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CNN NEWSROOM

Hasan Back to Ft. Hood for Trial; The Court Martial Process; Shooting in Small Town in Pennsylvania; Amber Alert in California: 2 Children Kidnapped; George W. Bush in High Spirits After Medical Procedure; Is Getting Someone Drunk Illegal?; 15-Foot Python Strangles Two Young Boys

Aired August 6, 2013 - 11:00   ET

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


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ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everybody. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. It's nice to have you with us today.

Happening right now: the murder trial for one of the worst mass killings in United States history and if you want to talk about one very strange setup, let me set the scene for you as it's unfolding right this moment.

Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan was just brought by helicopter from an off-site jail and he's being brought back to Ft. Hood. That is the same military post where he admitted to slaughtering 13 people and wounding 32 others four years ago.

The court building itself where he is set to stand trial is barricaded with large sand containers, and we're talking about huge metal containers. This is what people are seeing when they arrive at court today. But you're not going to see a lot of photos because the military is now restricting any and all photography of Hasan while he is on this Army post.

Military law has prevented him from entering a guilty plea because prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against him. The last time they executed a service member was 1961, so if you want to call this rare, you would be spot-on.

Ed Lavandera is live from Ft. Hood right now. Ed, I'm just so astounded to hear, as this trial gets set to get underway, the extraordinary security measures. It's not as though we haven't had mass shooters before. Why the significance of this?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think it's clear that officials here at Ft. Hood are very concerned about just how this proceeding continues and they want to make sure that Major Hasan is convicted, sent away, given the death penalty, and they want to make sure that no mistakes are made along the way that might jeopardize that in any way.

So that is what they're saying, that everything that they're doing around these proceedings is to ensure that these proceedings are done in a cautious way and in a way that will ensure that the fairness of what is going on here.

But, Ashleigh, we have already started off with quite a sight here this morning. Just a little while ago, Major Hasan made a brief -- remember, he's representing himself. He has gotten rid of his own defense attorney and is representing himself in this case.

The prosecutor stood up this morning and gave about an hour-long opening statement, walked through the methodic nature that Major Hasan had carried out in his attack on the soldiers here at Ft. Hood and in great detail, laid out what had happened. And Major Hasan himself stood up and made his opening statement. I'll give you a sense of what it was. It was very short, but prosecutors are sitting here, trying to point to Major Hasan that he is the shooter.

And Major Hasan opened up by saying, the evidence will clearly show that I am the shooter, and then he went on to talk about how the mujahedeen is trying to create the perfect religion and that he apologizes for the mistakes I made in this, not apologizing for the attacks, but apologizing for not helping the mujahedeen create a perfect religion.

The evidence will show that he was on the wrong side as a U.S. soldier and that he switched sides. Those were the statements he made, very shocking to hear at this point, given what we have seen him go through here in the last four years.

So this jury here at Ft. Hood has already heard the first comments from Major Hasan. Ashleigh?

BANFIELD: Maybe not surprising, but definitely, Ed, not how you normally see a murder defendant open up a case. Ed Lavandera, keep your eye on this for us and give us the updates as they do come into you. Thank you.

I also want to move to the whole notion of what's going on in that courtroom. Joining us now with his take on this court-martial is criminal defense attorney, Steve Raiser. He's also a former judge advocate general in the U.S. Army, so he knows a thing or two about court-martialing process.

Steve, I'm sure that you are not astounded by this opening statement, but it is bizarre, nonetheless. Is this something whereby Major Hasan can't plead guilty by law, but he is darned well going to do it by fact in this case, isn't he?

STEVE RAISER, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes. And apparently, that's the preferred method for him, because a plea of guilty obviously would be quick and the case would be done. This allows him to, in essence, as you indicated, to plead guilty through a trial, which is very rare, but is exactly what he wants. He wants to be the martyr and he wants to send that message crass the world. He has a platform and he's going to use it.

BANFIELD: OK. So I can only imagine, a really good criminal defense attorney in a death penalty case will more than likely keep his client off the stand. But he is representing himself, so if, in fact, this man decides to take the stand, Steve, what is the protocol for questioning yourself and then answering your questions?

RAISER: Well, it doesn't quite work that --

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RAISER: -- and then he will be given the opportunity to really give his side of the story. He will, in essence, go into a narrative as to what happened.

