voice. They don't want to be anywhere near him. So it will be interesting to see what happens come October. That's when he's supposed to start trial and prosecutors, as you know, are seeking the death penalty.

LIN: Yes, Kyra, thank you so much.

We want to let people know that you can see Kyra's entire report this Saturday and Sunday at 7:00 Eastern and Pacific. Tune into our special two-hour edition of "CNN PRESENTS: 26 HOURS OF TERROR."

Kyra is going to bring you the untold story of the Fulton County Courthouse shooting spree, how the dramatic evens unfolded that day. Exclusive interviews and what suspect Brian Nichols faces come this October.

And more on the developments out of John Jr. Gotti trial. Next, I'm going to talk with Curtis Sliwa. The news keeps coming. We're going to bring it to you. More LIVE FROM next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: We've already gotten so many responses to this story. Dealing with dementia -- it is something that even young people are dealing with because their parents are aging.

And it is a disease that might be hardest on the caregivers, and in many cases, it leads to elder abuse. So now there is a novel way to understand what it's like to suffer from that disease.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LIN (voice-over): The police would come day and night, responding to calls about attackers armed with knives or guns, but there were no attackers at Lois Ruhnke's house, only those who existed in her elderly mother's diluted mind.

LOIS RUHNKE, DAUGHTER OF DEMENTIA PATIENT: She would hear somebody in the house and she would imagine them doing terrible things or, at one point -- I think this broke my heart. She felt that there was a case I was building to put her in.

LIN: The delusions tormenting Lois's 78-year-old mother were symptoms of dementia. Her brain is dying, leaving her in a sometimes violent or blank child-like state. It's more than most families can deal with, much less understand.

When we know that for our elders who have this terrible disease 24/7, even, we now know, in their dreams.

LIN: P.K. Beville is a psychologist and founder of the senior citizen advocate group, Second Wind Dreams. She tells nursing homes and families around the country that to understand a dementia patient, you have to experience what they see, feel and hear.

She invited me to take what she calls her virtual dementia tour, something she developed after working with dementia and Alzheimer's patients for 20 years.

P.K. BEVILLE, SECOND WIND DREAMS: I need you to put a few of these in each one of your shoes.

LIN: The dried corn poured in my shoes, and the gloves with fingers taped together are supposed to mimic the physical pain of arthritis and the limits of age. The goggles, a senior's declining vision. The headphone, a cacophony that often fills a demented person's mind. With all this, I am given a few simple tasks to accomplish.

(on camera): All right. Am I supposed to match the socks? It's hard to see. That one?

(voice-over): I was so distracted by the noise in my head I started to feel anxious.

(on camera): And I have a hard time picking things up. Whoops. Oh.

BEVILLE: Well, can you imagine what it's like for a family member to have a momma or a daddy that have been so active and so vital in this kind of state, and just getting so frustrated that they can't get their mom or dad back?

LIN (voice-over): Beville has taken 7,000 caregivers through this exercise, which is now being used in many nursing homes, hospitals, and medicine schools. Lois Ruhnke also took the tour. She ended up having to put her mother in a home for dementia patients, but now she understands how to coax and encourage her mother through tasks.

RUHNKE: It makes me realize what a fighter my mom is, because she always struggled to maintain her independence, and when you go through the dementia tour, you come to realize how difficult that really is.

LIN: For those who care for the elderly, this virtual tour gives them greater understanding. For the dementia patient, the prospect of better and more sympathetic care.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: For more information, contact Second Wind Dreams right here in Atlanta.

Now, another mistrial in the John Gotti Jr. case, the second in six months. And one of the main players in the courtroom drama, Curtis Sliwa, joins me now on the telephone.

Curtis, you -- it is alleged that John Gotti Jr. planned, orchestrated a vicious attack -- a shooting attack on you. What is your reaction to yet another mistrial?

