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Greetings From Asbury Park; Judge Bars Evidence; Mom Jailed in Mexico; Home Prices Post Huge Gains

Aired May 28, 2013 - 14:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: An American mother behind bars in Mexico, accused of smuggling pot. But her husband isn't the only one who thinks she was framed.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

A police officer ambushed, shot to death. And now as crews hunt his killer, his widow breaks her silence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want everybody to know what an amazing man he was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The jury deciding his fate won't see the crime scene. Will it help or hurt George Zimmerman's case?

Plus, the stunning rescue of a newborn stuck inside a pipe. But how did he get there in the first place?

And the mother of a teenager accused of trying to blow up his school says her son suffers from a rare OCD illness known as PANDAS. We'll explore.

And here we go. Good to see all of you. I'm Brooke Baldwin here. And we begin with America's top political bromance that's just rekindled on the boardwalk of New Jersey. You have Barack Obama and Chris Christie. There they are on the Jersey Shore, Asbury Park to be precise. The president checking in on Republican Christie and checking out Washington's billion dollar investment in the post Sandy recovery. Remember, this is where it all started, this partnership of convenience, less than a week before that presidential election last November. Just a short time ago, the president said New Jersey has made it back from those dark days of late October.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You are stronger than the storm. After all you've dealt with, after all you've been through, the Jersey Shore is back and it is open for business. And they want all Americans to know that they're ready to welcome you here.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: Jessica Yellin is there. She is our chief White House correspondent.

And, Jessica, let me ask you this, I mean is there any way to tell -- are these two gentlemen actually bonding, I mean, as we mentioned? Is it strictly a partnership of convenience? We have the president. You know, obviously, he has money for hurricane relief. Chris Christie has the Republican cred -- some Republican cred, at least.

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I would say it's -- now they share a political goal, Brooke. You know, the governor sells himself as a person -- a politician who will make tough choices to just get the job done. President Obama came here and said he will not forget, he will stick with this job here in New Jersey until the Sandy recovery is finished. So they both sort of forge this bond at that moment when they came in for Sandy relief together, and they're both invested in making sure that they make good on that promise. They each have different motivations, but for different reasons they share a similar goal and so in that sense they do have a bond and they're both -- you can tell they sort of amuse one another even though they're very different kinds of people. They're physically very different, you know, tall and small and long and, you know, not long. So but they do seem to enjoy one another.

BALDWIN: OK.

YELLIN: And they have jokes at each other's expense, yes.

BALDWIN: Let me ask you, though, about the president's, you know, Republican friends at least who it appears he can work with now. You know, he has Mary Fallin out of Oklahoma, the governor there, which, as we all know, hit by that EF-5 tornado. And then there's Chris Christie, New Jersey, hit by hurricane. The bad news for the president is that neither one really has pull in Washington. Neither works there. And that is where the president could really use a Republican friend, right?

YELLIN: Yes, but let's dial back and be realistic about this. If you take Republicans who are governors and put them in Washington, suddenly they would likely disagree with the president. The reason so many Republican governors are more willing to welcome the president is because they need federal funding, which you get -- the state has gotten more than $3 billion, with a b, dollars in federal funds since Hurricane Sandy hit. And you also get a lot of press attention.

Because the president came here today, the people watching this now know that the Jersey Shore is open for business and recovery is under way and it brings tourists money and dollars back to the shore. So, governors have a different political motivation. Things change when you get to Washington, you know, Brooke, unfortunately these days.

BALDWIN: Yes. And despite the rain, a great place to be, the Jersey Shore here. Jessica Yellin, thank you so much, our chief White House correspondent. Appreciate it.

Let me take you to Bardstown, Kentucky, where a grieving family, police department and community are trying to come to grips with the chilling murder of Officer Jason Ellis. Authorities say the seven-year police veteran and father of two was ambushed, shot to death, this was early Saturday morning, on this exit ramp after stopping to remove some debris that he saw in the middle of the road. He never had a chance to fight back. His gun still holstered. Police won't say specifically what this debris was in the road, but they do believe that this debris was a trap and they called Ellis' death a, quote, "assassination." Today, Officer Ellis' wife, Amy, spoke about the overwhelming support she and her family have received.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMY ELLIS, WIFE OF SLAIN OFFICER: It just means -- it means a lot. I mean I can't say how much that it has meant to us just to see the honor that has been shown to him and the support of our family. He was an amazing man. And I just want everybody to know what an amazing man that he was. He was a dedicated family man. He loved our family, loved our boys, he loved me.

