Return to Transcripts main page

New Day Saturday

Woman Hid For Two Days From Al-Shabaab; Al-Shabaab: Cities Will "Run Red With Blood"; Ferguson's Ugly, Racist Emails Released; Cop Apologizes After Uber Rant; Dried Weekend Ahead For Kentucky; New Developments in Home Grown Terror; College Basketball Biggest Weekend; Anthony Hinton Freed After Nearly 30 Years on the Death Row. Aired 6- 7a ET

Aired April 04, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: New threats this morning from the terrorist group, al-Shabaab, promising to carry out more attacks in Kenya and horrific details continue to emerge as officials search for victims.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: And just released to the public, all of the disturbing e-mails showing the racist conversation inside the Ferguson Police Department that caused a clerk and two police officers their jobs.

BLACKWELL: And an amazing rescue caught on tape. You have to see this as people race to save a family trapped inside a burning RV. You will see this daring rescue play out.

PAUL: We love to spend our Saturday morning with you. Thanks so much for being with us. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: Good morning. I'm Victor Blackwell. Breaking news in that horrific college massacre in Kenya, a woman who hid from the militants when they went on this rampage has just come out of hiding safe and unharmed.

PAUL: Unbelievable.

BLACKWELL: Two days ago, also new this morning, the terror group, al- Shabaab, is threating, quote, "another blood bath." Just days after the militants slaughtered scores of students in Kenya in an audio statement released this morning.

PAUL: An Al-Shabaab spokesman says, "Kenyan cities will run red with blood," that's a quote. Kenyan officials say they're going to be fighting back. Right now five suspects are under arrest in Thursday's brutal killings of 147 people, most of them students at a Kenyan college there.

A $215,000 bounty being offered for this man, the man believed to be the mastermind of this attack and also wanted eight other terror suspects. Now, CNN's Soni Methu is following this for us in Nairobi. I want to ask you first about these new developments. What do we know about this woman that just walked out of the university, Soni?

SONI METHU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this brave young is only 19 years old. She had hidden herself in the closet and she said she only survived by eating lotion. She has been relieves and she says she feels OK, and has been rushed to the Garissa District Hospital for further checkup.

PAUL: I'm sorry. Did you say that she survived by, what, by eating lotion? Did I hear that right?

METHU: Yes, indeed, she survived by eating lotion. She survived in the closet by eating lotion, a very brave young girl. She says she feels all right. She is obviously in shock and has been taken to the Garrissa hospital for checkup.

PAUL: Good heavens. All right, but al-Shabaab we know is based in Somalia. Why are they staging attacks in Kenya? Are we getting any more information about the targets?

METHU: Yes, indeed, if you read the statement, which I will go through later, but since 2011, al-Shabaab has vowed a war against Kenya. They say that Kenya is committing atrocities in Somalia and that they should withdrawal their troops from Somalia.

But also let's not forget, they have been recruiting here in Kenya. They have sympathizers here in Kenya. Lots of them who they say feel disenfranchised, the Muslim communities they say in the coastal area of Kenya as well as in the north eastern part of Kenya.

This will include Mumbasa, Garissa, Lagia and Mandera, and from that statement they say that they attacked Garissa in particular because it was a non-Muslim or organization being ran in a Muslim town.

And in their statement -- they had a statement for the people saying, "That as long as the government persists in its path of oppression, if it represents repressive policies and continues with a systematic persecution of innocent Muslims, our attacks will also continue."

They also had a message to the government that I will read and quote, it says, "Our message will be written to you not with words, but with the blood of your people. Dig their graves and prepare for their coffins."

But also for al-Shabaab, this to many, to many critics is a publicity stunt. It's a way to draw this cord between Christians and Muslims or Muslims and non-Christians.

PAUL: All right, Soni Methu, we appreciate the report. Thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: All right, thank you, Christi. Thank you, Soni. Jonathan Gilliam is with us now. He is a former Navy SEAL and FBI agent. He is with me now. You know, in correspondence with one of my producers about this segment that we're preparing for, you said the world has no strategy to defeat global Muhammadism. I don't think many people have heard that term. What is Muhammadism?

