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NEW DAY

Kidnapping Victims Speak Out; Crash of Asiana Flight 214; Crash Survivors Tell Their Story; Tropical Storm Chantal to Hit Florida; Mass Shooting in Egypt; Zimmerman Defense Calls Trayvon Martin's Father to Stand

Aired July 9, 2013 - 06:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANDA BERRY, FORMER KIDNAP VICTIM: I want everyone to know how happy I am to be home with my family, my friends. It's been unbelievable.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, getting stronger. Kidnapped as kids, then rescued. The Cleveland three speak out for the first time. What they say now about their ordeal and their future?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Dramatic video. Survivors of flight 214 escaping down the emergency slide and a NEW DAY" exclusive. Some of the flight's youngest survivors speaking out about the terrifying crash.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Surprising twist. The judge rules the jury can hear that Trayvon Martin had marijuana in his system the night he was killed, this, as his father takes the stand. We break it all down.

CUOMO: Your NEW DAY starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan, and Michaela Pereira.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Good morning, good morning, everybody. Welcome to NEW DAY. It's Tuesday, July 9th, 6:00 in the East. I'm Chris Cuomo.

BOLDUAN: And I'm Kate Bolduan. Good morning, everybody. We're joined by news anchor, Michaela Pereira. And we have a very full show this morning.

Let's get right to it including more breaking news overnight. CNN has learned President Obama is now considering removing all U.S. troops, all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by next year. The plan has been to keep a small force there. But now, the U.S. may have zero presence there and shortly. CNN's John King will be joining us to break all that down. Big implications.

CUOMO: A lot of family will be paying a lot of attention to that. Plus have to see this video everybody is going to be talking about it today. You are looking at the mother of two caught on camera, what's she doing? Trying to hire a hitman to kill her husband and giggling about it. Guess what? Not laughing anymore. The would-be hitman a cop and she's now in jail.

PEREIRA: Check out this video a car plows into the gas station, the guy dives out of the way just in time, but he still catches fire, he stop, drop and rolled and survived. Much more ahead on his frightening story of survival.

CUOMO: First up this morning that's going to be some story. We want to take you to what we are seeing and hearing from the Cleveland three. We all remember their story, kidnapped separately, held together for over a decade until they were rescued just months ago from a house of horrors. Overnight Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight released a video thanking the community for their support.

Pamela Brown is here with our first look at that. Good morning, Pamela.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Chris, Michaela and Kate. You know, this is really the first time we're seeing and hearing from these women since they went missing more than 10 years ago. They're speaking out publicly and it's incredible to hear them speak.

Instead of being bitter like you may expect for losing so many of years of their lives, they're thankful for the public and thankful for everyone who has given them privacy and talked about moving on and their new lives.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: In a 4-minute YouTube video, Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight are speaking publicly for the first time to simply say thanks.

BERRY: I want to thank everyone who has helped me and my family through entire ordeal. Everyone who has been there to support us. It ha's been a blessing to have an outpouring of love and kindness.

GINA DEJESUS, FORMER KIDNAP VICTIM: I would say thank you for the support.

MICHELLE KNIGHT, FORMER KIDNAP VICTIM: Thank you, everyone, for your love support and donations, which helped me build a brand new life.

BROWN: More than $1 million has been donated to the Courage Fund to help the women heal after a decade of alleged abuse in captivity by Ariel Castro. Castro is charged with beating, raping and starving them, forcing the miscarriage of a baby he fathered. Yet in the video made last week the women seemed upbeat, not bitter.

BERRY: I'm getting stronger each day and I'm having my privacy has helped immensely. I ask that everyone continue to respect our privacy and give us time to have a normal life.

KNIGHT: Be positive. Learn that it's important to give than to receive. Thank you for all your prayers.

BROWN: Michelle Knight held the longest, appeared to suffer the worst abuse. Here she hints at the pain of the ordeal and what she learned from it.

KNIGHT: I will not let the situation define who I am. I will define the situation. I don't want to be consumed by hatred. With that being said we need to take a leap of faith and know that god is in control.

