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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield
10,000 Children Killed or Injured by Guns Every Year; Real Life "Goodfellas" Mobster in Court; Sixth High School Football Player Dies This Year; Tracey Morgan's Comeback; Lamar Odom on the Recovery. Aired 12:30-1p ET
Aired October 19, 2015 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:30:00] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The boy, however, the boy, 11 years old, is facing first degree murder charges in that case, and he's being held in a juvenile detention center, all 50 pounds of him, tiny.
The center's superintendent says he's the youngest child held there on a murder charge in his 44-year career. 55 counts I think they got him at, not 50, 55.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, Eian Santiago and Makayla Dyer are among the estimated 10,000 children who are killed or injured by guns every year. That is every year, folks, not every decade. 10,000 per year.
For the LEGAL VIEW, CNN commentator Mel Robbins is her, HLN legal analyst and defense attorney Joey Jackson is here.
So I don't understand, Chicago, the dad is charged because the gun is wrapped in jammies on the top of the fridge, the kids got to it. Tennessee, the gun is loaded, it's just in a cupboard. It's in a closet, it's unlocked, and the 11-year-old grabbed it and killed his neighbor. No charges. Why is the -- where's the discrepancy?
JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: You have to draw the line. I mean, every state and every prosecutor can make a decision based on their discretion in terms of what to do. Now talking about this globally, Ashleigh, before specifically, you have 27 states -- Tennessee happens to be one; Chicago, Illinois, happens to be another one -- where you have what are called the child access prevention laws, and what they do is they say that you really need to place a gun in an environment where a child can't get them.
However, Mel and I, in looking at this, find out that very few of those laws have any teeth at all.
MEL ROBBINS, CNN COMMENTATOR: They're a joke. They're a total joke.
JACKSON: Right, and therein lies the issue. However, I think what they're doing in Illinois, although you can make the argument certainly it's gut-wrenching for the father and you're double victimizing him, his son's dead, certainly he didn't want that result, but at the same time, you need to draw the line somewhere. And if you create a condition, and the condition that you create -- leaving a loaded gun on top of a refrigerator with a 6-year-old and a 3-year-old in the house -- that condition causes the child to die, then you need to be held responsible, and that's what they are doing in Chicago. Tennessee certainly could follow suit, but that law doesn't allow it.
BANFIELD: Gun laws aside, gun protection laws aside, the child endangerment alone is where I come in on this and I tend to think that it's not illegal to have a meat cleaver on your counter in the kitchen.
ROBBINS: Yes.
BANFIELD: You don't have to put it in a locked block. You can leave the cleaver in the kitchen, but if you have a developmentally challenged child, you might be endangering that child by leaving that cleaver if he does something to his sibling.
ROBBINS: Maybe, but let's take a look -- let's talk about the Tennessee case, because this infuriates me. When you say 10,000 U.S. children are --
BANFIELD: Per year.
ROBBINS: Per year. You know what I thought about? The fact is that the Consumer Protection Agency, they found that there were cribs that killed 32 kids, just 32 kids, in ten years -- outlawed them. Outlawed them.
BANFIELD: 32 kids in ten years.
ROBBINS: 32 kids in ten years killed by a crib that was defective and we outlaw it, and you're talking about 10,000 kids (INAUDIBLE) a year, and we do nothing. And the reason we do nothing is because of the NRA lobby. Yes, there are 27 states that have these child access protection laws, but guess what? In the state of Tennessee, it is legal to have unlocked and loaded gun in your home with a child. That is legal. Unless the father knew that there was a substantial risk that his son was going to commit a felony with it, he is off the hook. That is ridiculous.
JACKSON: Yes. Right.
BANFIELD: Joey, talk to us about the substantial risk, because, to me, a loaded shotgun in an unlocked closet with a -- I have a 10-year-old boy.
JACKSON: It's beyond substantial.
BANFIELD: I wouldn't have one in the house because of this boy and his activity. His activity level is so high with his brother I can't have anything near them.