[06:05:06] JONATHAN GILLIAM, FORMER NAVY SEAL: So if we go back to the very beginning of Islam, 1400 years ago, a lot of what was practiced at that point came from superstition stories and the actual movement Islam under Muhammad, they had certain tactics, techniques and procedures just like we do in the military now, and at they progressed forward globally.

What you see now, you saw it in 1915 when there was an uprising of fundamentalist who failed and had not progresses the way Islam had progressed and they practiced the same fundamental tactics that were practiced in the days of Muhammad.

And 1.5 million Armenians were killed in 1915, in Turkey. So imagine now you have that same ideology, the same tactics, but all this new technology and that's what you have and it's actually spreading globally because it's always been regional until where the technology allows it to go global.

BLACKWELL: And they can communicate.

GILLIAM: That's correct.

BLACKWELL: Let's talk more specifically about this. We saw 147 people kill there and the survivor story this morning. Compare this to what we saw at the Westgate Mall. What's the end goal here? The NYPD reports found that the Westgate Mall was just to rack up a body count. You see the body count here, but what's the end goal? What are they going for?

GILLIAM: Well, so terrorism, you have to realize, terrorism is not a group. Terrorism is a tactic. Just like if I take some F16s or F18s and I go bomb in Syria. That's an attack. If I send SEAL teams in to do an operational hit, that's a tactic.

Terrorism is a tactic that's used to spread fear so we that can affect, if I was the bad guy, affect the change socially in an area, so when you're saying just rack up a body count. That's terrorism.

BLACKWELL: But fear to what end? Terrorism to what end?

GILLIAM: Fear to the end of like you can see how this is escalating in Kenya throughout the years. So they're trying to develop a fear strategy where they come in and eventually they will fold to the belief system that they have.

If you're Christian, you will convert or you'll die. If you're Muslim, you will believe what they believe and eventually globally that's what happening.

BLACKWELL: What do we know about the mastermind of this attack? GILLIAM: Well, he was a head master in a school in Kenya in 2007 before he moved over into one of the predecessors of al-Shabaab. He later, you know, worked the way up into al-Shabaab and is known to be very aggressive and a very well thought out military operational leader.

BLACKWELL: Unconfirmed reports that universities at least the Kenyan government was warned in some way by these travel advisories from the Brits, from the Australians, is there some systemic problem here that this information was not discriminated to the universities or if the universities got it, they did not respond?

GILLIAM: That was one of the first questions I asked myself, if this actually got out, first off, who was in the government and got it? Why didn't they disseminate it widely? If people are saying this is probably going to happen and the universities are saying did get it, why didn't they shut their universities down?

When you have an area like Kenya that is attacked, not just attacked, I mean, America has been attacked, but imagine the size and the scope of these attacks that they're having -- the Boston bombing quadrupled and they are happening monthly, you know.

So they have to start realizing that if in fact they do want to protect themselves, then they have to start advising people, but it's very interesting because the one tactic that continues to be repeated over and over again is the killing of Christians. That's specifically who they're going after at this point to either get them out of their country or to convert them.

BLACKWELL: We have to continue to have the conversations about soft targets, the malls, the universities, airports and so forth. Jonathan Gilliam, thank you so much.

GILLIAM: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Christi.

PAUL: Thank you guys. We're getting our first look at the newly released racist e-mails sent by Ferguson police officers. What the messages said and who they targeted. That's what we are learning this morning. We'll show you.

Plus, do you remember this rant.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pull over?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, that's crazy. That's really inappropriate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How long have you been in this country?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: That NYPD detective now offering an apology. What he had to say. Plus, imagine you're driving down the road and see this, an RV up in flames and people trapped inside. We will tell you what happened. Stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:13:01]

BLACKWELL: Racially charged e-mails just released that include offensive remarks about President Obama and the first lady written by former city employees in Ferguson, Missouri. They are now public records.