BROWN: They were once known only as silent victims. Now Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight want the world to know they have a voice and have reclaimed their lives.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: As Michelle Knight put it at the very end of the video, she says, "I'm looking forward to my brand new life." Now so far 9,200 donations have raised more than $1 million for the women. As for their alleged kidnaper if a plea deal is not reached trial for Ariel Castro will be August 5th, he faces 329 charges. For now it's incredible to see the women speak out and likely the last time we're going to see them speak out for a while.

BOLDUAN: All right, Pamela, thank you so much. It is amazing to see them. They do have a long road ahead in their recovery.

CUOMO: They do say the privacy is helping them, giving them distance.

BOLDUAN: We will cheer for them all along the way though.

Now let's get to the other major story we're watching this morning, the latest on the crash of Asiana Flight 214. There's new video of terrified passengers fleeing for their lives just seconds after the jet went down. You're seeing it there, the scene understandably pure chaos. This morning investigators are focusing on the speed as it made its final approach to land.

Miguel Marquez is live from San Francisco with more on the investigation. Three days out, no official word from investigators on a cause, but they're still looking into it, right, Miguel?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Not an official word for some time, but we do know the NTSB is speaking to all four pilots that were on that plane, those interviews will probably be ongoing. They want to know what they were doing and seeing on the cockpit on all the instruments and that incredible video that we're seeing now that shows us what a textbook emergency escape this was.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Moments after impact, emergency chutes deployed from the plane. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My God that's scary.

MARQUEZ: You see one person zipping down and a stream of people running for their lives. One slide reportedly popped open inside the plane trapping people.

DEBORAH HERSMAN, NTSB CHAIRWOMAN: We have heard there were some problems inside the aircraft. We need to understand why that happened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're -- running.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My God.

MARQUEZ: Eventually, dozens of emergency vehicles surrounded the plane. The possibility that a plane crash victim was struck by an emergency worker vehicle now part of the investigation.

HERSMAN: We are reviewing airport surveillance video.

MARQUEZ: United 885 waiting to take off.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These people and I think they are walking around.

MARQUEZ: Had a terrifying front row seat as the Asiana flight came crashing in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looks like it's struggling.

MARQUEZ: In this new video released by NTSB, it shows the landing gear near the seawall, the glide path on target but the speed way too slow. Three seconds before impact the plane just above the water is doing just 118 miles per hour. It should be doing around 158.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not something that I expected to ever view in my career.

MARQUEZ: First responders now coming forward. One police officer jumped into the burning plane.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We saw the black plume of smoke coming in, like something out of a nightmare.

MARQUEZ: Flight Attendant Kim (inaudible), the last one off the plane said she carried people piggy back from the smoldering wreckage. The two girls who died were sitting near the back of the plane, friends for years who often had lunch together. Friends and family are not surprised they were together to the end.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: The family members of the two Chinese victims on their way to San Francisco to collect their daughters' bodies met with Asiana Airlines President Yong Yong Du who apologized in person.

Now some of those family members are very upset and understandably so with Asiana Airlines, which they express to the president there in Seoul as they were making their way here to San Francisco. NTSB today we understand they will give us a better readout of what those pilots are saying and what they were seeing in that cockpit as they get closer to understanding what it was that caused this plane to not make it to the runway -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right, thanks, Miguel. They have a lot of information to work with so hopefully the investigation yields conclusions quickly.

We have a CNN exclusive for you on this story. Three young survivors from the flight are telling their stories of what it was like inside the crash and how they survived.

Sara Sidner live with us with this exclusive from San Francisco. Good morning.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you. Yes, an amazing story. All these kids under the age of 16 and they were all treated here at San Francisco General Hospital, along with their father. But they're incredibly resilient and they were able to tell us all about what it was like to be on Flight 214 as it crash landed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my god! Oh, it's an accident!

SIDNER (voice-over): The chaos of a plane crash, the sudden impact, the spinning, the dust, the fire, and then the desperate scramble to stay alive.

ESTHER JANG, PLANE CRASH SURVIVOR: There was no warning or anything. It was just - it just happened.