JACKSON: Right, it's a great point. But what happens is it's not only this substantial risk that is involved, but you have to establish that you knew, right, that your child would commit a felony. And that's a very high bar. BANFIELD: Are you telling me, Joey, this 11-year-old boy would have
had to announce the father "I'm going to kill our neighbor with the shotgun" in order for those charges to stick, for that happen.
JACKSON: Just about. What happens --
BANFIELD: Just about?
JACKSON: Just about, because what you have to do, remember, if you're prosecuting this, you have to demonstrate that not only did you leave that gun out, that it would create a substantial risk of something to happen, but that you knew a felony would happen. That's a high bar.
ROBBINS: And also here, the Safe Tennessee Project has a full website. Tennessee is ninth in the nation for accidental shootings of children. They'ave had three deaths this year alone as of October 6th, from unlocked loaded accidents with children in their own home.
BANFIELD: You do no have to be against guns to be against kids having guns.
JACKSON: And common sense --
BANFIELD: Little kids. And common sense.
JACKSON: -- regulations.
BANFIELD: Our founding fathers, I am certain, did not want a 6-year- old to be playing cops and robbers with loaded gun.
ROBBINS: Or be facing murder charges at the age of 11.
[12:35:00] BANFIELD: Thank you, Mel. Thank you.
JACKSON: If anything, Ashleigh, it will serve as a deterrent for other people and other fathers and parents and fathers to be careful. You can't give these guns and make them so accessible.
BANFIELD: You would hope, but usually it is prosecution that serves as the deterrent to other parents. If you're out there, people, think about it for a moment, just think about where your guns are. Think about where your children are. Think about what kind of children you have. Are they excited and curious and active and rambunctious? That is a recipe for disaster.
Thank you both. I appreciate it. I appreciate your insight. Thank you for looking up those laws as well.
Coming up next, do you remember the gangster movie "Goodfellas" about a cash and jewelry heist at Kennedy Airport way, way back when I was little in 1978? Today, the real life sequel with the trial of an 80- year-old man, a reputed mobster, there he is -- will he face the music? And what kind of music is it?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [12:40:26] BANFIELD: Today, in a courtroom in Brooklyn, New York, thick with accents, an 80-year-old reputed mobster is going on trial and it is just like the movies. There are charges that he had a role in the mob heist that was featured in the classic movie "Goodfellas".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody knows for sure how much was taken at a daring pre-dawn raid at the Lufthansa cargo terminal at Kennedy Airport. The FBI says $2 million. Port Authority police say $4 million. The city (INAUDIBLE).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Yes, that was Ray Liotta, but this is Vincent Asaro. You may not recognize that face or that name from the movie, because the screenwriters didn't know about him at the time. None of this. He was only arrested last year decades after the crime. The prosecutors say that he helped plan that $6 million robbery of a vault in Lufthansa's cargo terminal at Kennedy Airport. That was 1978, folks, and it was one the largest cash thefts in the history of the United States. And the feds say Aaro got a cut of the money, about $750,000, give or take a hundred thousand or so.
The movie came out, the books were written, some of the robbers were convicted or whacked of course. Bu Asaro, nope. He skated, completed unnoticed until now, and that's where Jean Casarez comes in, because she's following this case. This is crazy.
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's amazing.
BANFIELD: How did they find him? How did he surface?
CASAREZ: Well, it was a very long investigation, but there are three counts here, numerous contentions. 2013 they say was the last criminal act that he committed. So --
BANFIELD: So he wasn't underground. He was a criminal all of the way through allegedly?
CASAREZ: Even at 78 years old, when he was indicted. This is the trial that this country has waited 37 years for, Ashleigh. And the prosecutor, opening statements just happened minutes ago, the trial is just beginning now,. Prosecutors said that with Vincent Asaro, that he was a gangster through and through, that he was proud member to be a made member of the mafia.