PAUL: Yes, the exchanges were between the city's top clerk and two police officers, all of whom, remember, were fired or either resigned. Federal investigators found the offensive messages during a civil rights probe. We want to get you to CNN's Ryan Young, who is going through the e-mails.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christi and Victor, we get our first chance to look at some of these e-mails for the first time. We're not going to show you all of the e-mails, but we want to show you a few of them.

Speaking with the folks in Ferguson, they felt like that the police department and some city officials were racist. Now you get the see the e-mails they were trading back and forth.

This first photo shows Ronald Reagan holding a monkey and the caption says, "Rare photo of Ronald Reagan babysitting Barack Obama at early 1962." You can feel the offensive nature by just looking at the photo.

It moves on to show more photos. They even target the first lady and say that there's a group of women and it says this was a high school reunion for the first lady. These emails cost three people inside the Ferguson city government to step down.

The last e-mail compares dogs to welfare recipients. I'll read part of this e-mail and said "I wanted to get welfare for my dog and they're mixed in color and unemployed and lacy and can't speak English."

And it eventually goes on to say that he was able to get welfare for his dogs. When you look at the three e-mails and talk to people in Ferguson, you obviously understand another debate will be had after some of the e-mails came to light -- Christie and Victor.

PAUL: All righty, Ryan Young, thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: Let's go to New York now, a police detective is offering an apology after his rant at an Uber driver went viral. If you have not seen it, take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to tell you something. The next time you do it again --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, what. Let me finish. Stop interrupting me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, apologize, I'm sorry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who do you think that you're talking to here? How long have you been in this country?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Almost two years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Almost how long?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two years.

[06:15:10] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two years. I have news for you and use this lesson, remember this in the future, don't ever do that again. The only reason you're not in hand cuffs and going to jail is because I have things to do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the only reason that's not happening.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because this is important enough to me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Yes, that was NYPD Detective Patrick Cherry who has since been put on desk duty. In a new interview, Cherry says that he is sorry and that emotions got the best of him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATRICK CHERRY, NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT DETECTIVE: I apologize, sincerely apologize.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you want him to know?

CHERRY: That -- excuse me. That I am not mad at him. I was angry at that moment for that exchange. I was angry for that exchange. If the conversation went differently, we probably would have shook hands at the end of the encounter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Well, since the original video was released, Cherry has been removed from the city's Joint Terrorism Task Force.

PAUL: In Oklahoma, a Tulsa reserve deputy inadvertently shot and killed a suspect in a drug and gun bust. Police say 73-year-old Robert Baits thought that he pulled out his taser during the violent arrest instead though he had grabbed his gun and shot the suspect, who later died at a local hospital. He has been put on administrative leave while officials investigate the case.

BLACKWELL: An RV engulfed in flames, look at this, the dramatic rescues to save the family inside. We'll have that story next.

PAUL: Plus flash flooding in parts of Kentucky send water rescue teams into action.

BLACKWELL: Look at this, live picture of the moon. That's kind of cool to bring to you live. We're getting ready for a sky spectacular -- total lunar eclipse named blood moon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:20:44]

BLACKWELL: Look at your screen, an incredible scene on a Florida highway. An RV nearly engulfed in flames and there are still two people trapped inside of here.

PAUL: This happened yesterday in a town outside of Orlando. CNN affiliate, WESH walks us through what happened here.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get your car off of it.

GAIL PASCHALL-BROWN, WESH REPORTER (voice-over): Ross Thompson who happens to run a business called the RV Doctor and his were coming down U.S. 27 in Lake County when they saw this motor home on fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw that there was a car attached to it, I was concerned. I saw one man running on the outside. I did not think there was anybody else there because it was so engulfed. I figure they were outside.

PASCHALL-BROWN: But they were not. He went to help them while his son caught it on the cell phone. Another man driving an 18-wheeler also stopped and helped.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a foot sticking out the back window. So I stopped and ran across to the back window and rescued her mom and the daughter and got them out because they could not get out. They were trapped. The whole front end was engulfed. There was no way there were going through the front door.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Everybody did get out OK. The RV though was a total loss. Thank you to Gail Paschall-Brown and WESH for the story there.

BLACKWELL: And the RV doctor happened to be coming down the road at that time.

