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Durst: "I Killed Them All"; Ferguson Shooter: I Wasn't Aiming for Cops; U.S.-Iran Negotiations Ramping Up; Durst Confession Admissible in Court?; Vanuatu Devastated by Monster Cyclone. Aired 11- 11:30a ET

Aired March 16, 2015 - 11:00   ET

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


JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I killed them all.

<11:00:15> Those words from millionaire real estate heir Robert Durst. His first wife disappeared. His best friend shot in the head. And he admitted to killing and dismembering his neighbor. Will his own words finally convict him?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and Iran ramping up as the deadline nears. What happens if Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart, what if they fail to reach a deal? Is there a Plan B here?

BERMAN: And one of the worst disasters ever seen in the Pacific. A monster cyclone slams the island nation of Vanuatu. The death toll is rising this morning. One aid agency describes the devastation as worse than the worst case scenario.

Hello, everyone. Good to see you today. I'm John Berman.

BOLDUAN: Hi all. I'm Kate Bolduan. Thanks for joining us.

New this morning, there's no other way to describe it than it is just a stunning story and what sounds like a confession of murder caught on a hot microphone while in a bathroom.

AT THIS HOUR, the estranged son of one of New York's most prominent real estate empires, Robert Durst, is facing an extradition hearing in New Orleans. He's also facing a murder charge. Some say this is a long time coming as Durst was arrested just as an HBO documentary about his life was airing. The series is called "The Jinx: The Life and Death of Robert Durst". That pivotal, unscripted moment of his alleged confession aired during the finale of the show last night. Listen here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT DURST, REAL ESTATE HEIR: What the hell did I do? Killed them all of course.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Killed them all of course. L.A. police say the millionaire killed a friend just before -- the woman you're looking at right there -- was going to speak to investigators about the mysterious disappearance of his first wife. That is on top of the fact that he admitted to killing -- he admitted to killing and dismembering a neighbor, but was acquitted on charges there.

Really just a stunning array of events here. Miguel Marquez joins us now. Miguel, what's the latest?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This has all of the feel of a Shakespeare -- Bill Shakespeare could not have done a better job of this thing. I mean, this -- the finale of this series is breathtaking in the way that they go about getting this guy.

The entire series is about them getting this last interview. They go after him, go after him, he puts them off, puts them off, puts them off. They finally get in. And in that last interview, he almost falls apart. He starts burping like something is bubbling up from inside of him trying to get out -- in the most bizarre way. And then after the interview, he goes to the bathroom, the microphone is still on, and makes a series of confessions about what they have. Oh, they've caught me.

This is a guy who has literally, according to the series, gotten away with murder. In 1982, his wife went missing. In 2000, Susan Berman, no relation to John Berman, she was murdered. And in 2001, he was arrested for murdering his neighbor, dismembering the body. He admitted to doing it, claimed self-defense in 2003, and got off. And of course he was just arrested in 2015.

He left Houston for New Orleans, say investigators, on the 10th knowing that he had made these admissions on audio at least. And was in a hotel. Had checked in under another name. Was, they believe, trying to get to Havana, Cuba. The maker of the documentary says that they had been in touch with police for some time and so they knew this was coming, but it was just a matter of when. Here it is.

BOLDUAN: This has been going on for -- you listed out the timeline. This has been going on for decades, these questions surrounding this man. But specifically on this really pivotal moment that came out in this final episode, what does his attorneys have to say?

MARQUEZ: Well, there's a couple different things. "L.A. Times" now reporting that they were waiting for this episode to air before they made the arrest. Clearly, he started to move before the episode actually aired, because it aired last night. He was arrested on Saturday in New Orleans.

His attorney saying -- "And your honesty would leave you to say you've said things under your breath before that you probably didn't mean. So I don't want to talk about the factual specifics."

It almost doesn't make sense, that statement. But what he's saying is we've all said things under our breath that we didn't really mean. Whether or not that's going to hold up in court -- he not only admits that Susan Berman murder in this;

<11:05:04> he says I did it all. Killed them all.

It is spectacular. It's breathtaking -- was -- at the end of this. And we'll see how this thing goes. He's in court later today.

BERMAN: He's in court right now.