BANFIELD: Well --
CASAREZ: And it was 1978, Lufthansa air cargo terminal, masked gunmen stormed in and they got 5 million in cash, $1 million in jewelry, never to be found again. And prosecutors said this morning he didn't get $750,000; he only got $500,000.
BANFIELD: Oh, they changed the number. OK.
CASAREZ: They changed the number.
BANFIELD: The question I think so people want to know is why on earth would a cousin, if this is truly the way the case is going to play out over the coming days, why would a cousin of this guy give him up after so many years of not giving him up?
CASAREZ: Right. Prosecutors said today that his cousin is going to be one of the star witnesses. Well, let's tell you what the defense said today in their opening statement, that this cousin is just trying to save himself. And you can't believe him, because he's a criminal operator. He's a member of the mafia also, so you can't believe a thing that he says, but it's to save his own soul.
BANFIELD: So his defense says I don't know what you're talking about. I'm no mobster, I'm no gangster, I'm just Asaro, I'm just Mr. Asaro from Brooklyn.
CASAREZ: The defense says there is no evidence at all to show that he was part of that Lufthansa heist.
BANFIELD: "Goodfellas II" coming?
CASARE: We'll see.
BANFIELD: Depends on your reporting, girl. Write it down.
CASAREZ: They called themselves the "Goodfellas". So it's not a made up name.
BANFIELD: I think the prosecutors are calling them the "Oldfellas" now, if I read correctly, because they've all ratted out so many of each other that they're no longer the strength that they used to be, and that code of silence with the mob. It's such a great story.
CASAREZ: But they still to refer to it as present tense in the opening statements this morning.
BANFIELD: Really? All right, well, keep us posted on this. Jean is going to be doing some time in a courtroom all week long and beyond. Thank you, Jean.
Coming up next, there is this other sad story of a case of a kid on a football field playing his heart out and then collapsing. Why is the death toll of high school football players on the rise? Hopefully some answers coming up.
[12:44:29]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Some startling news out of East Texas, another high school football player has died. School officials in Alto, Texas, say that during Friday night's game, this boy, 16-year-old Cam'ron Matthews, was feeling dizzy in the huddle. He came off of the field and Cam'ron collapsed. He was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Tyler, Texas, about 50 miles north of Alto, where he died. The school superintendent issued a statement saying in part that CPR was immediately administered, the EMS personnel determined that life flight needed to be called, the initial tests showed minimal brain activity,. Cam'ron was placed in ICU and on life support. After further tests were conducted, the doctors visited the family and told them of their findings. He was declared deceased at approximately 5:30 Saturday afternoon.
CNN Sports' Coy Wire is joining us now from the are CNN Center in Atlanta. So it seems to me, Coy, that the numbers are going up. And, granted, the numbers aren't enormous, but I say one child dying on a sports field is enormous, and this is the sixth child to die this season.
[12:50:09] COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS: Ashleigh, you bring up such a good point, because just one death would be too many, and so when you hear the number six, it's startling. It's troubling. But this season, actually, there has been an improvement thus far from past years when it comes to high school football player deaths. But again, one is too many.
But let's take a look at some of the numbers from last year. There have been six deaths thus far this year. The first number to the take note of from last season, 1.1 million players -- remember, many more high school football players than there are participants in other sports. The 11 deaths last year, five of them directly related to football resulted, that means that means resulted in the aftermath of on-field injury. Six of this them indirect causes. That can mean dehydration, that can be heat exhaustion, that could be failure to recognize a pre-existing medical condition. One of those six fatalities that have happened this year in 2015 was the result of a pre-existing medical condition, an undetermined congenital heart defect.
But the thing to also note, here, Ashleigh, is two years ago, in 2013, there were 18 deaths in high school football --
BANFIELD: Oh, wow.
WIRE: So again, I go to -- it's devastating, but I also urge the parents and anyone out there who may be concerned, and you should be, this has actually been a good year thus far. There's about a month left of the regular season.
