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LEGAL VIEW WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

Kayla Mueller Confirmed Dead; Jesse Matthew Charged with Murder

Aired February 10, 2015 - 12:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. And welcome to LEGAL VIEW.

For more than a year, very few people knew Kayla Mueller was being held hostage by ISIS. And that was very much on purpose. Days ago, her captors claimed that she was killed. They said by a coalition air strike. But they didn't give proof of that. So the young Arizona woman's family, U.S. officials and everyone who knew her incredible story or her terrible plight, they all held out hope. And that hope has now ended.

Late this morning, the White House confirmed that Kayla Jean Mueller is dead. Dead at the hands of hateful and abhorrent terrorists. Aides say that President Obama has spoken with Kayla's family, who we understand received word -- personal word from ISIS, personal word accompanied by photographs that came just this past weekend. And as if this family hasn't suffered enough, after she was taken hostage more than a year and a half ago, wondering if she'd be OK, and then wondering since last week if it was true, was she really dead, now comes the news that they just have to accommodate, she is dead.

And they've released this statement. I just want to read it for you as they sent it to us. This is from Kayla Jean Mueller's parents, Carl and Marsha, and her brother Eric and his family. "We are heartbroken to share that we've received information, confirmation that Kayla Jean Mueller has lost her life. Kayla was a compassionate and devoted humanitarian. She dedicated the whole of her young life to helping those in need of freedom, justice and peace. In a letter to her father on his birthday in 2011," this is before Kayla had been taken hostage, "Kayla wrote this, I find God in the suffering eyes reflected in mine. If this is how you are revealed to me, this is how I will forever seek you. I will always seek God. Some people find God in church. Some people find God in nature. Some people find God in love. I find God in suffering. I've known for some time what my life's work is, using my hands as tools to relieve suffering. Kayla was drawn to help those displaced by the Syrian civil war. She first traveled to Turkey in December of 2012 to provide humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees. She told us of the great joy that she took in helping Syrian children and their families. We are so proud of the person Kayla was and the work that she did while she was here with us. She lived with a purpose and we will work every day to honor her legacy. Our hearts are breaking for our only daughter, but we will continue on in peace, dignity and love for her. We remain heartbroken also for the families of the other captives who did not make it home safely and who remain in our thoughts and prayers. And we pray for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Syria."

The family has requested in lieu of flowers the following. "Kayla's mission of humanitarian work, donations be made to causes that Kayla would have supported. And additional information will be made available in the coming weeks." Those the messages from a family now in mourning, but a family at least with answer, the answers they certainly did not want to get.

I want to bring in CNN's Kyung Lah, who is live now in Mueller's hometown of Prescott, Arizona. And CNN justice correspondent Pamela Brown, who's in Washington, D.C.

Kyung, if I can just go to you. I just cannot imagine what this family is going through, thinking what they've been through and now thinking what they're learning. Will there be any more response from this family and do we know where they go from here?

KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's hard to imagine where they go from here because this is a private hell that I think most of us can't even imagine. We haven't gotten any word of whether or not there is going to be any public memorial for this woman, this extraordinary young woman, only 26 years old. But there is a sign here on the town square. It's -- you can see it sort of over my shoulder, but here's a closer look at it. It's a sign that says "pray for Kayla." And you can see that there are flowers beginning to grow beneath it.

Throughout the weekend, there has been a restraint by a lot of people in this town of 40,000. They haven't really wanted to acknowledge it yet until the parents came out with a statement. But now that they have acknowledged it, you can see that there is grief becoming palatable here in this town.

The family's also has been telling us through spokespeople that they want people to understand who Kayla Mueller is. That she is an extraordinary woman. As you said, Ashleigh, she went around the world to try to help people who could not help themselves. And so in keeping in line with that, they also released a handwritten letter that Kayla wrote while in captivity. It is dated November 2, 2014. And it's quite a long, handwritten letter. But I want to highlight one particular part of it because it gets to the heart of what the family wants people to know about her.

And Kayla writes, "I have been shown darkness, light and learned even in prison one can be free. I am grateful. I have come to see that there is good in every situation. Sometimes we just have to look for it." In the darkest corners of the globe, that is what she tried to do. She tried to bring light to people who have no light. And that's something that her parents want people to know about their daughter, even in death.

Ashleigh. BANFIELD: I can't imagine, Kyung, that they're even thinking about further communication with these murders. But, ultimately, are they trying to get her body back? And if so, how?