PAUL: I mean, come on.

BLACKWELL: Record rainfall in Kentucky led to wide spread flooding in Louisville. Dozens of water rescues for fire and police teams. Officials say that they know of at least one fatality unfortunately, a woman who drowned and trapped in her car that caught in high water.

PAUL: Now, thankfully Kentucky is getting a break from the rain, but it's still pretty nasty in some places.

BLACKWELL: Yes, let's check with Ivan Cabrera now who got some details. It's Easter weekend.

IVAN CABRERA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is. It's going to be nice for Easter weekend, but terrible day for our good friends in Kentucky. We had stormed that trained over the same area. This happened through the night time hour, which tends to be more dangerous. You can see what's ahead of you.

Look at this. This line of showers and thunderstorms and torrential downpours, we got almost half of foot of rainfall in just a matter of hours. That not only caused flash flooding, but we involved rivers and streams and then we got ourselves into a lot of trouble and some people trying to drive over flooded railways, not a good idea.

You don't want to do that. There it is, Louiseville, 5.5 inches of rainfall in just a few hours and that was record here. We have the flood warnings that remain in effect through the early part of the day, the waters are reseeding and a mess is behind.

We had very muddy conditions and people are going to be cleaning out although you're going to be cleaning out with better weather here. Look at the showers and storms moving to the south and east and by the way, the severe weather threat is done.

That's excellent news and we're going see the line of showers moving through Florida. It will rain through the early part of the day, but we are done as far as that is concerned.

The clear skies as we head through the remainder of the weekend so good news. And we will get rid of that rainfall here. If you will heard some howling in the studio, that was Victor because we await for this total lunar eclipse.

PAUL: He is giving away your secret.

CABRERA: The blood man is what they call it. That's more for a hashtag. It's not a blood moon, but it sounds good. Once it becomes a total, we will get that nice red hue and call it that.

PAUL: Yes, we will keep it and follow that live this morning.

CABRERA: Yes, please.

BLACKWELL: We have to get back to this breaking news out of Kenya. It's an amazing story.

PAUL: Yes.

BLACKWELL: First, as these families -- the bodies of the victims are being taken to other towns and cities across the country. Now this morning, the stunning story of survival, a woman hid from the armed militants for days. You will hear how she survived.

PAUL: Also a third U.S. woman taken into federal custody accused of terror charges. What is driving the trend when it comes to home grown terror? We're looking into that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:29:17]

PAUL: It's 29 minutes past the hour and here is a look at some of the stories that are developing right now. A woman who hid in a closet for days from al-Shabaab at that university from the militants there has now come out of hiding.

She is at a hospital, we understand, and she says she ate lotion to survive. The militants massacred 147 people at college in northeaster Kenya. Al-Shabaab is threatening, quote, "another blood bath" as well.

Five suspects are under arrest. The alleged mastermind, though, is still at large. We're going to have a live report on the latest developments at the top of the hour for you.

BLACKWELL: This morning, we have new images of a senior al Qaeda leader reportedly inside the presidential palace in southern Yemen. We have to add that CNN cannot confirm the authenticity of the photos.

But (inaudible) and more than 200 others were freed from prison by al Qaeda militants earlier this week.

[06:30:04] BLACKWELL: Well, later this morning, the U.N. will be meeting to discuss the conflict in Yemen as the country as we've seen over the last couple of weeks spirals into a state of chaos.

PAUL: Six people in England are in police custody. They are accused of terrorism offences related to Syria. And five men and one woman were arrested in a southern port of Dover. Searches are under way at the homes of several of the suspects, but police say that they did not pose any immediate risk to the public.

BLACKWELL: Meanwhile, closer to home, two Illinois men have been indicted for allegedly conspiring to provide support to ISIS. A U.S. Army National Guard specialist and his cousin are accused of plotting to create some terrorist attacks on an Illinois military facility. Prosecutors say the two men will be arraigned on April 8th. Now, if convicted of the charges against them, both men could face 15 years in prison.

PAUL: And you know, I think what's so interesting to people is it's not just men who were trying to support terror groups. It seems several U.S. women are now in federal custody and they are facing the same accusations.

