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Affluenza Teen, Mom Arrested in Mexico; Belgium Arrests 2 Over New Year's Terror Plot; Snow & Freezing Rain Disrupts Northeast Travel; Prosecutor: 'Perfect Storm... No Criminal Conduct' in Rice; Iraqi Prime Minister: ISIS Will Be Out of Iraq in 2016. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired December 29, 2015 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome back to your NEW DAY. Chris and Alisyn are off today. Don Lemon and Christine Romans join us.

We begin with breaking news at this hour. After several weeks on the run, Ethan Couch, the so-called "affluenza teen," is now in custody. Mexican authorities picking him up along with his mother in the resort town of Puerto Vallarta. They are now awaiting extradition to the United States.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: That's right. The 18-year-old went missing after skipping a mandatory meeting with his probation officer. Couch is two years into a ten-year probation sentence for killing four people in a drunk-driving crash in 2013.

Let's get right to CNN's justice reporter, Evan Perez, who broke the story. He has the very latest for us this morning.

Hi, Evan.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Don.

The U.S. Marshal Service in recent days alerted Mexican authorities that they had tracked down Ethan Couch. And police in the Pacific Coast region near Puerto Vallarta moved in yesterday to make that arrest. And they found the 18-year-old fugitive with his mother.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PEREZ (voice-over): Breaking overnight, the so-called "affluenza teen," Ethan Couch, captured in Mexico, the Jalisco state prosecutor's office releasing this photo to ABC News, showing Couch with noticeably darker hair, mustache and a beard.

The manhunt ending when Mexican authorities nabbed the 18-year-old, along with his mother, Tonya, nearly 1,000 miles from their hometown in Tarrant County, Texas, detaining them both near the popular beach resort town of Puerto Vallarta.

The mother and son duo on the lam for more than two weeks, leading U.S. Marshals on a massive manhunt. Couch went missing earlier this month, and officers issued a warrant for his arrest after this video surfaced on social media, appearing to show Couch playing beer pong at a party, a violation of his probation.

At the time of his conviction, violating probation meant up to ten years in prison.

Shortly after Couch vanished, Texas authorities placed his mother, Tonya, on a missing persons list, as well, believing she might be helping her son.

DEE ANDERSON, TARRANT COUNTY SHERIFF: Our hope is they will both be locked up for some time.

PEREZ: Couch first made headlines two years ago after only receiving ten years' probation in a drunk-driving crash that killed four people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had over 180 years of life taken, and two of those were my wife and daughter.

PEREZ: Couch's defense attorney argued that he suffered "affluenza," meaning his wealthy upbringing was to blame for his behavior.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREZ: and Don, Mexican authorities are expected to turn Couch over to the U.S. Marshals for his return to the U.S. And that could happen as soon as later today.

LEMON: Thank you very much for that, Evan.

I want to bring in now Jonathan Gilliam. He is a CNN law enforcement analyst with over 15 years of service as a police officer, a FBI special agent and a Navy SEAL, so he knows about this. Quickly, what happens now that they're in custody? What happens next?

JONATHAN GILLIAM, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, now they're going to maneuver to get them back over to -- into the United States. And they're going to have to figure out -- I'm sure they're going to be held; they're not going to be released right now. Because they've kind of taken on another aura about who they might have been. Before, as a kid, who the judge, I guess, thought had issues some psychologically. Now we see criminal -- real criminal behavior, as though there wasn't criminal behavior there before.

LEMON: So how did they get this kid and his mom? Because it doesn't seem like they were -- they were not gone very long. Was this relatively easy, a relatively easy get?

GILLIAM: I'm not privy to the intel. So I don't know if they had, you know, homes down there or if they knew people. But I would have to say that it was probably one of two things. They either knew somebody down there, and so authorities were kind of alerted that they might be in that area or, you know, it became such a public image that he was easily identifiable.

LEMON: I was just going to say, because it's all over the media.

GILLIAM: Right.

LEMON: They escaped 600 miles. The question is, how did he get down, you know, below the border? How did he get there? But then, why pick a place like Puerto Vallarta where there's so many people who might recognize him? And then there you see he changed his appearance, as well.

GILLIAM: His appearance looks exactly the same. He just has darker hair. I mean, if you're going to change your appearance, you've got to go all out.