LAH: It's very hard to know. We -- in this sort of situation, the likelihood of it, if you talk to U.S. officials, is -- it's very unknown what the possibility of that is. We do know that in a public statement released Friday evening, the family had sent out a statement -- a public statement directly to the captors, to the ISIS captors saying, we want to talk to you directly and privately. We later learned that the family said that they wanted to be reached through the original channels. We don't know what those original channels are. We now know that they got that photo confirmation of her death. So as difficult as it is to perhaps see those pictures, not knowing from what we know from the people who are in touch with the family, not knowing would have been far worse.

Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Of course. Pamela, I want to bring you in on this, if I may. The administration has been a part of this with that family. Private communication or not, they definitely authenticated these photos and confirmed this death. But in the meantime, there is still this question, ISIS said it was a Jordanian air strike that killed Kayla, and yet the administration is saying that her captors are responsible for her death. But are they being more clear than that?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: No, they're not. I mean the bottom line here is that Kayla died while she was being held captive by ISIS. ISIS is responsible for her death, no matter how she was killed, Ashleigh. That's the bottom line.

But from the new information that has come to light, these pictures that the family received from Kayla's ISIS captors over the weekend, they don't clarify how she was killed, whether it was, in fact, in an air strike or whether she was executed by ISIS before or after the air strikes on Friday that ISIS -- where ISIS claims she was killed. So that is very much a question.

But after a forensic analysis of these pictures, coupled with the feeling that, you know, she can't turn up alive now that ISIS has already said she is dead, that led the family and the government to this very sad conclusion.

Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: You know, there is another question here, and that is that -- while Americans may not fully, you know, get their heads around this notion, ISIS or not ISIS, one of their chief tenets is that they care for their guests. It is a twisted logic when you think of these people that they have abducted and murdered so violently, but that is an issue. And if she was a guest of theirs, as she even noted in her letter, is there any talk of this in channels overseas that this will backfire like perhaps no other brutal hostage killing on video has?

BROWN: You know, that is a concern. Of course, she is also a woman. And that also changes the calculus and some are speculating at this point that that's why ISIS didn't sort of exploit her death as they have with other hostages, the beheadings and so forth that they've used as propaganda. The fact that she is a woman changes things. There's also a concern, Ashleigh, Mueller was the last known American being held captive by ISIS. There's a concern that perhaps they could try to take more western hostages by going to refugee camps in neighboring countries. So this is an ongoing concern and threat, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: We have seen that concern that intelligence has pointed to this being a brand-new strategy to go to Jordan and Syria and even Lebanon and capture hostages and bring them through that porous border to hold them, so there is an even more dire concern for people living or working or doing this humanitarian work.

Pamela Brown, thank you for that. And our thanks to Kyung Lah as well who's in Prescott, Arizona, where the family is grieving.

And there is more coming on the death of this U.S. aid worker, Kayla Mueller, at the hands of ISIS terrorists, or at least as she was being held by them. What is the next move of this president and the United States and this Congress to defeat the killers? That's just ahead.

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BANFIELD: On Carl Mueller's birthday in 2011, his daughter, Kayla, wrote him a letter explaining, and I'll quote her, "I find God in the suffering eyes reflected in mine." And today we're following the heartbreaking news that Kayla Mueller, an Arizona young woman who devoted her 26 years to easing the suffering of others, is dead, basically at the hands -- in the hands of a terror group called ISIS. ISIS had held her hostage after grabbing her from northern Syria for 18 months. Eighteen months she was their prisoner and now she's dead.

Joining me here in New York, CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank.

We're still waiting on clarification as to whether this administration believes that they killed her or that it is true it was an air strike that killed her while they held her in a prison against her will.

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Absolutely. And clearly ISIS bear responsibility for this one way or the other. It's not clear at this point whether it was in some kind of air strike last week or whether they killed her and sort of framed it to make it look like it was an air strike. Obviously, the family, for their own peace of mind, will want answers to that question.

BANFIELD: But what about this notion -- and you've written about this -- that ISIS has a sort of new strategy afoot to actually expand out to the neighboring countries, to Lebanon, throughout Syria as well already, and Jordan even, where I think a lot of journalists would feel it was more safe to be reporting, to grab western hostages and pull them into their strongholds and then ultimately build their hostage machine.

CRUICKSHANK: They want more western hostages. The intelligence suggests that they've been developing plans to try and abduct them from neighboring countries like Jordan and Lebanon. That they've been developing these plans for some time. Obviously, they calculate that it's useful to them from a propaganda point of view --

BANFIELD: And a human shield point of view, you would think.