BLACKWELL: Yeah, let's go to CNN's Jason Carroll. He takes a look at these new developments when it comes to home grown terror.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor and Christi, her alias was the young lioness, but her real name is Keonna Thomas. She is 30 years old. She is a U.S. citizen from Philadelphia. The criminal complaint basically spills out all of the allegations. She is accused of attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization. Let me read you one quote here from the complaint that reads that Thomas "attempted to travel overseas in order to join, fight with and martyr herself on behalf of ISIL. Federal agent say that as far back as 2013 she was posting Jihadi tweets out there on Twitter. Also, in 2013 she allegedly sent an electronic communication to a known Somali terrorist. Also, again according to the complaint, several times over the course of last year, she reached out to another known terrorist in Syria. Federal investigators then began to look at her travel plan, she got a Visa for Turkey, then arranged travel to go to Barcelona, Spain.

If she's convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of up to 15 years in prison. Her case, not as specific as the case of what we saw with the two women in New York City. We do have an update on that. Noelle Velentzas, she is 28-years-old, she's married, she has a young daughter. Also, an adopted daughter. Her husband is speaking out on her behalf. He's saying that she is "not a monster," saying that she is not the woman being portrayed in the media. He spoke out. We want you to listen to what he had to say about her?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABU BAKR, TERROR SUSPECT'S HUSBAND: I am surprised. Just like it was a knock at the door and everything changed. I did not see anything like this happening. I did not see anything like this coming. Just right now a loss for words.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Velentzas' husband also says that she was a "very attentive mother", that she was always upbeat. He also knew Sadiqqui very well as well. He said that she was practically a member of the family. Her attorney spoke out basically saying that she is not guilty. When pressed about more details about her and about the case, he said that he was not going to try the case in front of the press. He said instead that he would try the case in court where it belongs. Victor, Christi.

BLACKWELL: All right, Jason, thank you so much.

Let's get some more insight now to this latest arrest and this disturbing trend involving U.S. women attempting to join ISIS. We have with us CNN law enforcement analyst and former FBI assistant director Tom Fuentes. Tom, in both cases this week, there are tweets, there are statements, there are conversations according to investigators, with this undercover agents. Here is what's inconsistent. If you're planning a covert operation to attack, why it would be so public with some of these details?

TOM FUENTES, CNN ANALYST: Well, I think, Victor, the answer is that they want other people to know about it. They want to try to recruit others to join the cause or they want people that are going to be able to help them carry out the attack plans. I would like to add that the recruitment of women into ISIS is disturbing, but it's not a new trend. They have been doing this and the estimates are not just from the U.S., but from all over the world that about ten percent of the people that go join are women. And we have seen the case here in the U.S. We had the three teenagers from Denver get picked up in Europe and sent back to the FBI. We had a couple of sets of teenage girls in England try to join. And they either made it or were stopped and processed.

And, you know, one of the differences here with these two cases of the FBI, and by the way, the FBI regards these cases as major annoyances. When people get on the Internet by the hundreds, and say, I want to do this, I want to do that, they have to look at it, they have to follow it down and see if they're just talking.

[06:35:05]

FUENTES: If it's all just, you know, bragging that that's what they want to do, or if they really mean it. And the difference in these two cases, they were not some goofy teenagers deciding they want to play Susie Homemaker for an ISIS warrior, these are women that wanted to learn how to make bombs, how to do an attack, they talked about killing soldiers and police officers. You know, so this was getting into attack plans, not just, gee, it would be great to be an ISIS wife.

BLACKWELL: Yeah, according to one of the investigators, one of these woman said that attacking a police officer is easier than buying food because sometimes you have to wait in line to buy food.

FUENTES: That's a fact.

BLACKWELL: You heard from the husband of one of the New York suspects saying that his wife is not a monster. He knew nothing of this. Let's listen to what the family's imam had to say about this woman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLES AZIZ BILAL, DEFENDANT'S IMAM: My observation of the family for the last five years has been impeccable when it comes to character.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you suppose the propane tanks?