We met on Valentine's Day 12 years ago when we were at college and were inseparable ever since. It was truly, truly love at first sight. He was my best friend. We've had our, you know, as good as can be expected, just they know, you know, their daddy is not coming back. And it's going to be a long, hard road.

The younger one, he knows, you know, try to explain the best I can. He knows that daddy's not coming back, but that we will see him one day again in heaven. And he got hurt yesterday. And that's when he started letting it all out. He just screamed and screamed and screamed. He wanted his daddy. And we all sat there and cried with him and said, you know, we do too.

I wanted to thank everyone for, you know, the support and the honor and the love and the prayers. You know, the only reason why I can get up here right now is because of prayers. And God has, you know, picked me up off the bathroom floor. I didn't want to live another second without him. And now I know that I have to be strong for our kids. And I can just - I feel the prayers and the support. I mean I truly do. And I wanted to thank everybody for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Here is what a Kentucky State Police trooper told me last night about the hunt for this killer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MASTER TROOPER NORMAN CHAFFINS, KENTUCKY STATE POLICE: We've got every resource available to us. It's been made available to us. And I can assure you, we're all proud of the agency that we work for, but we're not too proud to ask for help. And if it comes to a point within the investigation that we need help and we -- we are in - we will enlist that help and do whatever we can to bring this person to justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: Officer Jason Ellis loved baseball, he spent two seasons as a catcher in the Reds' minor league system before becoming a police officer and he was a pee wee baseball coach in Bardstown.

To Florida where it was a lightning round of motions in the George Zimmerman murder trial. Today the judge handed the series of pretrial victories to the prosecution, including barring the defense from introducing information about Florida teenager Trayvon Martin at trial. The Martin family attorney says the judge made the right decisions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN CRUMP, MARTIN FAMILY ATTORNEY: Trayvon Martin did not have a gun. Trayvon Martin did not get out of the car to chase anybody. Trayvon Martin did not shoot and kill anybody. Trayvon Martin is not on trial. None of the information released last week by the defense lawyers were relevant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: George Zimmerman, who is charged with second degree murder in the death of Trayvon Martin, was not in court today, though his brother made a desperate plea to the state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, JR., GEORGE ZIMMERMAN'S BROTHER: I am calling on the state of Florida to do the right thing, the only just thing, which should have been done long ago. I believe the time has come to withdraw the charge of murder in the second degree.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Joining me now, CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin.

And, Sunny, there is so much information here today. Let's begin with really what is the bad news for the defense. We know that this judge denied or delayed nearly every one of the motions. So how big of a blow was this for the defense side?

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: You know, Mark O'Mara did speak to us, Brooke, after the hearing and he said he expected the judge's ruling and, you're right, the judge, in my view, really denied a lot of the defense's requests to allow a lot of information about Trayvon Martin prior to the incident that happened on February 26th. And so the judge says, no, you're not going to hear about Trayvon Martin's suspension from school. You're not going to hear about Trayvon Martin's alleged drug use. You're not going to hear about Trayvon Martin's alleged fighting prior to the night of February 26th.

I do believe, though, that that could be very difficult for this defense because Mark O'Mara said today, repeatedly, in the courtroom, that this defense is about Trayvon Martin being the aggressor, and George Zimmerman having to defend himself. And so I suspect that this hearing made the defense a bit more difficult for Mark O'Mara and his team.

BALDWIN: Sunny, let me bring in Mark Nejame. He's also an attorney and a CNN legal analyst as well.

And so, Mark, let me throw this next one to you here. The judge did agree to a key request from the defense to hold a hearing on whether this state failed to turn over some evidence. Why the delay in ruling?

MARK NEJAME, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I think this is going to be a major ruling. I think we might see the Fourth of July coming a month early. There is going to be fireworks on this. There's a strong -- when you accuse a prosecutor of misconduct, which was basically what's been done here, this calls for attention. Basically they need to bring in the right witnesses to come in to be able to establish what, in fact, the defense is alleging. We don't know if it's true or not. If in fact it is true, that the state withheld evidence, and I'm not even sure that that evidence is going to become admissible, it sounds like it likely won't be, but that's really not the standard in Florida. If, in fact, there's anything that should have been turned over to the defense, and it wasn't, and it turned out that somebody from the state brought it to the defense's attention because they proceed impropriety, that's a big deal and it deserves a full and fair hearing.

BALDWIN: What about, Sunny, this gag order that the prosecutor had wanted that was denied. Do you think that will impact the case at all?