Now, the judge will have some control over what he says, but she will give him a lot of latitude in what he does testify to, because, again, what the court is most interested in is avoiding a successful appeal. So they will let him speak, he will speak his mind, but he will be bound to the evidence that was presented and the judge has already indicated that she will instruct the panel or the jury in this case that they are not to consider the defense that he intended to put forward, which was, in essence, defense of others, those others being, in this case, the Taliban.

That is not in defense, that is legally sufficient for the jury to consider.

BANFIELD: The Taliban certainly wasn't knocking on the door at a U.S., you know, army post, that was heavily guarded, et cetera, so that makes complete sense.

Steve, I hope you'll be able to stick with us. We hope to cover this case. Cameras or no cameras inside the courtroom, it is amazing, groundbreaking stuff and it is a fascinating case and we'll need your expertise as we sort of move through this sort of thick wicket of military law. Steve, thank you.

RAISER: Thank you, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Always good to have Steve Raiser with us.

I want to switch gears to Southern California, a dire situation playing out there. There are two kids who are missing right now, and here's the really hard part. The police who are looking into it think that they were snatched by a man who killed their mom and also killed another child in the home with their mom.

That mother and child were found dead inside the suspect's own home as it was burning to the ground over the weekend. The police think that the suspect, James Lee DiMaggio, has the two children in a blue Nissan Versa with a California license plate reading 6WCU986.

Take a good look at that license plate. There's an Amber Alert that's been issued. If you see that blue Nissan and that California license plate, without question, call 911.

I want to bring in Candice Nguyen, who is working with our affiliate, XETV. She is live with us in San Diego. What else do they have on this, Candice? It seems like a license plate and a car is pretty thin material when you've got two kids who could be headed even out of the country? CANDICE NGUYEN, XETV REPORTER: That's right. At this point, we just have those pictures of those kids, the picture of the suspect as well as the license plate. We also got an alert within the last hour. We're hearing that James Lee DiMaggio may be heading to Texas or Canada.

That alert did not specify why, but obviously the search has crossed state lines at this point.

BANFIELD: So, obviously, border security is pretty critical, but what are they doing about this notion that he could be headed to Texas. I mean, where are the Texas authorities on this?

NGUYEN: Well, a Texas affiliate, at this time, we are still waiting for an update from sheriff's officials. They gave us their last press conference around 9:00 last night. We've been calling them all morning long to see how they're working with other agencies.

Still waiting to hear back, but, obviously, communication must be going on to make sure that this search is thorough to hopefully find these children because it's been more than 30 hours now.

This started Sunday evening, and if they left around that time, probably even before that, you're right, Ashleigh, they can be far beyond California, possibly not even in the U.S. at this time. But we are still waiting for those updates.

BANFIELD: OK. I want to put up those two pictures again, Candice, if I can, and I'm just going to repeat what the issue is here.

We've got Hanna and Ethan. Their mother was murdered and another child, who is yet to be identified, was found alongside that murdered mother. These two children, aged 16 and eight, siblings, are allegedly in the custody, at this point, of James Lee DiMaggio, who is now on the lam, and the search is for his blue Nissan Versa, California license plate 6WCU986.

Candice Nguyen, thank you for the information and keep us posted on what else comes out with this Amber Alert in San Diego. Thank you so much.

NGUYEN: Thanks, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Another big story that's been happening, gunfire erupting and this during a town hall meeting in a very quiet place, the bullets fly across the room until the gunman is tackled and put into custody.

Right now authorities holding a news conference and we're learning more about the man who's believed to have done it and the man who stopped him from doing more.

Also in the news, former President George W. Bush undergoing a medical procedure this morning, all of it to keep his heart healthy. His condition and what happened, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BANFIELD: One survivor says that he thought it was fireworks and then everyone ran for cover. I'm setting the scene for you about the new details regarding the terror that reigned in a town hall meeting in Pennsylvania.

Three people are dead. Several others are wounded, essentially that gunman raining hell at a council meeting last night, at a place that is so quiet, few people have ever heard about it. Police say a suspect was a man with a grudge and he's just been arraigned on homicide charges.

I want to go now to CNN's Poppy Harlow, who's live in Saylorsburg. Poppy, there were a lot of people at that meeting who saw everything that went on and they are not shy about describing the hell they saw. Can you take me there?

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): I definitely can. I talked to a number of them today.