MARQUEZ: Right now, and we'll see where it goes.

BERMAN: Miguel Marquez, what a story. Thanks so much.

All right, got some other news this morning. New questions about why a 20-year-old man opened fire outside of the Ferguson, Missouri, police station last week, wounding two officers. Jeffrey Williams has been charged with two counts of first-degree assault, one count of firing a weapon from a vehicle, three counts of criminal activity.

BOLDUAN: According to the St. Louis County prosecutor, Williams admits to pulling the trigger but he denies that he was targeting police. He's being held now on $300,000 bond.

Stephanie Elam is joining us from Ferguson with much more. Stephanie, you've been really all over this over the weekend. What have we learned now about a possible motive in the shooting? Because that's obviously a key question here.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is. Good morning to you, Kate and John, from here in Ferguson. What we're understanding and what prosecutors have said is that he said he wasn't targeting the police officers, but he was in a dispute with someone who is a protester. And that is who he says he was targeting.

I also spoke to a man who visited with Williams in jail after his arrest and he said he said the same story. His story being that he was robbed and that is who he was trying to retaliate against. Now, this person who met with him knows him through the religious community here in St. Louis County, but also knows the protesters. He is one of the organizers and he says he's not been out protesting and if there was a problem with one of the protesters, he would have been able to help him.

Still, this is the story. At this point though, it's important to keep in mind whether he was targeting the police officers or a demonstrator, the charges stay the same -- assault in the first degree. That part does not change and those are felony charges there. But what is also instrumental in this case, and they made a big deal of pointing this out yesterday, law enforcement saying they would not have been able to track down who pulled the trigger had it not been for tips that came in from the community and also from protesters who out here that night when those two police officers were shot, standing side by side. Kate and John.

BERMAN: All right, Stephanie Elam for us in Ferguson. Thank you so much, Stephanie.

BOLDUAN: Nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran enter a critical phase this week. After 18 months of negotiations, there are just two weeks now left to reach a deal.

BERMAN: This morning Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart, they met for several hours in Switzerland. Secretary Kerry says he's adamant in his refusal to apologize to Iran for that controversial letter signed by 47 Republicans. He says it was absolutely calculated to interfere with the negotiations.

CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is following these talks. Nic, what went on this morning? Where do we stand right now?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We may never know just precisely how it interfered with the negotiations when these two men get face to face. But they spent about five hours together, which by any measure of recent talks they've had, that's a relatively long time for a single session. They were supposed to meet last night. They met this morning.

But they are still saying different things. Both Foreign Minister Zarif going into the meeting saying, look, we believe we have a lot of technical issues to get through here. Secretary Kerry saying, yes, there are technical issues, but we really think this is the point where the Iranians need to make some political judgments. That this is getting sort of beyond the scope of what needs to be done technically. There are technical things to do, but they need to make this political judgment.

So when you listen to what both sides are saying going in, you get the impression they may not be that close right now. And of course the Iranian Foreign Minister has gone to Brussels now to brief the British, the French, the Germans, who are part of the European group that are pushing to get this deal done. John Kate.

BERMAN: All right, Nic Robertson covering this for us. Thanks so much, Nic.

Ahead for us AT THIS HOUR, a millionaire real estate heir appears to have confessed to several murders. His words were, "I killed them all," captured on an open mike. Will those words sink him in court? Stay with us.

BOLDUAN: And utter devastation. A small island nation almost wiped out -- wiped off the map after a cyclone tears through the country. We're on the ground with a firsthand look.

11:09:20

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

11:12:46

BOLDUAN: AT THIS HOUR, Robert Durst, estranged son of one of New York's most prominent real estate dynasties, is facing an extradition hearing in New Orleans on charges of murder. Police say that he was preparing to flee the country for Cuba. This comes as a stunning moment was caught on tape, if you will. What happens -- what appears to be some sort of a confession by Durst as he was caught on a hot mike talking to himself in a bathroom during the filming of HBO documentary about his life. He's heard muttering for himself, asking at one point, "What the hell did I do?" He then answers his own question, saying, "Killed them all of course."

