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CNN NEWSROOM

Ukraine's Airport in Rubble; Bobbi Kristina Brown's Fight For Her Life; Flash Freeze Hits; Five Years Since the McStay Family Murders; Dow Moving Up Today

Aired February 3, 2015 - 09:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Checking some other top stories for you at 35 minutes past the hour. We have new pictures of Fidel Castro. These 21 photos are the first we've seen of the former Cuban leader since August. They were published in state media and come amid continued rumors the 88-year-old is in bad health. The pictures may have been released to show the world he's OK.

Pro-football Hall-of-Famer Warren Sapp arrested and charged with soliciting a prostitute in Phoenix, just hours after covering the Super Bowl in Arizona. The 42-year-old made an initial court appearance yesterday and was released on his own recognizance. His next court appearance is on the 23rd. Sapp was fired from the NFL Network shortly after his arrest.

Gas prices are ticking back up. Sorry, guys. According to the AAA, average gas prices in the U.S. have climbed seven days in a row. Before last week, prices dropped for a record 123 consecutive days. Today's national average for a gallon of gas remains low, though, $2.07.

The daughter of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown is in the fight of her life. A source close to the family telling CNN Bobbi Kristina experienced seizures while on a ventilator in intensive care. Doctors decided to keep the 21-year-old in a medically induced coma, scrapping plans to reduce her sedatives to access her brain function. Bobbi Kristina Brown's current condition sounding very similar to another incident a few years back. She talked about that during the short- lived reality show that aired soon after her mother's death.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOBBI KRISTINA BROWN, WHITNEY HOUSTON'S DAUGHTER: He came and he got me. I wasn't breathing. My heart stopped. And I had like a seizure or something.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's probably the worst time of my life. I really don't like to talk about it.

BROWN: (INAUDIBLE). Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: Alina Machado joins us now live from Atlanta. Do we know exactly what caused these seizures, Alina?

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, we really don't. And at this point there are a lot of questions about what happened to Bobbi Kristina Brown. The past 72 hours have been incredibly difficult for her family. They've been praying for a miracle while really preparing for the worst.

Now, the source that you mentioned also told CNN, Brown opened and closed her eyes a few times yesterday, but the family was cautioned by doctors not to read too much into that movement. Brown was not breathing. She had no heartbeat when paramedics responded to the house Saturday morning. Nick Gordon (ph), whom she reportedly married about a year ago, found her unresponsive in a bathtub and called 911. Now police say he performed CPR until help arrived.

Also in the home, a man named Maxwell Byron Lomas (ph). Now, we continue to dig on his background, but we have found that Lomas has a prior drug conviction for possession of marijuana in Dawson County, Georgia, which is not far from Atlanta. But, again, police tell us that no drugs were found in the home and at this point they are treating this as a medical incident.

Now, as you know, the 21-year-old is the only daughter of the late Whitney Houston and R&B singer Bobby Brown. It's going to be three years next week that Houston died in an eerily similar circumstance. This is a difficult time for this family. You can only imagine what they are going through now having to deal with Bobbi Kristina's condition. And on Twitter family and friends have been sending messages using the hashtag #prayforbk.

Carol.

COSTELLO: Alina Machado reporting live from Atlanta. Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the snow is fading but the temperature is falling. CNN's Chad Myers is in New York with the newest extreme weather, the flash freeze.

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COSTELLO: Well, here's a danger you don't normally associate with a lot of snowfall. Keep your eyes on that black smoke that you will see billowing through a manhole. Little frigid temperatures cause that stuff to happen. The blast shattered nearby windows and sent a manhole shooting some 40 feet into the air. When it came down, it injured a man, but he is expected to recover. New York utility crews believe salt and slush got into the underground power cables and triggered the explosion.

Today's weather problems offer less drama, at least we hope, but not a lot of comfort either. CNN meteorologist Chad Myers is here with the flash freeze that sent temperatures plummeting in a short amount of time.