One of them, Cleoria (ph) is her first name. Campadenefino (ph), that's her last name. She is a woman who was sobbing on the phone with me, Ashleigh, telling me, I've never seen anything like it in my entire life. I'm scared for the rest of my life for those images. She told me she was saved by a man that took two bullets in his stomach to save her. She didn't know when we spoke whether he was all right, whether he had survived or not.

It was an absolute scene of horror and chaos. I mean, this is this small town that hasn't seen anything like this ever, having their typical Monday night town council meeting and in barges this gunman, shooting the from the outside, through the windows, with what's described as a long gun, then coming inside, further shooting. Then pausing for a moment, and that is when people that were there ran to their phones, called 911, called their loved ones.

She told me she called her husband and her daughter, and then the gunman came back in and started shooting with a handgun.

I also, today, talked to a man who told me, he didn't want to be identified. He didn't want any glory from this because he's one of the two men that took down the shooter. And he told me that the shooter came in and that he said, they stole my land, they stole my land. And that's what he seemed to be so upset about.

And then the two men were able to take down the shooter, punching him, taking him, bringing him to the floor, pulling the handgun from him, tying his arms above his head, Ashleigh, with a jacket, while they restrained him until authorities got there. An unbelievable night and series of events for these people.

BANFIELD: And so heroic that those people were able to do that, to a gun-wielding man. And, by the way, I just wanted to mention, the suspected gunman's name is Rockne Newell and, as Poppy just mentioned, this was a property enforcement issue that he was screaming about, you know, on site, before the shots began to ring out.

Poppy Harlow, live for us, thank you for that.

HARLOW: Sure.

BANFIELD: So, breaking news involving our former president, George W. Bush, a very healthy man, usually seen running or riding a bike. But during a routine physical examination in Dallas yesterday, doctors found something he probably did not want to hear -- a blockage in an artery near his heart. And this morning, they took no chances. He went right in and had a stent placed to open up the blockage.

His office says that President Bush is in high spirits and that he is ready to return home tomorrow. So we all wish him well and we're lucky that that routine examination found something that could have ended up being more serious.

The United States is ordering some Americans to leave Yemen today and all of it amid fears that an imminent terrorist attack could be actually playing out there. A State Department non -- well, an emergency evacuation is going on right now, but it's for non-emergency government personnel. The embassy itself there remains closed. As many as 90 Americans are apparently being flown to Germany amid all of these concerns.

Just ahead, if you buy somebody a drink, probably a nice person, aren't you? But can you be can held liable for what that person does after they drink your drink? A case in Texas centers on a man buying a woman a lot of alcohol. Could it bring another conviction his way? Our legal panel is going to take up some groundbreaking areas of drinking, driving, killing, and the judge.

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BANFIELD: When Nicole Baukus downed her last of 24 alcoholic drinks, just before deciding to take to the wheel and drive home, she probably never imagined that she'd kill two people on that drunken journey. She probably didn't think she'd be sentenced to almost four decades in prison for it either.

You might have imagined that the bartender who overserved her would be charged, but he wasn't. Instead, and this is really something that no one saw coming, the guy who ponied up for drinks that fateful night in June of last year has also been charged in the crime.

This is a case that's playing out in Montgomery County, Texas; it's just north of Houston. 29-year-old Cambiz Jeron will face the judge in what's being called a groundbreaking case.

I want to bring in our legal panel on this one. Criminal defense attorney John Manuelian is live with us in Los Angeles and Faith Jenkins, former criminal prosecutor here in New York, is with us live as well. John, let me begin with you. I mean, WTF is the first thing that comes to mind, but it seems that it would stand to reason if the woman had that much to drink and he was handing them over, kind of sounds like it's fair game. Could he fight this?

JOHN MANUELIAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I think so. We have something like this in California called the Teen Alcohol Safety Act. If you give an alcoholic beverage to anyone that's under 21 and they cause any kind of injuries, you could be liable. But there's a public policy exception that I understand. In this case, how are we going to police this? If I were at a bar and I was buying somebody a drink, am I supposed to give them a field sobriety test? Am I supposed to conduct any kind of examination to make sure that the person I'm giving alcohol to isn't already under the influence?

It's bad public policy, it's going to be very hard to police, and I think there's going to be some constitutional issue as well.

BANFIELD: Well, OK. So Faith, jump in here, 24 drinks in just a matter of hours. Clearly, that is egregious. If you are funneling that much booze into someone in a bar and paying for it, is that what's led to this? I mean, I have a feeling lots of people have paid for rounds for others who've gone out and committed a DUI, and yet we've never had anybody charged for it.