SIDNER: 15-year-old Esther, 13-year-old Joseph, 11-year-old Sarah Jang and their parents were all inside the plane returning from a family vacation.

ESTHER JANG: It was like we were all bouncing all over the place. I just remember there being dust everywhere and I was freaking out and then it just stopped.

SIDNER: At first, the Jang siblings weren't even sure they had survived the crash.

JOSEPH JANG, PLANE CRASH SURVIVOR: I was also calling out for my parents and I was, well, I couldn't breathe for like -- because I got the wind knocked out of me, so I couldn't breathe for a couple of seconds.

ESTHER JANG: So after everything stopped and then I realized I was alive and I looked over and I saw my brother and sister, they were both fine. And then I looked over and my mom and my dad, and they were both on the floor because their seats fell down. And then I called their names out, and they both like moaned kind of.

SIDNER: All five of them were hurt. The Jang family was sitting in the back of the plane when the tail hit the seawall. Their heads snapped forward, luggage fell and seats buckled, making it challenging for them to escape quickly.

SARAH JANG, PLANE CRASH SURVIVOR: Well, since the chairs fell on us, it was hard to get up.

ESTHER JANG: Someone helped us out and my brother and sister went out an exit on the right and I realized that I was limping and their exit did not have a slide, so a flight attendant brought me to another exit which had a slide, which was on the opposite side of the plane.

SIDNER: The entire Jang family eventually made it out alive.

JOSEPH JANG: When we all reunited, like my family and I, I was really glad, so I started crying.

SIDNER: The Jangs set out for a memorable trip, the first time the children were going to South Korea for a glimpse of their heritage. But on the way home, they ended up learning a frightening lesson of survival.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER (on camera): Now I can tell you that the Jangs' mother is actually not in this hospital and they hadn't been able to see her. She is in a different hospital recovering from her injuries. But all in all the family happy that they all got out alive and that they are all relatively OK. Chris?

CUOMO: Sara Sidner, thank you very much for bringing us that. An amazing interview. It makes two big points there, one, great cooperation inside that plane to get out. Once again, many are paralyzed, people lost their lives, but it is miraculous so many people lived.

BOLDUAN: When you see the wreckage how many walked away and how quickly they got out of the way and were running away themselves. Amazing what the flight crew did.

PEREIRA: I can't believe how calm those children were. They recollected so well, recalled exactly what happened to them.

BOLDUAN: Amazing, amazing.

Also amazing, take a look at this video, this popped up in Tampa Bay, Florida, a huge waterspout that eventually it actually came ashore as a tornado and thankfully it only did some minor damage and no one was hurt, but we have to tell you about more rough weather that could be ahead for Florida. I think we're talking about Chantal, right?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Right. Talking about Barbados, look at Google Earth it's far, far, far away but there's an awful lot of position as the storm gets closer to America. We'll go day by day. It's going to move over the islands eventually. If you have a cruise scheduled it will be rough. If you have a wedding like Poppy's friend does in Dominican Republic you may have a tough time here, 70 miles per hour over the DR on Wednesday.

Here's Puerto Rico under that sign right there and here's Haiti over here. They don't need any rain. I'll move it ahead. Here is where it gets interesting. This is three, four and five days out, but the big picture here is that this water is very warm. When it comes over the DR, it's going to dive off. When it gets back in the water it will strengthen again and the computer models have it turn toward America.

Remember how Sandy made the left turn to the north, the computers are taking it very close to the DR in hate I-and all of the sudden left turn, that left turn is what I'm concerned about either for Florida, the coast of Georgia or even into the Carolinas. This is not one you want to look out and avoid.

You want to look at this. We are not in hurricane season particularly. We are in the season but not the peak. This is an early one and it could be a dangerous one -- guys.

BOLDUAN: All right, Chad, we'll be watching it. Thank you so much.

MYERS: You're welcome.