BANFIELD: So -- you know, Coy, I'm just looking at the other cases this year. I've got the five in front of me. One was thought to be heart-related, another one hit to the head, somebodey else feeling woozy after being hit in the backfield, the another one, a head injury, bleeding in the brain, and the one right before Cam'ron was yet again hit during a punt return.
You played. I mean, you were high school, you were college, you were pro. My boy wants to play football and I'm just doing everything I can to encourage him not to because I am afraid of the hits. Is anything new now than when it was when you were younger? Is the equipment getting better, worse? The hits harder? The kids are stronger, bigger? Like, what's happen in happening?
WIRE: Ashleigh, you're not alone, first of all, in feeling that way. I'm not yet a parent, but someday I will have the same feelings that you do. I think the thing's that different now is that we have knowledge. And knowledge is power. We know that the effects of concussion and subconcussive blows. We have to use that knowledge. We have to know that it is not OK to play if you've been hit in the head. There's no such thing as a simple headache anymore. Head trauma is serious. So knowing that, look out for your children and the children of others as well, Ashleigh.
BANFIELD: And I give the full disclaimer, Coy, he plays hockey. I mean, there are plenty of these concussions in hockey as well. And he's a goalie, where those things come at you really hard, and very, very fast.
Coy, the next time you're in New York, you and I are going to lunch to talk to my boy. OK?
WIRE: All right. Sounds good, Ashleigh. Thank you.
BANFIELD: Coy, good to see you. Thank you, I appreciate it.
Coming up next, after days in a coma, we've got some encouraging news about Lamar Odom's condition. He is even speaking now. We're going to tell you what he said coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:57;25]
(BEGIN VIDOETAPE)
BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: On "30 Rock", Tracy Morgan made us laugh --
TRACY MORGAN, COMEDIAN & ACTOR: I am a Jedi!
STELTER: -- by playing the over the top version of himself. The role earned him an Emmy nomination and scores of fans.
Morgan first rose to fame in the 1990s on "Saturday Night Live".
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That bird is a liar.
STELTER: The laughter masking personal pain. A troubled upbringing. His father's death to AIDS, his best friend's murder, a life battle with diabetes.
MORGAN: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
STELTER: But on June 7th, 2014, everything changed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tracy Morgan was involved in a very serious auto accident.
STELTER: The crash left him in a coma for week. Morgan's recovery meant that he had to miss SNL's 40th anniversary special.
TINA FEY, COMEDIAN & ACTRESS: I wish that my friend Tracy Morgan was here tonight.
STELTER: And a few months later, he was ready the talk on the "Today" show.
MORGAN: I love comedy, and I wonder how I'm going to be funny again.
STELTER: In the first images of Morgan after the accident, a familiar, upbeat smile. His doctor even telling "The Daily Beast" he was, quote, "nothing short of a miracle".
And in returning to SNL, nothing short of an emotional homecoming.
MORGAN: Thank you so much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BANFIELD: And there are more signs of progress for former NBA and reality TV star Lamar Odom. His former college coach Jim Harrick said that Odom is breathing on his own and that he told his estranged wife, Khloe Kardashian, quote, "I love you."
Odom has been unresponsive since last Tuesday, when he was found in a brothel near Las Vegas, and Odom and Kardashian signed divorce papers in July and were awaiting a judge to make their divorce final.
Next hour, the girlfriend of convicted mobster Whitey Bulger is set to appear in a federal courtroom in Boston. Her name is Catherine Gree and she is charge d with criminal contempt. The 64-year-old is already serving a prison sentence for helping Whitey Bulger avoid authorities for years. A grand jury charged her with contempt because she refused to give up the details about that 16 year stint that was fun for them, effectively on the run. Gree was set to testify in 2015 about third parties, any of them, who might have helped to harbor Whitey Bulger, one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives between 1995 and 2011. He is serving time. We will see what happens now with her.
[13:00:01] Thanks everyone for watching. My collleague Wolf Blitzer starts right now.