CRUICKSHANK: And potentially also from a human shield point of view. But particularly from a propaganda point of view to make these threats, to make it seem to their followers around the world that they're retaliating for these U.S. and coalition air strikes. So a lot of concern about neighboring countries, but also about Egypt because there's a very active ISIS affiliate in Egypt and there are all those western tourists that go to Egypt. Just yesterday it released a video where it beheaded eight spies, already killed an American in a carjacking last summer in Egypt. So a lot of concern about the wider region, the threats to westerners traveling.

BANFIELD: And there are still western hostages. In fact, still an American hostage named Austin Tice, who has not been heard from for so long. His father, Marc Tice, and his mother Debra Tice, were on Erin Burnett's program last night talking about their son. We have a photo of him here. I mean this is heartbreaking when you see a fellow hostage's family with this awful news. This is what he said to Erin last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARC TICE, FATHER OF AMERICAN HOSTAGE IN SYRIA: We've experienced what other families have experienced in the course of Austin's captivity and working with the government that there are not clear guidelines, clear directions, clear accountability for bringing hostages home safely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Is there any clear guideline or strategy in the wake of this sort of new phenomenon of repetitive murderous acts against western hostages that this administration could put into play? I mean is anyone accusing the administration of being feckless or are the accusations that what can the administration do?

CRUICKSHANK: Well, it's very hard because, you know, how can you negotiate with terrorists, how can you give money to terrorists who are now, it appears, starting to pivot towards plotting attacks against the west and also brutalizing the population of Syria and Iraq? So how can western countries give this group the tens of millions of dollars that it wants? Obviously there's been a lot of criticism, a number of European governments who've allegedly provided ransom, got their citizens back. The United States and Britain do not negotiate with these kinds of group. And if they did, it may just sort of incentivize them to try and snatch more hostages.

BANFIELD: So, if that is in fact the strategy, and if that in fact bears out, what does that do to the coalition strategy of air strikes on ISIS strongholds, ISIS positions, ISIS buildings, knowing now that it is possible -- and again, I wouldn't put anything past ISIS given what we've seen them do -- that it is possible that there may be hostages being held there or being used as shields?

CRUICKSHANK: We know already that they have a British hostage, John Cantlie, who's been held somewhere. He's been moved around between Syria and Iraq. We don't know about any other western hostages specifically that ISIS is holding. There are a couple of American journalists who have gone missing in Syria. Tice is one of them. But no information suggesting that they're specifically with ISIS at this point.

But obviously a concern that when you're targeting some of these sites, that there could be hostages. There's also a wider concern that ISIS is mixing in with the local population, using them as human shields. This is a group that's present in urban areas. It's not like al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan where they're in remote mountain areas.

BANFIELD: Sure.

CRUICKSHANK: They're in urban areas, towns with millions of people in them.

BANFIELD: Right, where collateral damage --

CRUICKSHANK: Absolutely.

BANFIELD: That awful term, takes on an even more important role in these wars because they have caused the wars to get worse. It's the hearts and minds you lose much faster when there's so much more collateral damage.

Paul, thank you. Sorry, under these circumstances we're discussing this end to Kayla's life. Appreciate your insight. Thank you.

And six months after the start of the U.S. military attacks on ISIS, the White House is certainly now ready to ask Congress for something formal, authority to do this. The paperwork could arrive on Capitol Hill as soon as today. But what happens after that is a whole lot less clear. Our sources inside the White House are saying the measure will not be open-ended, but might just expire after three years. There may or may not be geographic limit, meaning Iraq and Syria. But the real question is whether to authorize those boots on the ground, ground troops. A lot of Democrats are opposed to this and many Republicans don't want entirely to have that ruled out. And this is a sure topic to come up at the daily White House media briefing. That's happening at the bottom of this hour. About 11 minutes from now. We are going to bring that to you live just the moment that it happens. Back in a quick break.

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BANFIELD: In the wake of this tragic news that the ISIS hostage, Kayla Mueller, has in fact been killed, we are watching another young woman's family grieving as the state of Virginia back months ago launched one of its biggest searches in the history of that state. They were looking for missing University of Virginia student Hannah Graham, just 18 years old. She disappeared September 13th and her body was found the next month.

But finally today, months later, a murder charge for the man they suspected all along. This man, Jesse Matthew. He has been the prime suspect, the only suspect in her disappearance. But why did it take this long before the action, the murder charge finally came down? Want to bring in Brian Todd, who is live in Charlottesville, Virginia, along with former court TV anchor and law teacher extraordinaire Jack Ford, and HLN legal analyst and defense attorney Joey Jackson.