But I haven't seen the -- this individual as being extremely bright from the beginning. He just got a huge break from a judge who should be held accountable for allowing somebody to, you know, kind of slide on this thing that -- this influenza.

LEMON: Affluenza.

GILLIAM: Affluenza. I think that was a stretch to begin with.

LEMON: Back before we start talking about, you know, his original sentence of probation, but you thought it would be relatively easy -- and I remember talking to you about this, because these are people who are not used to being on the run. They're not professional escape artists, so to speak.

GILLIAM: Right. Right.

Listen, anytime, Don, that somebody has to go on the run, things start to change. Even if you have money, you still are not going to be able to reach back into the pockets that you normally are able to reach into to get your money.

So once you start going on the run, things have to change. If you're used to living an affluent life, and you're not used to changing or altering things, you're going to make big mistakes. And I think that's probably part of what happened here.

LEMON: When you're -- when you're looking at what you do as part of law enforcement and what -- and what, you know, lawyers do and defense attorneys. Many people are upset, right. Prosecutors, at least, are upset, because you mentioned the kind of sentence that he got.

But does this make your job even harder, when someone gets a defense like affluenza that, you know, there's going to be someone who flees and can end up in this particular situation?

GILLIAM: As a law enforcement officer, it doesn't make my job any harder, because I'm going to still continue to go after people for what they've done.

In this case, the beginning of this whole thing was four people were killed because of an accident that he was involved with. Now he's a fugitive. So from a law enforcement perspective, this kid is a bad apple, and he continues to go down the road of crime. So it's not going to change my image of him and my job.

The legal system, though, we talk to Joey Jackson, I'm sure that's going to be a completely different story.

LEMON: Yes. What do you think should happen to this teen next? And what should happen to his mother? Because, again, he's still a teenager. He's an adult. He's 18. He will be 19 in April. What should happen to him and to his mother, who probably had a great influence on him?

GILLIAM: I think the full force of the law should come down on him. And it should be made an example, not only to other people but to the judge who handed down the original sentence, saying that him being rich was to blame for all this. Self-responsibility is a huge thing, and the public needs to realize this.

And since this started, it appears to me that this kid has taken -- well, man, young man has taken no responsibility. And he hasn't changed his ways. So I think the full force of the law needs to come down on him when they get him back.

LEMON: Yes. I asked you this a bit earlier and didn't get a specific answer. But are you surprised that they -- they went so close. They went to Puerto Vallarta. You said, you know, when people are not used to being on the run, they make mistakes. But are you surprised that they chose that particular place?

GILLIAM: You know, I started -- when I heard it, I kind of chuckled, because they didn't go into the woods or the desert to disappear. They went to a holiday kind of, you know, retreat.

LEMON: Maybe they thought hiding in plain sight would be the best thing.

GILLIAM: Maybe. But when you -- unless you're going to change your image completely and you show up places, you know, I've been all over the world, and CNN is on in all these places. So, you know, their faces are going to be plastered all over the place. And that's the exact same guy, just with a dark beard.

LEMON: Yes. I have a friend who's vacationing in Mexico now and watching CNN, watching the show, as well, probably watching us right now. You're right. And that is, you would say, a rookie mistake, right...

GILLIAM: Yes.

LEMON: ... to think you can just change your hair color and look exactly the same.

GILLIAM: I just have a feeling that his behavior stands out. If I had to look at him from a behavioral standpoint, it just seems to me like he's one of those guys that never retreats into the shadows, that he's always out there. Always in the middle of whatever's going on.

LEMON: He can't help himself, like being at the beer pong game. GILLIAM: Right.

LEMON: He can't help himself.

GILLIAM: Exactly.

LEMON: Jonathan Gilliam, thank you very much.

GILLIAM: You got it.

LEMON: Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Don.

More breaking news this morning. Two people under arrest in Belgium after a terror attack planned for New Year's in Brussels was thwarted. We're now learning the plan was inspired by ISIS.

CNN's Erin McLaughlin is in London with the breaking details.

Give them to us, Erin.

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Christine. That's right. Some startling details out of Brussels this morning.

The target: emblematic sites in Brussels during the New Year's celebrations. The threat believed to be serious. That according to a statement released by the Belgian federal prosecutor.

As you said there, a senior counterterrorism telling CNN that this plot was believed to have been ISIS-inspired but not ISIS-directed.

