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American Morning

Interview with Michael Carona

Aired July 22, 2002 - 07:02   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: "Up Front" this morning, formal charges are expected to be filed later today against the man suspected of kidnapping and murdering 5-year-old Samantha Runnion. Police say DNA evidence links Alejandro Avila to the crime.

The girl's mother broke her silence over the weekend at a memorial for Samantha.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIN RUNNION, MOTHER: I cannot tell you all how much all of this has meant to us. You are truly being wonderful to us and our family. And we come out here every night, and we are working to read everything that you have written, but it takes a long time, and I thank you so much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: And authorities now say they may seek the death penalty in the case, the Orange County D.A. at least considering that.

And just a short time ago, I spoke with Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona about the case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(on camera): Sheriff Carona, good morning -- thank you very much for joining us.

SHERIFF MICHAEL CARONA, ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: My pleasure, Paula.

ZAHN: You and your team have gotten a lot of praise for the speed in which you got an arrest. Now that you have your suspect under arrest, why are you so confident you got the right man?

CARONA: Well, I have had the opportunity throughout this investigation to look at, not only the investigative evidence, but also the forensic evidence that has come out. And the combination of those two elements leads me to believe that, at the level of 100 percent, we have the right man that committed this crime.

ZAHN: I know that you don't want in any way to compromise the prosecution of this case. What was the most compelling piece of evidence that you can share with us?

CARONA: Actually, there are several compelling pieces of evidence, most of which, unfortunately, I can't share with you. I am not going to be the one that gets to tell this story. It's going to be somebody else who brings it out in front of the media. But suffice it to say that there were a lot of clues that this individual, that Mr. Avila left behind, and we were able to find all of those clues and pull those clues together.

Some of those are forensic, and some of those are investigative. But trust me, as this thing starts to unfold, I think you'll see a portrait of the great investigation, great information that leads me to conclude at a 100 percent level he is the man.

ZAHN: There are reports that Mr. Avila was arrested before you could even get a DNA confirmation, but you were afraid he might flee the country. Is that true?

CARONA: That's correct. I had to make a tactical decision. We had been following Mr. Avila, as well as several other suspects, in a period of 12 to 20 hours prior to his arrest. And as we deemed more and more information, both from an investigative standpoint as well as from a forensic standpoint, we weren't at the point where we could prove positively, as I can today say that he's the man who did it, but I was relatively certain.

And so, at five minutes before 10:00, when we were going to have our press conference in the morning, I made the decision that based upon probable cause, Mr. Avila should be arrested for these crimes.

ZAHN: Was Mr. Avila's DNA on file?

CARONA: At this point, I don't believe so, but that's something that we are searching. Once we have DNA evidence, our laboratory then starts to run that through the state and national data banks to see if we have additional hits.

ZAHN: I wanted to play a part of an interview with a bartender who allegedly served Mr. Avila before his arrest. He ended up saving a bottle of beer that Mr. Avila left at the bar -- let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM, BARTENDER: With everything on television anymore, it says DNA, and I figured there was saliva on there, fingerprints or something they can work with.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So you saved the actual bottle of beer...

TOM: Absolutely.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... and you turned that over to authorities.

TOM: Yes, I did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Was that bottle instrumental in arresting Mr. Avila?

CARONA: Well, Paula, what's interesting for me is this is the first time I have heard that story. But I think it portrays exactly why we are so thankful to you and the media, and more importantly, thankful to the public. For that bartender to be that forward- thinking to save that bottle, it could be and probably will be an incredible piece of evidence for us, and what a partnership with the public. So to that gentleman, the first time I have heard it, thank you very much for being a partner.

ZAHN: Do you even need it at this point? Or do you think you have enough evidence so far even without that?

CARONA: Oh, we have enough evidence...

ZAHN: Do you think this guys you're 100 percent is the right guy?

CARONA: We have enough evidence, but I can tell you right now, we'll take every other piece of evidence. My job is to make sure that I turn over to the prosecution an airtight case in terms of the investigative side of it, and the more data we have, the better off the prosecution is going to be. So, yes, we are going to use that.

ZAHN: Mr. Avila was acquitted two years ago of molesting two young girls, and the mother of one of those girls, Elizabeth Coker (ph), who also happened to be a former girlfriend of Mr. Avila, has said -- quote -- "I think he went there to get my baby, but instead, he took this little girl."

How pivotal of a role did this woman play in the investigation?

CARONA: There were a number of people that had pivotal roles in the investigation, and I can tell you that, Paula, I'm in kind of a unique situation. I would love -- the man sitting behind this camera would love to tell you the entire story, but I don't want to impact the prosecution. And so I'm being very guarded as to what I say, and it's hard for me to bite my tongue. But with respect to witnesses, people who weighed in, there were several who had given us substantial investigative leads on Mr. Avila.

ZAHN: I know you took in thousands of calls and dozens of good tips came out of those calls. In addition to that, you ended up with a very accurate composite drawing of the suspect. Because you can't talk about so much of the evidence now, in the end, was this the most helpful piece of information, information that came from the 5-year- old girl who witnessed her best friend's kidnapping?

CARONA: Yes. Young Sara has done a fantastic job for us. She has become a very credible witness. The information she gave up front was what got this going, and then your ability, the media' ability to put it out and let the public see it and respond to it was incredibly helpful.

ZAHN: The district attorney says he is now considering the death penalty. Would you support that?

CARONA: Absolutely.

ZAHN: Is there any other option as far as you are concerned?

CARONA: Not as far as I am concerned. We have an individual who clearly has a pattern of sexual deviancy, sexual misconduct, and this time it's risen to the level where he has killed a 5-year-old girl. From my perspective, I don't know if there is any other alternative, but I'm not the judge and I'm not the jury.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Sheriff Michael Carona of the Orange County Sheriff's Department -- thanks so much for your time this morning.

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