BILAL: You go to picnics, right? And what do you have on your - to cook the meat and everything, you have what - propane tanks, right? I think this whole story is being blown out of proportion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: How is it possible that the imam, the husband and close friends maybe suspect nothing of these woman?

FUENTES: It's very possible. And the problem with that is that it only goes to show how much tougher it is for the authorities, for the FBI and the joint terrorism task forces to have these people come up on their radar and sustain the investigation to find additional information. Now, we have a similar case to this, I think last month in Illinois where the father made the same statements when his son was arrested by the FBI. It was entrapment, it's terrible, the authorities - my son is an angel. And then when he heard the undercover tapes decided I disown my son, so, you know, I think that's the problem here. Is that people really don't know what they're doing behind the scenes? Not everybody knows what they're doing or they're lying about what they're doing. And that helps these people go on. And again, these are investigations that lasted over a year. It's like the FBI keeps looking at this. Please, please show us you don't mean it. And unfortunately, they keep showing that they do mean it.

BLACKWELL: All right. You know what, we're hearing - is a lot of denial from both the husband and the imam, which we hear - related or not, from people after their loved ones are suspected of committing crimes.

FUENTES: Absolutely.

BLACKWELL: We're going to continue this conversation throughout the morning. Tom Fuentes, thank you so much.

FUENTES: Thank you, Victor.

PAUL: And we're going to have much more on the hunt for terror suspects in Kenya. The alleged master mind of a brutal massacre at a Kenyan college still at large this morning. We have the latest at the top of the hour for you. Plus, an alleged robbery scheme turns into first degree murder, and it involved Craigslist here somehow.

A woman posing at the man. Of course, there is surveillance video. We'll be the latest.

And oh mine gosh. A wild brawl. Look at this thing in a New York casino. 400 people involved in this thing. What is wrong with people? I will say it again? We've got more of this incredible for you in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Four were teams and thousands of fans are gearing up in Indianapolis this morning for college basketball's biggest weekend. The men's NCAA basketball tournament. But you know the national spotlight when you say Indiana, it is not on the games this week, the focus has been on the controversial bill, the religious freedom restoration act. The bill caused these massive protests to see the threats of boycott from other cities and states. At CNN's Andy Scholes there live in Indianapolis. So, the focus now I imagine is back on basketball, right?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, you know, it really is, Victor. But as you said, you know, this whole final four weekend was almost overshadowed by what was a very controversial week here in Indianapolis surrounding that religious freedom law. Now the NCAA - it has these headquarters just down the street from where I am standing right here in downtown, Indianapolis, and the NCAA, they put a lot of pressure on Indiana's legislature to get it changed for this law. They said, you know, they would reconsider having their headquarters here in Indianapolis. They would reconsider having future big time events like the final four in Indianapolis if the law wasn't changed. Sure enough, a fix was put in and now we can get to basketball and really enjoy this weekend's games. Now the big story here this week in Indianapolis is can Kentucky complete the perfect season with two more wins and go 40 and 0? This team is just stocked full of future NBA first round picks and these guys are well aware how special it would be to be the first-team since 1976. 1976 Indiana Hoosiers to go undefeated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW HARRISON, KENTUCKY GUARD: It would be just a blessing. I cannot put it into words. It's a tough two games to win. If we do complete that goal, I would not even know how to put it in words.

KARI-ANTHONY TOWNS, KENTUCKY CENTER: You mean we won the national championship. I mean that's the biggest thing, and that's our goal. That's been our goal since the beginning of the year. We have wanted to win it all. We're so close right now to it. We just need to capitalize on opportunities and play the game we know how to play.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Now, the other match of Duke is going to be taking on Michigan State. This is the 12TH time Coach Kay - Coach Mike Krzyzewski has gotten his Blue Devils into the final four. And he sat down with CNN's Rachel Nichols earlier this week and talk about that accomplishment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You have tied John Wood with your 12th final four.

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI, COACH: Right.

NICHOLS: It's amazing. And when you talked to former players of yours. They say what is so remarkable is the way you've been able to adjust from team to team and style to style. What quality about you have enabled you to do that?