Now Belgian media reporting that one of the targets is a police station near the Grand Place in Brussels. And authorities there this morning have raised the threat level for police and military personnel from a two to a three out of a possible four, meaning that an attack is possible and likely.

Now, all of this following a series of raids that took place throughout Belgium Sunday and Monday. During those raids, authorities say they found ISIS propaganda, military training outfits, as well as computer equipment, though no weapons, no explosives have been found.

Two people were arrested, charged with terrorism-related offenses. Their identities have yet to be released, as this investigation is very much ongoing -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, Erin. And because it's ongoing, we will stick with it. Thank you so much for that.

We turn back home here, stateside, snow and freezing rain slamming parts of New England, making for an extremely messy commute this morning. It is the first significant winter storm to hit the northeast this season, a little late in the season, in fact.

Boris Sanchez, live on the I-95 just outside of Boston with more, late in the season to be donning that cold weather gear for you, Boris.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is very late in the season, Michaela. Typically, this area gets snow starting in early November. We're at December 29, and this is the first snowfall we've seen for New England. The storm is expected to drop 1 to 3 inches of snow. It started snowing at about 1 a.m. About 6 a.m., it started switching to this, like, snow/sleet mix. And it is expected to continue raining into the evening before it becomes snow again at night.

Right now, conditions on the road are really not that bad. We've seen dozens of snowplows coming through this area. This is Southbound I- 95.

And even though the road is somewhat clear, it's still very dangerous. About 300 yards from where we're standing earlier today, a driver lost control and slammed into a guardrail. Emergency crews had to come out to help him.

The same storm that's hitting Massachusetts right now is the storm that hit Texas over the weekend, with dozens dead after tornadoes swept through many areas.

And unfortunately, in Dallas today, they're going to be dealing with freezing temperatures. So even as those residents try to come out from under the storm, they're dealing with more severe weather from Mother Nature.

Another part -- another aspect of travel, I should say, that is dealing with this storm, air travel. Several airports already dealing with cancellations and delays. The focus of them in Boston and Detroit and Chicago, where yesterday there were about 1,600 cancellations and delays because of severe weather. So this storm as it continues moving east, causing a lot more damage in its wake -- Don.

LEMON: All right. Boris Sanchez, I feel so bad for you out there. But great job. Thank you very much.

How much snow and freezing rain will the northeast see today? How much? And where will travel delays be the worst? We have all the great news for you this morning. Unfortunately -- fortunately for me, I don't have to deliver it, but Jennifer Gray does.

What is the forecast, Jennifer?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Just the messenger, Don. Yes, we are going to see a little bit of a changeover, already changing over to rain in New York City. They did get a little bit of a wintry mix around Central Park a couple of hours ago.

But we are seeing most of the snow staying in northern New England. We are getting a little bit of icy conditions around the Boston area, Hartfield, as well. This is going to be a fast mover. It will eventually all change to rain and moving out of here by this afternoon. But we are going to see possibly about a quarter of an inch to half an

inch of ice around upstate New York. We're also going to see a little bit in the New Hampshire/Vermont area, less than quarter of an inch. It only takes about a quarter of an inch, though, to take down those trees and power lines. So we could actually see some power outages around some of those areas.

The higher amounts of snow, 8 to 12 inches, that's going to be in Maine. We are going to see possibility of about 2 to 4 inches around the Boston area. New York City shouldn't pick up any, as far as accumulation is concerned.

But we are late on the winter season. It's finally here, though. It looks like this is going to be a slow start to the winter season, because these snowfall totals aren't very high. But I guess we'll take it, because travel is going to be trouble today, no matter what, guys.

ROMANS: All right. Jennifer Grey, thank you so much for that. And a lot of flight cancellations and delays. So please check before you go to the airport. Thanks, Jennifer.

The family of Tamir Rice not mincing words after an Ohio grand jury decided not to indict the officers who shot and killed the 12-year-old in 2014. They are accusing prosecutors of sabotaging that case. CNN's Martin Savidge live in Cleveland with more for us this morning -- Martin.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Morning, Christine.

Yes, this case has been controversial, of course, from the beginning. And obviously why. You have the death of a 12-year-old little boy shot and killed by Cleveland police.

And there's been a lot of criticism that has been thrown against the Cuyahoga County prosecutor, Tim McGinty, because one, how long this has taken. It's been over a year. The grand jury has been meeting for several months on this. The announcement had been anticipated.