CURTIS SLIWA, GUARD ANGELS FOUNDER: Well, it's amazing because the defense this time pretty much conceded the attack, but their whole defense was based on a withdrawal, a retirement defense that made the jury feel well, even if you believe Curtis Sliwa was attacked on the orders of John Gotti Jr., you can't find him guilty because he retired from organized crime in 1999, and that's, obviously, what the jury was hung up on.

I don't think this time the defense even doubted the fact that I was attacked and on the orders of John Gotti Jr. They virtually conceded that.

LIN: So what's going to happen to you now? Are you scared that this man may actually hit the streets one more time?

SLIWA: Well, John Gotti Jr. will be on the streets. There will be a retrial. It will be round three. And there's no question, I feel like I'm wearing a target on my back, because this time it won't be John Gotti Jr., but many of he sycophants, toadies, lackeys, his supporters, who think they would earn brownie points by doing harm to me.

LIN: So why do you think, if the evidence was so clear -- I mean, twice now, a mistrial. It just seems like the system is hung up on a technicality.

SLIWA: Well, because they've actually bought into this myth that you can retire from organized crime. There is no such thing. The only way to retire, if you stay in the same area and you're not in the Witness Protection Program, is to go into a pine box and go six feet under and be room temperature. That's the only way you leave the life, and anyone with common sense and street smarts understands that.

LIN: Curtis, were you -- you were probably following the trial pretty closely. I mean, there was a very emotional moment in the closing arguments when Gotti's attorney described the moment that Gotti went to his father's bedside and said, I will have nothing more to do with this family, even as his father was dying. Gotti had tears in his eyes.

SLIWA: Well, I'm sure he had tears in his eyes for his father, but what about the dozens of victims of the reign of Gotti terror that took place in New York City, that ended up either dead or in hospital because of the orders of John Gotti Sr. or John Gotti Jr. He never shed a tear for them, and guess what? He never shed a tear for me after I received three hollow-point bullets that almost ended my life.

LIN: Curtis Sliwa, thank you so much for joining us. We'll be watching as yet another trial, John Gotti Jr., scheduled for April.

More news in just a moment. You're watching LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: All right, this just in to the CNN Center. The Delta terminal has been shut down at New York's LaGuardia Airport after a passenger takes off at a security checkpoint.

CNN employee, a project manager here at CNN, Steve Alperin, on the telephone at the terminal right now.

Steve, what happened? STEVE ALPERIN, CNN PROJECT MANAGER: Carol, I don't have a whole lot of information. But just to tell you, we arrived here at the gate of the terminal area about 2:45 with Charice Mosely (ph), another CNN employee, waiting to get a flight to come back to Atlanta today. And we got into the security line to get cleared, and the line was not moving and we stood in line for about 45 minutes or so. No movement of line and then a TSA agent came out and said that he thought there may be some kind of breach. They weren't sure exactly what was going on. He said this to a number of us who were standing right there.

And we didn't have much more information at that point. And then a few minutes later, they made a couple of announcements and said that the TSA had closed the security checkpoints and that was about all they knew at that point. They asked everybody to be patient. We stood in line for a while, and then about 10, 15 minutes ago, they ask everyone who was standing in line to leave the terminal area and go outside. We went outside.

And actually, about a minute or so before that happened, the TSA came back on the loudspeaker and said that there was an operational security issue, is what they called it. A few minutes later, they asked everybody to leave the terminal area and go outside the building.

LIN: All right.

ALPERIN: And that's where we are right now.

LIN: Steve, thanks for the on-the-scene update. Just in case you're just tuning in, LaGuardia's Terminal D, the Delta terminal, has been shut down because of a security breach. A passenger took off at a security checkpoint, left his shoes behind. Incoming flights were allowed to land, but not deboard. Outbound flights so far have been stopped.

For the latest, stay tuned to CNN. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MARKET REPORT)

LIN: All right, let's join Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM right now -- Wolf.

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