And first to you, Brian, with the news that came down today, a murder charge, finally a murder charge, and what else are they telling us about this?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ashleigh, they're not telling us a whole lot else about this case. The Albemarle County Police and the Albemarle County Commonwealth Attorney's Office, essentially the D.A. down here, have just announced that Jesse Matthew has been charged with first-degree murder in the Hannah Graham case, along with a charge of abduction with the intent to defile Hannah Graham. In addition to that, a couple of reckless driving charges have been filed against Jesse Matthew in this case.

And as far as evidence is concerned, they're not talking about evidence. They're not talking about much else here. This is just some of the comment from Denise Lunsford, the commonwealth's attorney here in Albemarle County a few minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DENISE LUNSFORD, ALBEMARLE COUNTY PROSECUTOR: The prosecutions for the abduction and murder of Hannah will bring Mr. Matthew to justice for this crimes. Crimes that were committed against Hannah Graham, against her family and against our community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: And again, we pressed the commonwealth's attorney about what evidence they have to charge Jesse Matthew with the death of Hannah Graham. Hannah Graham went missing on September 13th. Her body was found a few miles away from the point where she was last seen about a month later. And the only thing that was left of her body was a skull and some bones at the site where the body was left in rural Albemarle County. So we've asked the prosecution and the police about specifically what evidence they're going to bring in this case. They will not discuss the evidence. They also will not discuss whether any kind of a deal was made because they have said that this is not a capital murder charge against Jesse Matthew. For the moment, at least, they are not going to be seeking the death penalty, but it is a first- degree murder charge and the maximum of life in prison comes with that.

In addition to this, they are not really discussing the timing of when this case is going to go to trial. Jesse Matthew is also being tried in Fairfax County, Virginia, about two hours north of here, for a 2005 rape. He is on trial -- he's going to be on trial for rape in that case, a 2005 rape in Fairfax County. He has pleaded not guilty in that case.

Now, it's not clear exactly when that case is going to go forward. The defense has asked for a delay in that case and that's been granted. That case -- that trial was going to start on March 9th, but that's been delayed and they're going to set a new date for that this week. So not really clear when the Albemarle County murder case is going to go forward in relation to the Fairfax County case. Also, just a few minutes ago, Ashleigh, I got off the phone with James Camblos, Jesse Matthew's attorney. He has no comment on the murder charge.

BANFIELD: I suppose that would be what most attorneys would say at this point until they get their ducks in a row.

Stand by, Brian Todd, if you will, for a moment.

Jack Ford, I want to bring you in on this as well, and Joey Jackson.

Five months before an actual murder charge. Is that because you must have everything in order before you go that route?

JACK FORD, FORMER COURT TV ANCHOR: Yes, one of the things that prosecutors, if they didn't know it before, learned from the first O.J. Simpson trial is, don't go rushing into a case. You'll remember in the O.J. Simpson trial, the prosecutors were still getting evidence results back in the middle of the trial. Now, part of that was a defense strategy where the defense pushed them to go (INAUDIBLE). But if you're the prosecutor in a high-profile case such as this, you know, it's a small community down there. I've been teaching at the University of Virginia for the last two years and this just -- just did terrible things to the sense of that community. And you're the prosecutor, you want to make sure you've got everything lined up before you bring these charges.

And this has been a difficult case. You know, I -- we don't know what the facts are. Joey and I were talking about this before. You don't know exactly how many -- how many hard facts there are out there. They've got some circumstantial stuff bringing him into the beginning here. But if you're the prosecutor, you're saying, let's wait until we've got everything lined up and we're ready to move forward first degree. I wouldn't be surprised -- I mean they're not making this a death penalty case yet.

BANFIELD: Yet.

FORD: But I would be -- I would be fairly surprised if they didn't down the road someplace.

BANFIELD: And, look, you're both -- you both teach law. This is sort of confounding to most people. Why wouldn't you come out of the gate -- people are angry. As Jack said, small community. Why wouldn't you come out of the gate and say, and it's death penalty? What do you have to lose?

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: It's a very good question, Ashleigh, and I understand the press conference even ended abruptly when that question was posed to the prosecutor at the time. And so, you know, if you have a case like this and you look at a classic capital murder case and one of the elements is premeditation during an abduction or during a rape, if you look at the issue with the first charge was abduction with intent to defile, which is a sex charge. So it really boggles the mind as to why they do. But to Jack's point, certainly it could be upgraded at some later time.

But you have to think, although we don't know the evidence, we certainly have to think they've been investigating it over the course of time and they would have had to have compelling evidence. Remember, they searched his car, they searched his home. In addition to that, the body was found. You have to wonder what DNA came about as a result of that. They have the --

BANFIELD: In terrible condition. It was very degraded.