But here's the way it was delivered by the prosecutor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIMOTHY J. MCGINTY, CUYAHOGA COUNTY PROSECUTOR: Given this perfect storm of human error, mistakes and miscommunications by all involved that day, the evidence did not indicate criminal conduct by police.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: So there you have it. What is obviously a devastating blow to Samaria Rice -- that's Tamir Rice's mother and the family -- because they believe and still believe and have said that their son was murdered by Cleveland police. They don't believe the shooting was unjustifiable, even though that is what the grand jury has apparently come forward and said. They delivered a no bill, meaning there isn't going to be any indictment. The biggest criticism had been that the officers acted so quickly

after responding to the scene, the shooting taking place in one to two seconds after the officers pulled up. They had been told of a suspect with a gun. They had not been told that the caller had also said it was probably a juvenile and the gun probably not real.

There are now questions being asked about the police operators and the 911 operators. That investigation just beginning -- Christine.

PEREIRA: I'll take it here, Martin. The family attorney is going to join us live next hour. We'll get his reaction to all of this.

Meanwhile, a Pennsylvania woman is facing conspiracy charges after her brother escaped from prison over the weekend. Authorities say Vanessa Hanlan got a call from her brother, Waylon, seen here, asking her to pick him up when he broke out of prison. So she drove near the prison, but turned away, only to see her brother show up at her home, where she allowed him in to change his clothes. So police are still looking now for the escapee and the -- another sibling, who drove off with the convict.

LEMON: I want you to pay close attention. This is very popular. This is like those hover boards. Right? There was a bit of a scare for the president's motorcade during his vacation in Hawaii. A drone started flying along the motorcade just for a few seconds. Secret Service agents quickly confronting the man who was operating the drone. They say he was completely unaware that the president was in the area and cooperated with requests to land it. No charges were filed. Oops.

ROMANS: Really interesting challenge for the Secret Service. Because you know...

PEREIRA: Only flies here, right?

ROMANS: Absolutely. Poor guy. He must have begun scared to death.

LEMON: Yes.

ROMANS: Secret Service guys coming to say, is that your drone?

PEREIRA: How did he not know the president was on Hawaii, vacationing?

LEMON: Well, he's in Hawaii. He's chilling, you know? And...

PEREIRA: Everybody talks about it when the president -- because you know traffic gets tied up.

LEMON: Yes. I think...

ROMANS: Keep your drone at home, Michaela.

PEREIRA: Keep your drone at home.

LEMON: They're so chilled in Hawaii. I've been there when the president was there, and not everybody knows. Not everybody is out driving. They're just -- they just kind of hang out. Do their thing.

PEREIRA: People know.

ROMANS: No charges filed. It was just a simple accident. But a reminder of...

PEREIRA: What are you trying to say about the people in Hawaii, Don Lemon? Take that back.

LEMON: Of course they do. Anyway.

ROMANS: What are you talking about?

LEMON: It's Hawaii.

PEREIRA: On with the news.

LEMON: You know that.

PEREIRA: We apologize.

ROMANS: Iraq's prime minister...

LEMON: Sorry.

ROMANS: Zip it, lock it, put it in your pocket.

PEREIRA: That's a mother speaking right there.

LEMON: Yes, ma'am.

ROMANS: Iraq's prime minister making some bold predictions. The country ready to retake Mosul from ISIS and drive the terror group from Iraq next year. Realistic goals or just pep talk? We speak to an American official on the ground in Baghdad, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:46] ROMANS: Iraq's prime minister vowing to defeat ISIS by next year. How significant is the retaking of Ramadi and can Iraq really eliminate ISIS from its territory in that time frame?

Colonel Steven Warren is the spokesman for the anti-ISIS coalition in Iraq and Operation Inherent Resolve. He joins us this morning live from Baghdad.

Thank you so much for being here this morning. I want to talk about what the prime minister said about ISIS. He went on state television, and he said, "2016 will be the year of the big and final victory, when ISIS's presence -- presence in Iraq will be terminated. We are coming to liberate Mosul, and it will be the fatal and final blow to ISIS."

Is that possibly, you think, in 2016, is that the kind of momentum that you're seeing?

COL. STEVE WARREN, SPOKESMAN, ANTI-ISIS COALITION IN IRAQ: First, thanks for having me, Christine. It's good to be here.

I think we have started to see some momentum build. This -- actions in Ramadi over the last couple days have been a great sign.