FAITH JENKINS, FORMER N.Y. CRIMINAL PROSECUTOR: Well, first, this statute here requires "sellers and servers not to provide alcohol to intoxicated persons." Now, this defendant is on videotape giving this woman three drinks within ten minutes.

On the video, the prosecutors are arguing she is clearly already intoxicated when this defendant is "serving her," quote/unquote, rounds of additional alcoholic beverages. They're going to go to the videotape here. Yes, it's a novel way to interpret the law, but if you look at the video and this woman is displaying clear signs of severe intoxication, which is what they're arguing -- she's not standing up properly, she's not functioning, you can clearly see it in the video -- and this defendant is serving her, repeatedly, alcoholic beverages.

BANFIELD: It's disgusting just looking at the video of her stumbling around and him trying to dance with her, but I'm going to come to this guy's defense for a minute, pardon me, but it's not illegal to get somebody drunk. The only thing I can imagine that makes him particularly culpable was if he walked her to her car after serving her and then watched her as she teetered away and then drove away.

So, where am I crazy in not being able to connect that dot? Because if you can't connect that dot to me, as a juror, do I want to find myself in that situation as well one day? And I'll put that to you, John.

MANUELIAN: You're absolutely right. And that's exactly my point. There's no proximate cause between you serving the alcohol and somebody getting injured, and your example is right one point. If you were walking the person to the car, then it's foreseeable that you are the direct and proximate cause of the injuries that could occur to somebody else.

But I'm entitled to get somebody drunk. I don't interview people before I give them alcoholic beverages. As a person that's in a bar or restaurant with a friend, it's not my duty. It's not my burden. And that's exactly what this law does. It places a duty and the burden on the citizens and I think that could be held to be unconstitutional.

BANFIELD: Well, it's a remarkable story, and clearly I haven't seen one like this. I don't see every case across the country, but a lot of people are saying this is groundbreaking stuff.

All right, you two, if you could stay right there, Faith and John, I've got a lot more questions for you coming up, particularly about these next cases.

Here's one where a guy attaches an explosive device to his dog and then blows up the dog. You'd think that he'd be in a lot of trouble but that man has not been charged with anything. Nothing. We're going to explain that one in a moment.

And then another story so disturbing, coming out of Canada. A python between 11 and 15 feet along, weighing almost 100 pounds, escaping his cage, slithering through a ventilation system, and wrapping itself around two young brothers and killing them. Is this a horrible accident or is this, in fact, murder?

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BANFIELD: Just a bizarre and tragic story to bring you out of Canada. Two young brothers, just 5 and 7 years old, apparently strangled by a 15-foot python. Apparently that python escaped from a reptile store that was below the apartment. All of this happening in the Canadian province of New Brunswick.

The boys were apparently asleep in the living room, upstairs from the store. The store owner says that he thinks that 100-pound snake was able to somehow escape his cage, slither through the building's ventilation system, and then collapse the ceiling and fall through the ceiling on to where those kids may have been asleep. The store owner, the owner of the store himself, says that he was the one who made the horrible discovery -- the boys on the floor, dead.

I want to bring in our legal panel on this, again, John Manuelian and Faith Jenkins. First of all, it's such an astounding sequence of events. One part tragedy, one part recklessness, and another part a strange confluence of circumstances. Faith, is this store owner criminally liable in a situation like this?

JENKINS: Well, in order for you to get to criminal liability, that really is going to depend on the level of knowledge that he had about these snakes and their ability to escape. For example, is this something that happened before? I mean, did his level of negligence rise to such a certain degree that he could foresee that something like this could happen?

Based on what we know so far, it doesn't appear that that was the case. I mean, this man is actually a family friend with the parents of these young men and he said he considered them to be like his own children, with these boys. And so it's really an unfortunate situation.

You're really looking at civil liability here. When you have an inherently dangerous animal like this snake, you're looking at strict liability, which means he doesn't have to be at fault. He could have had five locks on this cage. If the snakes escaped and they caused injury, or in this case death, he's liable.

BANFIELD: OK, so John, apparently these two boys were his best friend's kids. This is what he has told one of the Canadian broadcasters that interviewed him. So they were in his care and that snake is his snake. So what Faith says stands to reason: he's liable no matter what. But doesn't that up the game when it comes to crime?