Hi, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Sure did. Hi, Carol. You know, we had snowicane last week, not it's #hatheadiscool because you should be wearing a hat today everywhere or a tuuk (ph) would be nice too because it is cold outside, although now up to 17 here in Central Park. We range from eight to about 20 across the tri state and it is cold all the way from Chicago, all the way to Boston. That is because we have the snow on the ground. Even though the sun's going to come out today, the snow is going to reflect all that heat back up through the atmosphere and we're not going to warm up very much. In fact, the warmest day for the next few that I can find will be tomorrow and we get to 39 and then back into the 20s rather quickly.

And every storm that comes by, there will be one in a couple of days that will bring a couple of inches of snow and maybe one for Monday that could bring a lot more. But every storm that comes by now will be a snow maker because it is cold enough that there won't be any -- there will be no rain in our forecast for a very long time. In fact, you know, Punxsutawney Phil and I agree that this will go on for quite some time.

There's a trough in the east that allows the cold air to come down from the north and then there's a ridge in the west that allows all the heat to be on that side. There's going to be some rain in California, don't get me wrong, but that ridge and that trough are going to be with us, at least now what I see, for the next month.

COSTELLO: Oh!

MYERS: So keep those hand heaters warm. You know, I had those hand warmers earlier. They can warm your nose, they can warm your ears. They're good for a lot of things.

COSTELLO: What's a tuuk?

MYERS: A tuuk? What's a tuuk?

COSTELLO: What's a tuuk?

MYERS: This -- this is really --

COSTELLO: Oh. That's a toboggan.

MYERS: Don't you know Bob and Doug McKenzie?

COSTELLO: Sadly, no.

MYERS: My toupee.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: I'm glad you cleared that up for me. Would I have thought about that all day. Chad Myers, thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a murder mystery in California. But do the authorities have the right suspect? We'll take you live to Los Angeles where Randi Kaye has been looking into this case for years.

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COSTELLO: Checking other top stories at 49 minutes past. Cairo on alert this morning after police found a pair of bombs inside the city's airport. The devices were found in separate terminals. No arrests have been made. We're told security officials are reviewing video footage. This comes after a homemade bomb detonated at a busy square in central Cairo. There were no reports of any injuries.

Rap mogul Suge Knight is set to be arraigned today on a murder charge connected to a fatal hit-and-run this weekend. Knight is accused of running over two people after an argument on a movie set. One of them died. The L.A. County sheriff's office revoked Knight's bail because they consider him a flight risk. He faces up to life in prison if convicted.

The Super Bowl is now the most watched televised event in U.S. history. More than 114 million people tuned into see the Patriots take on the Seahawks this past Sunday. Viewership actually peaked at more than 120 million during the game's dramatic fourth quarter finish.

Five years ago tomorrow, a family of four disappeared from their home in San Diego, California. Four years later, their remains were found in two shallow graves in the Mojave Desert. CNN's Randi Kaye has been following this case for years. She talked exclusively to the man now accused of those murders, Charles Chase Merritt.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Four murder charges against Charles Ray Merritt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police are calling him a cold blooded and callous killer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Killing a California family, burying their bodies in the Mojave Desert.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Those crimes to be eligible for the death penalty.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): November 12th, 2014. Chase Merritt's first day in court, the first time he responds to the charges against him. Not guilty. Not surprising given what he told us a year earlier.

(on camera): In your gut, what do you think happened?

CHASE MERRITT, ACCUSED OF MCSTAY FAMILY MURDER: I have absolutely no clue.

KAYE: Words that Patrick McStay trusted for so long.

PATRICK MCSTAY, FATHER OF JOSEPH MCSTAY: I trusted him because my son believed in him. KAYE: Now he sees a very different Chase Merritt.

MICHAEL RAMOS, SAN BERNANDINO COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: To me he looked like a broken man. He knew he was done when the jury hears the evidence and we put this all together for them, that they will find him guilty.