CUOMO: We're going to head over to Egypt now because there are growing fears this morning that Egypt may be spiralling deeper into chaos. Last few days more than 50 lost their lives, hundreds wounded. Protests turned violent witnesses saying Egyptian security forces opened fire on supporters of ousted President Morsy and now the Muslim Brotherhood is calling for a national uprising.

Reza Sayah has been following the unrest for us in Cairo from the beginning. Reza, people on the ground is saying it feels unstable. What are you seeing?

REZA SAYAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Chris, every day seems to be another round of intense fighting in this conflict, where on one side the moderates, the liberals, even supporters of military rule pushing forth with establishing a new government and the supporters of the ousted President Mohamed Morsy, supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, they're screaming for the process to stop, screaming for the armed forces to be held accountable for yesterday's deadly clashes.

At this point incredibly difficult to figure out what happened yesterday, who started it, who fired first, both sides accusing the other of starting this clash. Today there are funerals arranged for some of the fatalities, look for this to be another highly emotional and charged day. This interim government doing what it can to establish a permanent government, the interim president last night declaring constitutional decrees, setting a timetable and a framework for new elections in 15 days.

Panel will review the new constitution and if all goes well, in as little as four and a half months we could have new elections for a new president and parliament standing in their way of course is the Muslim Brotherhood and supporters of Mr. Morsy -- Chris, Kate. CUOMO: All right, Reza, thank you very much. I mean, you can hear the sirens behind Reza right now. It's part of everyday life there. That place couldn't be more important to U.S. interest. We have to watch it.

BOLDUAN: And Reza has watching it, has been saying, every day there's something new happening, another twist in this. Are they moving more towards democracy or are they moving further away from it? And that's what we're watching closely on the ground there.

There's also a lot of other news developing at this hour. So, let's get straight to Michaela for the headlines.

PEREIRA: Good morning. And good morning to you at home.

Making news new this morning, President Obama not only giving serious considerations to speeding up troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, he's also considering what's called a zero option which would leave no troops there after next year, this after his relationship with Afghan president Hamid Karzai cooled over peace talks with the Taliban and negotiations over a long-term security deal ended abruptly. We'll talk more about this with CNN chief national correspondent John King coming up at the bottom of the hour.

Could NSA leaker Edward Snowden's new home be Venezuela? A spokesman confirms Venezuela's government received a formal asylum request from Snowden. He's waiting to hear back from them. Venezuela's foreign minister did caution Russia still has to weigh in on the request. Snowden is believed to be holed up in a Moscow airport.

Vice President Joe Biden among those that will attend a public memorial service today, it has to be a moving day, for the 19 Hotshot firefighters killed battling the Yarnell Hill Fire. The fallen firefighters' families, as well as the firefighters union all in uniform, expected to attend. The deaths of the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots considered the worst firefighting loss since September 11th.

And unless attorneys for former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez appeal, we will know later today what investigators seized from his home. The judge ruling in favor of a motion by "The Associated Press" and several Massachusetts newspapers for the details. Hernandez is charged with a premeditated murder of his one-time friend Odin Lloyd. He has pleaded not guilty. His associate Carlos Ortiz who police say was in the car the night of the killing will appear in court later this morning.

And lastly, check out these raging floodwaters creating chaos in Toronto. Take a look at this double-decker train, hundreds of passengers stranded for more than five hours last night when the bottom deck became filled with water.

Police had to row up in dinghies and get people out one by one. Toronto was hit by some four inches of rain in 24 hours, nearly tripling the previous day one day record, and more than 400,000 people in homes are without power, which sort of adds insult to injury, you're dealing with this mop-up and without power. It's kind of a concerning time there in Toronto to be sure.

CUOMO: And another train incident going on.

PEREIRA: Yes, and another train incident.

CUOMO: Boy, oh, boy.

BOLDUAN: Michaela, thank you.

CUOMO: Yes. We're going to take a break.

And when we come back something very interested happened in the Zimmerman trial. For the defense, it was all about Trayvon Martin. That's Trayvon Martin's father, they put him on the stand. Why?

And a ruling by the judge about evidence that can come in now the defense could use about Trayvon Martin could make a difference in the case.