HOSTIN: You know, I don't think so. Clearly the judge has ruled on this issue before. This is the third gag order that the prosecution has requested. Of course it's been denied each and every time. And the judge made it clear that she expects these attorneys to be professional. She expects these attorneys not to share information with the media about these particulars of the case.

But I will say this, Brooke, which was very interesting. There was an exchange between Mark O'Mara and Judge Nelson this morning. And, by the way, Judge Nelson has just done a really superb job, at least today, of keeping this very, very tight. But she indicated that they had a discussion in camera about whether or not, meaning in her chambers, about whether or not to sequester this jury and explain to all the attorneys not to mention it. But we now know that one of the defense attorneys did mention it on our sister network, HLN, and the judge was none too happy about that.

BALDWIN: Mark, let me just end with you. This was a biggie that came out today, that the jury will not be going to the crime scene. Why did the defense want this, Mark?

NEJAME: I think they want to be able to bring a jury there so that they can see all the angles and where everything happened and how things can happen quickly and where somebody might have been able to come around a corner or whatever. With all that said, I think the judge made a good ruling. I think that you cannot replicate the time and the rain conditions and all that. You can't do it -- you can do it just as well by doing it on video and bringing pictures in and otherwise. And I think speaking to what was just stated, I think this judge is running a very tight ship. But I think it's not so much her being tough. I think it's her being prepared.

BALDWIN: Yes.

NEJAME: You see her going into court, reading the cases beforehand.

BALDWIN: She has to be.

NEJAME: Obviously up for the day - for the nights before. She's ready. So I think that she's just moving it along at a good clip and I think we can expect that in the trial.

HOSTIN: Yes.

BALDWIN: OK, Mark Nejame and Sunny Hostin -

HOSTIN: And what was interesting also --

BALDWIN: Ten seconds, go, Sunny.

HOSTIN: Oh, one quick thing. You know it was interesting to me that I'm always about 15, 20 minutes early to all my hearings. This judge started the hearing not at 9:00 a.m. but at 8:59. And so being prepared certainly is something that this judge is.

BALDWIN: She's on it. Thanks, guys, appreciate it.

Coming up, an interesting development in the Michael Jackson trial. A man who once worked with Elvis is taking the stand. We will tell you why that is.

But up next, an American mom sitting behind bars in Mexico, accused of smuggling pot. And her husband isn't the only one who thinks she was framed.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: A Phoenix woman jailed six days ago on drug smuggling charges has a court appearance today to determine if she walks free or not. Her family is adamant that Yannira Maldonado is innocent. Gary Maldonado has already paid $5,000 in an unsuccessful attempt to free his wife. He believes her arrest last week at a military roadblock in central Mexico was really a shakedown by Mexican soldiers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY MALDONADO, WIFE JAILED IN MEXICO: It's about getting money here. So the military was the only one there at the checkpoint. So from what I hear, that's a regular occurrence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: At least one Mexican official supports that view. Yannira Maldonado, who has seven children and two grandchildren, went to Mexico with her husband to attend a family funeral. On the charter bus ride back to the U.S., she was arrested for allegedly smuggling 12 pounds of marijuana. And her daughter spoke with CNN, a pretty emotional interview here, after visiting her mother in jail over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNA SOTO, MOTHER JAILED IN MEXICO: When I saw her, she just smiling like she's always smiled before. And I broke down in tears. But she - she just told me that she was going to get out -- for me to be strong. And that she was innocent. She wanted to tell my brothers and sisters that she loved them very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Now CNN's Alejandra Oraa is covering the story for us today.

And, first, just take me back. How was she arrested?

ALEJANDRA ORAA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, she was traveling to Mexico with her husband. She was in Arizona on a commercial bus for a funeral, like you said before. And when they were returning to the United States, their bus stopped at a checkpoint in Hermosillo, Mexico. While the authorities were checking the bus, they found 12 pounds of marijuana under the seat of the family, under the seat of the couple. They were both taken into custody for questioning. A few hours later, the husband was released, but they told the husband that the wife had to stay for questioning. And then she was under arrest and now she's in a Mexican prison.

BALDWIN: But then tell me about this chunk of cash that the husband then paid to the authorities. What was that all about?

ORAA: That's really interesting because one of the attorneys who's from Mexico actually suggested the husband to pay $5,000 to the judge that's handling the case. And it's really interesting to see how corrupted the authorities could be because they said regardless of her innocence and her guilt, just pay the judge $5,000 so she can be let go.

