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AT THIS HOUR

Tornado Hits in Texas; More Info. On Cops Killed in Mississippi; Nun Testifies in Boston Bombing Trial; Saudi King Snubs White House Invite. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired May 11, 2015 - 11:00   ET

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


[11:00:00] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you for joining me today.

AT THIS HOUR with Berman and Bolduan starts now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: 10 people are missing in a small Texas town devastated by tornadoes. A look at the damage and who could be hit today.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: When you get an invite to the White House and can't make it to discuss crucial global issues, you go, unless you're the king of Saudi Arabia, and then it seems you have better things to do. Bailing out of a key summit at the last minute. Why this eyebrow-raising international snub.

BOLDUAN: Breaking right now, the defense rests in the Boston bombing trial and in the final moments before a nun, who was an inspiration for movie "Dead Man Walking," gave explosive testimony about her meetings with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BERMAN: Hello, everyone. I'm John Berman.

BOLDUAN: I'm Kate Bolduan.

We have breaking news. Local officials in Texas are reporting there may be multiple deaths from tornadoes that likely hit a small town there on Mother's Day. Just look at the destruction that these apparent tornadoes left in their path. Officials in Van, Texas, say the tornadoes hit about 60 miles east of Dallas. You're looking at live pictures right now there. 60 miles east of Dallas. Damage or destroyed a third of the town there.

BERMAN: As Kate said, these are live pictures right now. Aerials. You can see what those storms there did to the trees, did to the homes. About a third of that town severely damaged by this storm, which hit last night about 8:45 local time. Look at that. Look at the roof of that building right there. Just torn to shreds. And there are so many parts of the country under the threat of severe weather again today. Before we talk about the rest of the country, let's talk about what we're looking at right now. Van, Texas, hit so hard by tornadoes overnight. 10 people still missing. Local reports of multiple fatalities. Our Jennifer Gray is live from Van, Texas.

Jennifer, what are you seeing?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We are seeing a lot of devastation here in Van. I want to reiterate that report was coming from our local affiliate. We're anxiously awaiting a press conference that's going to take place here about an hour. That's when we'll hear from local authorities to maybe get some confirmation on some of the facts around here. We're looking just behind me, the devastation, the worst of it that we have seen a couple hundred yards that way. We keep getting moved back more and more as crews try to get in and restore power, cut up a lot of those limbs that were fallen on the power lines so we can get this city back up and running again. We have seen several ambulances move through that area. We've also seen more and more law enforcement move in and so we're trying to get power restored and cell service for a lot of people as well. The Red Cross is here. We're in the First Baptist Church parking lot where a shelter is for anybody that needs assistance and like I mentioned, that press conference coming up within an hour or so. We also have been talking to people that were here during the tornado last night. It struck right around 9: 00. Residents say the tornado sirens went off at about five minutes before the tornado struck. We spoke with one lady who said she didn't have enough time to get into her storm shelter so she had to ride out her storm in her bathtub with her two dogs. The school was heavily damaged. I walked around what was the old school which now they use part of it as the gymnasium. Other portions of the school have been added on. This particular part was heavily damaged. Roof blown off. Insulation hanging down. Windows blown out. The couple I spoke with went to school there as children and now their own kids go to school there and they said it feels like you're walking around and seeing your entire childhood destroyed. So the people here in Van as you can imagine are just devastated. They are trying to get their places back in order. You can hear the helicopters flying above me. We've seen more of that activity in the last 30 minutes or so as well. The folks here are happy that the storms have pushed to the east. It's cloudy. Drizzle this morning, but as far as the storm threat, that is over for now.

John and Kate?

BERMAN: It's interesting there. You can see some roofs ripped off. You see severe destruction in some places. I saw a few structures which seem completely leveled. You measure the strength of tornadoes by the actual damage that tornadoes do to the structures themselves. It will be time before we get an exact measure of what category EF strength this tornado was. You can see the people there and again these are live pictures from Van, Texas. You can see people trying to sift through the debris and there is a lot of it in that town.

[11:05:04] BOLDUAN: Remember, this happened in the evening. Obviously, overnight, the destruction setting in and a lot of folks now just starting as light comes out to get a handle of what they're up against. You see folks sifting through what looks to be what was formerly homes. We are still looking at live pictures to make sure our videos know. We look at this with you. You see trees ripped out of the roots. Roofs ripped off. A lot of destruction.

As we continue to look at this, let's bring in Chad Myers to talk more, Chad, about what we're seeing and what happened in Van.

Just look at the picture. Thanks to our affiliate KTVT for bringing us live pictures as this zooms in. We're just following this with you. Look at these, folks, just throwing -- clearly that was a home. Folks just trying to work through to see what they can find.