KAYE: But could the case be that solid? And could one man have done it all?

RAMOS: He's the only person, the only suspect in this murder case.

GINA WATSON, BUSINESS ASSOCIATE OF JOSEPH MCSTAY: I was honestly a bit shocked that -- and especially that it was one person alone.

MCSTAY: I don't believe that.

KAYE: Why not?

MCSTAY: There's just too much there.

KAYE: Could one person kill a family of four, bury the bodies a hundred miles north in the Mojave Desert, drop the car 250 miles south of the Mexico border. Could one person do that and then return home to make it look like he was home that night to receive a phone call from Joseph McStay?

RAMOS: Yes. And we have the evidence to prove that. Yes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Randi Kaye now joins us from Los Angeles. So, Randi, why is the D.A. so sure that this man is responsible for the murder of this family?

KAYE (on camera): Well, Carol, Chase Merritt told us that he had taken a polygraph test and he thought he passed it. But apparently investigators didn't agree with that. They have been tracking him 24/7, we're told, for a year before he was actually arrested in November.

Here's the story. We know that he was at the house; he was the first person at the McStay home since the family disappeared. So they're certainly very curious about that. Investigators didn't go into the home until days after, so they're wondering what maybe he might have done at the home. Did he clean up the scene? We know that the family was killed by blunt force trauma, according to investigators. Was there blood spatter? Did he clean the scene? They were looking at that.

We also know he lived at the time in Hesperia, California, which is near the Mojave Desert where the remains were found four years after the family disappeared. There were also 100 pieces of evidence pulled from that grave site, the shallow graves in the desert. Investigators were looking at that. They say that connects him to Chase Merritt, and also tire tracks that may have been found in the desert. They wouldn't say for sure if they came from a vehicle associated with Chase Merritt, but they were certainly looking at that as well. Carol.

COSTELLO: So what would have been the motive?

KAYE: Well, Chase Merritt was a welder and he was working for Joseph McStay's waterfall business. He made these custom waterfalls. And, apparently, we know from family members that Joey McStay wasn't very happy with the work that Chase Merritt was doing. It was getting a little shoddy. He was having to replace waterfalls, having to give money back. So it was really costing the business a lot of money.

And there was also a big deal worth something like $9 million that the two of them were coming into. And if he had -- if Joey McStay was looking to cut Chase Merritt out of that deal, investigators say that would have been a motive to get rid of the McStay family.

COSTELLO: The whole family. Randi Kaye, fascinating. Thank you so much. And be sure to tune into Randi Kaye's documentary that takes you inside the latest on this case. "CHASING A KILLER: INSIDE THE MCSTAY FAMILY MURDERS". Airs tonight, 9:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN.

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COSTELLO: Another day, another weird shift in the Dow. Christine Romans is here to tell us about it.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I call it exciting; Carol calls it weird.

But you're right, it is six days in a row now of triple digit moves. This time, the Dow moving up here. Three things happening: No. 1, you have oil prices rebounding. Two days in a row now oil up together about 11 percent so that crash in the oil market seems to have found a floor at least for now and investors like that. Energy stocks are up here. That's the first reason.

The second reason, Greece. Greece has said it's not going to ask Germany to forget its big enormous debts and that's important for stability of Europe and the stability of the exit, the Greek situation with the EU. So that's the other reason.

And the third reason is, frankly, last month stocks had a terrible month. The S&P was down almost 4 percent to start the year and it just was overdone. You have people coming in now and saying, wait, things aren't as bad as we thought. We're going to step in with oil prices higher and buy the market.

So another -- I mean, yes, it's been wild. It's been six days of triple digit moves for the Dow.

COSTELLO: And it's only the beginning of February.

ROMANS: It's only the beginning of February. That's why you take the long view, Carol. You rebound your portfolio.

COSTELLO: I always try to listen to your advice, as you know.

ROMANS: Take the long view.

COSTELLO: Christine Romans, thanks so much.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

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