He tried. He actually funded (ph) money. He gave it to the judge. By the time he gave it to the judge, he said, you know what, it's too late, she's been taken to another prison and it's not about the money anymore. And the words, "it's not about the money anymore," "it's not about the money anymore," is what makes everything a little bit confusing, right?

BALDWIN: Confusing. And then you just - you know, you're thinking about this family. She has this court appearance today. What do we expect to happen?

ORAA: Well, either the judge is going to decide that she will be released, or she would actually have to stay in jail, in Mexico, for four months until her trial starts.

BALDWIN: We will follow it and see what the judge finds. Alejandra Oraa, thank you so much.

ORAA: Thank you. My pleasure. BALDWIN: Coming up, as the Dow rises today, look at these numbers, huge numbers today. Big news if you own a home or if you're thinking about buying one. Home prices across America showing their best numbers since 2006. What's behind the recovery? Will it last? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Got some great news for homeowners today. Home prices in the United States posted their strongest gain since the housing boom rising nearly 11 percent in March from a year earl earlier. Prices have been rising for three straight months now. Excellent news. My friend Zain Asher joins me.

Of course we have to say, yea, great news, but I'm sure there is a tale of caution here as well.

ZAIN ASHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, of course, as always, Brooke. Yes, certainly good news rising home prices, but, as always, there is some fine print. Robert Schiller, author of today's report, says pricing -- prices are actually soaring because people are buying more expensive homes. A year ago, people were buying foreclosures. They're, of course, cheaper and that drives prices down.

Overall, there are some conflicting feelings about the housing recovery. Some analysts are, of course, bullish. They expect home prices to continue to rise. That's because mortgage rates are low.

Also, consumer confidence is strong. There's a lot of pent-up demand as well. Others are actually getting a bit worried because they feel as though home construction is not where it should be. So the question is, will construction be able to keep up with demand.

Also, we know that unemployment is still stubbornly higher, hover at right about 7.5 percent. But the bottom line is, regardless of where we go from here, you know, it is clear we are in a housing recovery. Things are certainly a lot better than they once were.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: Is this happening across the board or only in certain geographical areas?

ASHER: Well, the recovery is actually pretty broad-based. The report actually measures the 20 biggest cities in the United States. So we're talking about San Francisco, Chicago, Boston as well. Prices are actually up more than 10 percent in 12 of those cities. Take a look. The biggest increase is actually in Phoenix. Prices there are up 22 percent from March 2012. Also at the top, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Detroit. The big increases there aren't actually that much of a surprise. That's because they're the places that were hit the hardest during the recession. And Atlanta, Brooke, where you are, prices are up 19 percent.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: I was just talking to someone today about all the construction everywhere around town. Zain Asher, thank you very much.

Want to totally switch gears now and go straight to some live pictures. We're getting some breaking news here. If you are in and around the Baltimore area, you perhaps see this smoke here billowing in the air. White smoke turning to black smoke. What is this? Let me tell you. Few details, but this is what we know. This is a train derailment. This is a cargo train here in the Baltimore area.

According to "The Baltimore Sun," they heard a loud explosion and then, as you can see, they all witnessed this massive plume of white smoke. Initial reports indicate no one was injured. Again, initial reports. But by the proximity clearly of this train derailment and other buildings, not quite sure if this is -- looks to be - I don't know if it's a residential part of town or not, but hazmat teams are en route, of course, to attack this.

And looking at other pictures, as we're both looking at this here for the first time together, not quite sure what that is on the right side of the screen. Guys, just get in my ear and let me know. Yes, some kind of industrial - this is something industrial. Can't quite tell.

Obviously left-hand side of your screen we're looking at fire, EMS responding to, again, train derailment in the Baltimore area. These are live pictures. From what I can tell, as I'm squinting, looks - we're still seeing flames on the right-hand side? Yes. Flames, white smoke, massive black smoke here. Say it again, Eric? Yesm hazmat crews on the way. You can see already about a dozen firefighters from the Baltimore area responding. So we're going to keep a close eye on this and see how this develops and hopefully those initial reports remain that no one has been hurt. More on that coming up.

Also coming up next, authorities say an Oregon teenager was plotting an attack on a school that would have been, quote/unquote, "deadlier than Columbine." Police found explosives, checklists, plans, all hidden in the floorboards of his bedroom apparently. His mother says that this young man has a rare form of OCD called PANDAS. You ever heard of that? We're going to talk about what that means next.

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