A question there on a lot of people's minds, Chad, and Jennifer Gray was getting to it, a lot of people wonder if the officials in Van, Texas, have a good handle quite yet about what they're up against and good handle about how many people are missing and how many people could be injured.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: This was a big tornado. This was without a doubt now looking at this, this is a stick built home. Some of those were 2x8 and 2x6. Not just a mobile home on blocks. This was a real home. To get that type of damage you need wind speeds in excess of 140 miles an hour. Probably EF-3. Possibly EF-4. A zero or 1 will take shingles off. A three starts to remove walls. Four you can find the refrigerator and kitchen probably and bathroom and five you don't find anything. We're not seeing that extensive five damage here. But where you can't see any outside walls would indicate three or four and then take a look at the trees. All of the branches are snapped off. There's nothing really left. Branches couldn't sustain the wind. You get just stumps that are left broken off. So that's the idea of what we're talking about here. A major tornado touched down there in Van, Texas.

It concerns me when I saw so many people digging through one home.

BERMAN: Yes, yes.

MYERS: That tells me that a person from that home may be missing or they wouldn't be working on that one single home that much. Now, let's hope that person was visiting a mom in Dallas and didn't make it home and there really isn't anyone trapped in that building. That effort that was put into that one home was concerning.

BERMAN: Chad Myers, our most recent report is ten people still missing in this town of Van, Texas. We don't know what that means. Obviously communications are a problem after a storm like this. Cell towers get knocked down. Cell service gets overwhelmed. Communicating with loved ones can be difficult. I noticed the same thing you did. There was a lot of people in one place sifting through the rubble. Normally, after a storm like this you see everyone going to their own house trying to recover what they can.

BOLDUAN: Also, John, the indiscriminate nature of what is clearly a tornado. One home completely intact. The next one right beside it, absolutely demolished. That's just how these storms operate.

MYERS: Likely a multi vortex suction spot tornado where one will take the House out across the street and miss the House next door and then take another one out and miss the next one. It's just the way -- it's the nature of that beast. It's the nature of that tornado. You think of a tornado as one big funnel that's all the same. It's not. Inside that tornado there are multiple things going on inside that cloud or that v that comes down to the ground and so there really can be that indiscriminate I lost a shingle but my neighbor's house is completely gone. Keep this in mind. Yesterday was a major travel day. I traveled from Atlanta to Birmingham and back and there were cars on the road like it was Christmas. There were likely people traveling to go see loved ones, their mom, whatever, and these people that are missing may very well be visiting relatives somewhere, so that number, hopefully, doesn't go up from 10, it starts to go down from 10.

BERMAN: Chad Myers, we're looking at a picture right now -- it just went out -- that it looked like a doll house where someone took the roof off and people were walking around inside this house with no roof. Extensive damage in this town of Van, Texas. We'll look to get at that signal back to take a closer look at what's going on in that town. We'll bring you more information. The information is just coming in right now. At least 10 people missing at this point.

BOLDUAN: This is a small town.

BERMAN: 2,600 people, right?

BOLDUAN: 2,600 people. Clearly, a lot -- this is going to be one of those towns where we're going to hear about everyone that knows someone impacted in a devastating way by this storm. Live picture is back up.

(CROSSTALK)

[11:10:02] BERMAN: This is a taped picture. We'll work to get the live picture back up. We'll bring you the latest information from Van, Texas, as it comes in.

In the meantime, just into CNN, two accused cop killers and their two alleged accomplices are due in court in Mississippi this afternoon. We have new details about the two officers who were gunned down. Such a tragedy. 34-year-old Benjamin Deen, a husband and father of two, decorated officer of the year; and 24-year-old Liquori Tate new to the force. He had a life-long passion. It was his dream to get into policing.

BOLDUAN: Both of them were killed in what started as a traffic stop if you can believe it in the city of Hattiesburg.

Tate's mother, stepfather and sister all spoke with CNN a short time ago talking about what happened when they arrived at the hospital.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

B. LONNIE ROSS, STEP-FATHER OF OFFICER TATE: They took uses in a room and when we got the news we fell out in grief. It was amazing. The police officers and staff and the mayor fell out with us in grief and grieved with us. It was really very emotional. We walked through and saw the family of the other officer whose live was taken as well and we knew that this was just something much more serious than we imagined before we walked into the hospital.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Our Alina Machado is on the ground in Hattiesburg for us.

Alina, they talk about the grief that clearly is just beginning to set in for that family.