That's a tall order. We certainly hope that the Iraqis are able to eliminate ISIL here out of Iraq once and for all by the end of 2016. And that's what we're here to help them do. It remains to be seen. As we say in the Army, the enemy does get a vote.

ROMANS: Yes. And let's talk about the successes. What went right in Ramadi? You had training, months of training of the Iraqi military. You had coalition airstrikes. You had training of Sunni tribal fighters. Is this a model for Fallujah, for Mosul, for other cities?

WARREN: This really is a model. This is what we have been working for since the beginning, frankly. And it takes time to train an army. The army that we left behind before the mid-2000s was a counterinsurgency army. It had been trained to do things like checkpoints and road clearance.

ISIL, this enemy is really fighting as a conventional army. And so this -- this Iraqi army needed to be trained in conventional tactics. How do you breach minefields? How do you assault? How do you conduct defensive operations? All of these things needed to be learned. And so it's taken some time.

We've given them fresh, modern equipment. We've given them sophisticated, cutting-edge training, and now, of course, we're providing them with devastating air power. So these three things combined are beginning to show some good progress. It's starting to take hold.

ROMANS: Yes. Our sources on the ground saying there was more air power today, more coalition strikes today as you're trying to rout out these seven and eight-man teams that are still within the city. What kind of resistance is still within Ramadi? Are you worried about an insurgency? Are you worried about having trouble holding onto that city?

WARREN: Yes, there are pockets of resistance, small-team squads, if you will, running around. Maybe they've got an RPG. Maybe they've got a machine gun. Maybe they can plan an IED, a roadside bomb.

We don't right now assess this enemy has enough strength left to knock the Iraqi army out of its positions in Ramadi. Again, the enemy always has the opportunity to try and fight back.

But the combination of, really, we've done about 600 airstrikes since July. Each one of those airstrikes, several kinetic events, so over 2,000 bombs dropped. We have helped the Iraqi army really keep this enemy suppressed. And we're confident that they'll be able to hold and then begin to clear the remaining neighborhoods inside of Ramadi.

ROMANS: So when you look at ISIS territory lost in Iraq and Syria over -- you know, over the past year, you're talking about 40 percent of their territory lost. Is ISIS on its heels? Is its caliphate shrinking?

WARREN: ISIL is in a defensive crouch now. Their caliphate is shrinking. You've said it. They've lost 40 percent of the territory they once held here in Iraq. And that's significant. ISIL depends on holding territories. That's what's different about them. They're not just terrorists. They want to hold ground. But that's also a vulnerability, and that's something that we've been attacking.

ROMANS: What about in Syria?

WARREN: Well, in Syria, too, we have less of a relationship with the ground forces there in Syria. So they've lost -- the estimates vary somewhere between 10 and maybe 20 percent of the territory that they once held in Syria. But the estimates are a little bit tougher to get our hands around.

We're starting to build partnerships now with the Syrian democratic forces, the Syrian Arab coalition and others to begin to build up a coalition of forces that we can work with to, again, eliminate the ISIL threat.

[07:25:05] ROMANS: You hear the Iraqi prime minister, again, saying that he hopes there will be a final and decisive victory against ISIL/ISIS/DAISH in the next year. That 2016 will be that year.

But you hear -- you hear analysts all the time say this is, you know, a multi-decade kind of routing of an ideology, not just, you know -- not just a ground situation.

What do you think about the longer term strategy of the neighbors in the region? Do we need to see more involvement of the neighbors of Iraq and Syria in this fight?

WARREN: We've often said we're not going to kill our way out of this problem. We're not going to bomb our way out of this problem. This is a problem that needs to be solved through the political and the diplomatic process.

And Prime Minister Abadi here in Iraq, he has made some -- showed us some good signs about reconciliation. We know we need to get rid of Bashar al-Assad in Syria in order for peace to begin flourishing there. And we've heard our own secretary of defense say that he would like to see our Gulf nation partners continue to contribute even more.

ROMANS: All right. Colonel Steve Warren, thanks so much for joining us this morning from Baghdad. It's been a very busy week for you guys. Thanks very much.

WARREN: Thank you.

ROMANS: Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, Christine.

New CNN poll numbers out this morning show that people -- folks sure are not happy with the government. How much will President Obama's legacy suffer as a result? We'll crunch that -- those numbers with our experts, coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)