KRZYZEWSKI: Survival, I think. And I think it's like being a parent when you have a lot of kids, you know, some of them are 18 and some of them are two and one. And you better adjust and be able to relate to each one of them. And it's called -- I learned it at West Point and I learned it really well with USA basketball and that's adapt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: You can see more from Rachel's interview with Coach K and much more on all access and the Final Four CNN "Bleacher Report" special. That's late on today 2:30 Eastern right here on CNN. And, of course, the big games. They tip off tonight at 6:00 Eastern on our sister station TBS.

[06:45:00]

SCHOLES: Duke and Michigan State get things going. That one's followed by Kentucky and Wisconsin. Lexington, Kentucky. It's only about a three hour drive from Indianapolis, so you're going to see a lot of big Blue fans and Wild Cat fans here in Indianapolis. But the local fans here in Indiana, they don't want to see Kentucky win. Because, of course, the last team to go undefeated were the '76 Indiana Hoosiers, so they would like Kentucky to not go ahead and be the next team that everyone talks about that went undefeated.

BLACKWELL: All right, Andy. Now I have got Kentucky winning it all in my bracket. So, hopefully, you know, that helped me get out 12 place.

PAUL: You're going to talk about your bracket, because you're finally ahead of me.

(LAUGHTER)

BLACKWELL: Finally. Thanks Andy.

PAUL: Thanks Andy. Have fun.

BLACKWELL: Hey, listen, we've got to take a serious turn here. A woman admits that she wanted to rob an attorney she met on Craigslist. That she admits. You can see her on surveillance video, apparently, dressed as a man, but a robbery scheme police say it turned into murder. Now she is claiming self-defense. We will ask HLN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney Joey Jackson if this plea can keep her out of prison.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Forty-nine minutes past the hour and a 21-year old woman accused of killing a Washington lawyer she met on Craigslist while posing as a man - she was posing as man - is claiming imperfect self- defense. Jamyra Gallmon is charged with first degree murder now. I want to show you the surveillance video.

06:50:00

PAUL: See, that's reportedly her inside the posh Donovan Hotel where the attack allegedly happened. CNN Affiliate WJLA reports court documents revealed she confessed to planning to rob the victim, but the report also says when she tried to leave the hotel room, that lawyer grabbed her arm, they started fighting, and documents say, she admitted that is when she stabbed him. And she stabbed him multiple times. Let's talk to HLN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney Joey Jackson, because Joey, you know, as I understand it this woman told the court that she came to the hotel obviously to rob him, so you wonder how can she be a victim and what exactly is as her attorney calls it, an imperfect self-defense?

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Sure, Christi. Good morning to you. You know, the reality is this. They're going to look at that as investigators and prosecutors the surrounding circumstances of this case. Now, in a general self-defense case, perhaps, someone is attempting to rob you or you get into an incident and you need to defend yourself, why? Because there's an imminent threat and then you use force that's just enough and proportionate to that threat. In this situation the imperfect self-defense comes in and that if you look at the surrounding circumstances everything leads to the conclusion, at least at this point in the investigation that she went there to that hotel room with bad intentions. As a result of that, however, it went bad the whole entire incident, so she had no choice, according to her, but to use that self-defense. I think that when you look at things I have to tell you that the amount of stab wounds and the excessiveness of the force ...

PAUL: Yes.

JACKSON: That may prove problematic in that imperfect self-defense argument.

PAUL: Well, and I know authorities do cell phone and email records to track her down, and she had an alias e-mail, they say, it was christianshez0906@yahoo.com, and authorities really want to talk to anybody who was familiar with that address. Why is that key? Do they at all suspect maybe there's more than one person involved here?

JACKSON: Well they certainly could. First of all, they want to get down to exactly what was going on here. Was there a plan, was there a premeditation, and appears as though it was. Investigators certainly have an obligation to fair it out all the facts. Are there other things that she may or may not be involved, and we don't know? But certainly, as it relates to this, Christi, why was she using an alias, why was she using this false e-mail, why was she posing as a man. What were her intentions? And then when she got there, was there a need? Did something go bad with him such that she just used self- defense?