BOLDUAN: And why investigators are having so much trouble locating dozens of people that are still missing three days after a deadly train explosion in Canada.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Welcome back to NEW DAY, everyone.

Surprise testimony in a major new ruling in the George Zimmerman case we're following closely. In somewhat of a big move, the father of Trayvon Martin called by the defense. Like many of the witnesses Monday, he testified about the screams on that 911 tape and for the defense a chance to introduce the presence of a controlled substance in Trayvon Martin's blood.

CNN's George Howell is live in Sanford, Florida, with more on this. Good morning, George.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kate, good morning. So, we now know that this jury will hear about marijuana levels that were in Trayvon Martin's system. This, after a list of what seemed to be character witnesses who testified that it was George Zimmerman screaming for help. And the defense put Trayvon Martin's own father on the stand to try to help make that case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL (voice-over): One after another after another, defense witnesses hammered home the same answer when asked who was screaming on this 911 call.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

(YELLING IN THE GROUND)

911: So you think he's yelling help?

CALLER: Yes.

911: All right. What is your --

(GUNSHOT)

(END AUDIO CLIP)

MARK O'MARA, ZIMMERMAN DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Do you know whose voice that is in the background screaming?

SONDRA OSTERMAN, GEORGE ZIMMERMAN'S FRIEND: Yes, definitely. It's Georgy.

MARK OSTERMAN, GEORGE ZIMMERMAN'S FRIEND: I thought it was George.

GERI RUSSO, GEORGE ZIMMERMAN'S FRIEND: When I heard the tape, my immediate reaction was that's George screaming for help.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whose voice is it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: George Zimmerman's voice.

JOHN DONNELLY, GEORGE ZIMMERMAN'S FRIEND: There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that was George Zimmerman. I wish to God I didn't have that ability to understand that.

HOWELL: It was John Donnelly's testimony that even made George Zimmerman emotional. Donnelly told jurors he bought Zimmerman's clothes for trial and once taught him how to tie a Windsor knot.

The defense attorneys drew on his experience in combat, as a medic who routinely heard people scream for help to make their case that the voice screaming on the 911 call was George Zimmerman.

That set the stage for Tracy Martin, Trayvon Martin's father. Defense attorneys first recalled two investigators who say Martin told him, no, the voice screaming was not his son. Then, they put Martin on the stand.

TRACY MARTIN, TRAYVON MARTIN'S FATHER: I didn't tell them, "No, that wasn't Trayvon." I kind -- I think the chair had wheels on it, I kind of pushed away from the table and just kind of shook my head and said, "I can't tell."

O'MARA: So, your words were, "I can't tell"?

MARTIN: Something to that effect. But I never said, "No, that wasn't my son's voice."

HOWELL: Defense attorneys also called up the owner of the gym where Zimmerman trained to lose weight. To demonstrate how a person could hold another down, Adam Pollock, got on top of attorney Mark O'Mara to show the jury.

But when describing his client's skill level --

ADAM POLLOCK, GYM OWNER: He's still learning how to punch. He didn't know how to really effectively punch.

O'MARA: On a scale of one to 10, where would Mr. Zimmerman fit?

POLLOCK: Like I said, about a one.

HOWELL: Finally, Judge Debra Nelson ruled that testimony regarding marijuana levels in Trayvon Martin's system will now be admitted as evidence for jurors to consider -- a critical ruling as this trial moves in to day 11.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: So, court is expected to start a little earlier today, 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time and we expect the judge, Chris and Kate, to rule on whether a computer re-enactment will be able to be admitted in this trial. We'll also expect to hear from more witnesses, more experts in this case.

BOLDUAN: All right. George Howell following it in Sanford -- thanks so much, George.

Coming up next on NEW DAY, John King with our political gut check. He'll be here.

Plus, this is an interesting one. A young mom from Michigan caught on tape trying to hire a hitman to kill her husband. You have to hear it to believe it.

CUOMO: Here's another one for you, if fish aren't biting call this guy, he'll catch your dinner, no pole included. There it is, you thought I was kidding, right?

BOLDUAN: I did.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)