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Kate, for that family and the family of officer dean and people that worked with both officers. By all accounts these were dedicated officers who loved their jobs and were out there doing what they were supposed to be doing. They were doing a traffic stop. There's no such thing as a routine traffic stop. This story is a tragic reminder of that. The four suspects who are accused in this killing in the killings of these two officers are expected to go before a judge this afternoon. I want to show you their pictures and go through charges. Two of them are facing capital murder charges. One is Joanie Callaway, 22 years old. The other, 29- year-old Marvin Banks. He's also charged with grand theft auto. He's accused according to police they believe that he took one of the police cars and used it as a getaway. His younger brother, Curtis Banks, is facing two counts of accessory after the fact of capital murder and the fourth suspect is Cornelius Clark. He's charged with obstruction of justice. Now, at this point authorities have not released the details or possible motive for the shooting. All we know is that one of the officers, Officer Benjamin Deen, initiated the traffic stop. He called for backup. Officer Tate responded. What happened between that moment and the moment that shots were fired, we still don't know. We're clear that authorities are still investigating. Hopefully we'll be learning more as this investigation progresses.

Also today, there's going to be a memorial here in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to honor these fallen officers. If you talk to people in this town, this is a very small, very tight knit community. We have talked to people who know both one of the officers and the suspects. The two brothers, the banks' family. We're told that there's just all around shock and heartbreak in this community.

Kate and John?

BOLDUAN: That's understandable.

Alina, thank you.

Alina Machado on the ground for us.

Again, as you can see right there, those four suspects will be arraigned later today, 4:00 eastern. A lot to learn in that case.

BERMAN: No such thing as a routine traffic stop.

BOLDUAN: Good point.

BERMAN: Ahead for us AT THIS HOUR, royal snub. So who wouldn't want a White House visit with a side trip to Camp David? Apparently, the king of Saudi Arabia. Did the White House alienate this key U.S. ally?

BOLDUAN: Breaking just moments ago, the defense has rested its case in the Boston bombing trial. Before they did, the nun portrayed in the movie "Dead Man Walking" took the stand and gave some powerful testimony about her meetings with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:17:26] BOLDUAN: Just a short time, Sister Helen Prejean, a well known anti-death penalty activist, took the stand the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev sentencing trial. She was made famous by her book and the film based on it, "Dead Man Walking." Prosecutors fought hard to keep her off the stand and keep her from testifying but after a lengthy debate, the judge in the case ruled in favor of the defense who wanted her on there allowing had her to testify.

BERMAN: It was the same jurors who convicted Tsarnaev on 30 counts related to Boston Marathon bombing will decide whether to sentence this man to death or life in prison.

We're joined now by Deborah Feyerick.

Deb, what did this nun say?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There's a good reason the prosecution didn't want her to testify on behalf of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. She said they talked about religion. He was respectful. They talked about the marathon attack and specifically the victims. She said that no one deserves to suffer like they did. She was asked about his demeanor. She said there was pain in his voice. And in her words, quote, "I had every reason to think he was genuinely sorry for what he did."

We sat in that courtroom looking at Dzhokhar Tsarnaev trying to read his body language. This is the first time we hear any suggestion that in her words he was remorseful for what he did and that's why the prosecution didn't want her to testify and that's why the defense did want her to testify. To be clear, there were strict perimeters which she had to follow, including not discussing her stance against the death penalty -- John and Kate?

BERMAN: CNN legal analyst, HLN legal analyst, Joey Jackson, with us, too, Deb.

Joey, you have Helen Prejean on the stand saying Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is remorseful. That's from the nun, because the defense would not put Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the stand.

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: It is him testifying through a nun so that's powerful. As Deb says, very limited testimony. It was a major victory for the defense in as much as you have a nun vouching as to the character. He was remorseful. He was approachable. Talking about discussions she had with him. At the same time, it was big for the prosecution not allowing the nun to get into the death penalty. The moral underpinnings of the death penalty and why it lacked social value and why we should not impose it. She couldn't get into that. But to the extent he was able to redeem him and show remorse for him has to impact the jury.

[11:20:27] BOLDUAN: The defense has been trying to do that. That's the entire point in the sentencing phase. They called relatives, classmates, people who have known Tsarnaev trying to say that he was brainwashed and there are redeeming qualities. Do you think the nun, do you think she was that witness that's going to have that final impact that clearly they wanted? Do you think she's that powerful?