PAUL: Right?

JACKSON: Based upon the stab wounds, it's certainly is unlikely, at least preliminarily.

PAUL: Well, and that's what she claims she stabbed him when he grabbed her arm and she had - she said she had a flashback of a previous assault that she claims she suffered from. Is there any evidence of that previous assault and does she have to have proof that one happened to boost her claim?

JACKSON: Yeah, I think you certainly - I mean, you know, in a court of law as a defense attorney you just cannot go into a court making wild claims and accusations predicated upon what your client may or may not tell you. So certainly there would need to be to establish that there's credibility to how she felt. That comes down to what is your mental state at the time. Do you reasonably believe, Christi that you're in fear of injury? And as a result of that, do you act in a way that prevents yourself from being injured? And I should also mention that you could certainly exceed what we call justification in the event that you use force against someone, is it proportionate? And if it's not, and you go beyond that, you could - it could prove problematic too. So, certainly, she is going to need to busser her claims to establish that her mental state was such that she needed and really reasonably believed it was necessary to defend herself.

But based upon the amount of stab wounds, based upon, you know, the nature and the five inches and the lung and the heart, I think it could be a very difficult road to hold. But it's still earlier yet, but signs are at this point that it would be very difficult defense for her to establish.

PAUL: Yeah, a lot of people would say with wounds like that, related to a rage of some sort. Joey Jackson, we appreciate it so much. Thank you.

JACKSON: Pleasure, Christi. Have a great day.

PAUL: You too. But see you next hour.

BLACKWELL: Finally free after decades in prison. We will tell you why this man in Alabama was released from prison after a wrongful murder conviction. What was it that changed the tide? That story is coming up next hour.

And look at this picture, live picture of the Moon. We're getting there, we're getting close to a total lunar eclipse. Many people call this a blood moon. And you don't need to look outside. We'll just show you as it happens.

Also, coming up, a massive brawl at a Queens's casino. 400 people.

PAUL: What?

BLACKWELL: 400 people involved.

PAUL: What is wrong with people?

BLACKWELL: I want to know who've counted.

(LAUGHTER)

BLACKWELL: We have got the video and the story up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Two minutes to the top of the hour. Let's get you caught up on some other stories we are following this morning. Anthony Ray Hinton is walking around as a freeman this morning after being cleared of murder conviction. He spent nearly three decades on death row. Hinton was cleared after a new trial showed the gun used in the murders did not match the one that belonged to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY RAY HINTON: I should not sit on death row for 30 years. All they had to do was test the gun. But when you think you had might and you're above the law, you don't have to answer to nobody. But I've got news for you. Everybody that played a part in sending me to death row, you will answer to God.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Hinton says he is praying for the families of those murder victims because they also suffered a miscarriage of justice.

PAUL: An escaped inmate is now back in custody following a statewide manhunt across Illinois. Convicted murderer Cameron Taylor was captured this morning when someone alerted police to a suspicious person. And it turned out to be the wanted criminal. Taylor broke out of jail a couple of days ago after assaulting a prison guard.

A wild brawl caught on video in New York. At one point as many as 400 people were fighting at this Queens casino. And you could see chairs being thrown here, punches as well, police say three men have been arrested and an officer was sent to the hospital because of injuries. Officials say they're not sure what started this fight.

PAUL: Good heavens.

BLACKWELL: A live look at the sky this morning. We're in the midst of a rare treat. OK. We don't have it.

(LAUGHTER)

PAUL: There's a total lunar eclipse going on. This is the shortest one in the century. If you're in the West you can have the best chance to see it. If you're in the East, there we go. There it is. Live picture for you.

BLACKWELL: Thank you, guys.

PAUL: As it's happening. In the east it's going to be tough to see because the sunrise is going to compromise your view.

[07:00:00]

PAUL: So, do not worry about it. We are going to have it up for you here all morning, so you can still catch it.

BLACKWELL: Watch it throughout the morning. There's a lot of news to tell you about this morning.

PAUL: Next hour of your "NEW DAY" starts right now.