JACKSON: A nun's testimony is powerful, a Catholic nun, Catholic community. We have to understand and note that this is a death penalty qualified jury. They may not be in accord with what polls are saying concerning how people in Boston, Massachusetts, don't like the death penalty. This jury has said, look, if you put the circumstances in front of me and I believe those circumstances are proper, not that I will impose the death penalty but I'll consider it. When you have all of the mitigation and reducing factors and redeeming factors about his relatives and about how Tamerlan was the guy who really was radical and how Tamerlan twisted and turned him, about how you had a sobbing aunt on the stand and we saw emotion from him last week for the first time. Just that once.

BERMAN: You have Deborah Feyerick saying you see no emotion the whole time but prosecution put the photo of him --

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: -- video of him flipping off the camera and the fact that this jury convicted him of mass murder and terrorism.

JACKSON: Listen, it's a case that impacted the community none so much -- the word, the nation, none so much as Boston. The issue is going to be what that jury believes. Do they believe that perhaps serving a life sentence is worse than a fate of death or do they believe that, you know what, it's appropriate under these circumstances that he be given death and whether a nun testifies or relatives testifies, it doesn't do the trick. What the jury will conclude based upon her testimony and everyone else in that courtroom who attempted to mitigate and lessen the consequences of what he did.

BERMAN: They could start deliberating on that Wednesday or Thursday.

BOLDUAN: And very soon.

Deb, the prosecution has a chance to rebut now, right?

FEYERICK: They are. That's what they're trying to do. After this powerful testimony that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's team put on by teachers, by friends, and now by Sister Helen Prejean, you know, they have to paint a picture of someone whose crimes were so heinous that he deserves to be put to death. The defense is showing this was a person who was a good person until this moment that he decided to do this terrible, terrible thing. And prosecutors are really going through the prison system right now saying, look, a super max facility is not good enough for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. It's too lenient even though he would face restrictive measures and that's why they are arguing it should be death because there's a possibility that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev might have privileges that his victims no longer have that right to.

BERMAN: Deb Feyerick in Boston, Joey Jackson, here with us, thanks so much. We'll talk about this in the days ahead because it's all coming to a close.

BOLDUAN: All coming to a close.

Ahead for us, did the king of Saudi Arabia snub President Obama by skipping meetings with him? Hear the reasons and how the White House is now responding to this snub.

BERMAN: Plus, we've been following the breaking news all morning. These are the pictures from Van, Texas. A third of this town you can see hit so hard by a tornado or tornadoes overnight. We believe 10 people are still missing and we'll bring you the latest on what we're learning next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:57:19] BERMAN: Thanks but no thanks. Not usually the sentiment you get from those invited to the White House and summit at Camp David. Now the king of Saudi Arabia, after indicating he would be coming to a crucial summit with Persian Gulf leaders this week, now says he has other things he needs to do. Really?

BOLDUAN: The Saudi embassy says the change is because the summit conflicts with the cease-fire in Yemen. A senior Obama official tells CNN the White House does not think that king's absence is because of any serious disagreement but there's all sorts of speculation that this is a snub. If that is what it is, is it meant to show Saudi Arabia's displeasure over the U.S. nuclear talks with Iran? So many questions. Not a lot of clear cut answers at this point.

Let's get to the White House correspondent, Michelle Kosinski.

Michelle, what is really going on here?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kate. We can play snub or not a snub all day I think. This change of plans was pretty abrupt. That's a little weird there. Then you hear what each side is saying. Saudis call it a scheduling issue. We're now hearing from sources that it may have been more related to health issues, that this is a long trip and the king of Saudi Arabia is almost 80 years old. Nobody is really giving a lot of details other than that. When you look at the totality of it, it's a summit of gulf state leaders that President Obama invited to come here and spend time with him one- on-one and spend time at the White House, at Camp David. You look at the issues on the table and the fact that security and stability in that region is so critical to U.S. security that the gulf states are looking for some kind of counterpoint to the Iran nuclear deal that President Obama signed. So much going on in that region right now. You would think the leaders would want to come here and let's hash this out together. When you look at the actual leaders who are attending, two of the six are coming. They are all sending very high level delegations so these talks are going to go on. We'll wait and see what actually comes out of them. It would appear that some reason they might not see this summit as being all that important to their interests. Perhaps. Perhaps it's been brought up that they are not pleased at all with how the Iran deal is going and maybe not so pleased with whatever reassurances security-wise and militarily that the U.S. is offering or not offering them. Maybe that is the key.

BOLDUAN: A lot of questions. You do begin to wonder if the highest level of official not coming to meet with the president, does it undermine the whole point of this summit at Camp David in the first place?

[11:30:00] KOSINSKI: Yeah, it seems to. You lay it out there. This is a big summit with huge issues on the table. The Iran nuclear deal is something that could affect the entire world.