BERMAN: CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney Danny Cevallos joins us now. Danny, I want to talk about this statement so let's play it for people here so they can hear it for themselves where he says I killed them all. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HURST: What the hell did I do? Killed them all of course.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, that's this man saying I killed them all. He's wearing an HBO documentary microphone there. They caught him on tape saying it.

Lay out the case for me, Danny, about whether this will or will not be admissible in court.

CEVALLOS: This will very likely be admissible even though his attorneys will fight it.

Here's why. Generally a confession, an admission is going to be admissible. If they move to suppress it, the first thing the court is going to look at is was there any government coercion? And of course there wasn't. If the producers had been working with the government, with law enforcement, to get this interview, that would be a different analysis. But this is a private actor getting a microphone interview and everything in that interview, as we tell our clients all the time -- if you give an interview, that will be admissible.

The next question is, wait a minute. Did he have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the bathroom? And it is true in general citizens have an expectation of privacy in certain places like bathrooms and changing rooms. But here's what's critical -- he had undoubtedly consented to be interviewed, to wear a lavalier mike, and wear it around. And I would, as prosecutor, the first witness I would call to talk about this kind of interview practice would be you, John Berman.

<11:15:04> It would be everyone in the control room right now working on this show, and anyone in television who knows that routinely, when people wear a lavalier mikes or any mike, and they decide to go to the bathroom, in many instances often with funny results, people forget to turn the mike off when they go to the bathroom.

And everyone in TV watching this right now has their own personal story of somebody doing just that. It happens all the time. You wear a lavalier mike at your own risk.

BOLDUAN: So this is the most stunning part of it. But also after all of these years where this guy seems to -- when you follow the story, it seems he got off. He admits it. He got off. They can't find the first wife. She's been declared legally dead at this point. L.A. authorities have not said what new evidence they have that has led to this arrest. There is some interesting evidence that came out that is not just this tape, but this handwriting on these letters that came out in the documentary that I want to ask you about.

Let's throw up the handwriting samples, if you will. One is a letter written by Robert Durst. Another is written by an anonymous person that led police to Susan Berman's body. In Beverly Hills, that's what everyone has been focusing on in this documentary how similar they are and how similarly incorrectly spelled they are. Could this be, do you think, enough to arrest him if this is the new evidence?

CEVALLOS: Handwriting analysis is one of those fascinating areas of science in that if there are going to be experts, you better believe there will be dueling experts with completely diametrically opposed points of view as to whether or not this handwriting is similar and believe it or not, whether it is completely dissimilar. But ultimately if it gets before a lay jury, even with that battle of the experts, they must decide who, if anyone, they're going to believe and even though there may be an expert saying, "No way, these are nothing alike," a lay jury could absolutely conclude that they are similar enough and draw whatever inference, negative probably, from that fact.

BERMAN: It looks exactly alike to me, as a member of a potentially lay jury. Danny, just quickly, would you ever let your client, Durst if he were your client, do this HBO series and interviews?

CEVALLOS: Defense attorneys know, for the most part, there is almost no upside to letting your client give a television interview because any reporter is a private actor. There is a very small chance you'll be able to exclude any admission made. Remember, the rule is any time you put your words in writing, you have to tell that same story exactly consistently or else at trial it will look like you have given a prior inconsistent statement.

BERMAN: So many questions remaining. Danny Cevallos, thank you so much. Next hour, CNN's Ashleigh Banfield will speak to Durst's attorney about this confession, I think a lot of the issues surrounding this. It will be really interesting to hear what he has to say about this at 12:00 p.m. Eastern time. Stay with us for that.

BOLDUAN: Also ahead for us AT THIS HOUR, a cyclone hits leaving death and devastation described by an aid worker as "worse than the worst case scenario." An island nation so beautiful it was featured on CNN's "The Wonder List" and now it seemed ripped apart. We'll take a look at Vanuatu next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

11:21:55

BERMAN: New this morning, a Pacific Island known for its beauty dealing with the devastating results of one of the strongest storms ever to make landfall. Tropical Cyclone Pam battered Vanuatu, flattening homes, leaving thousands homeless. BOLDUAN: At this point, the number of dead stands at 11 but there are

more than 80 islands in the country and aid agencies, quite honestly, haven't even been able to being to assess the damage that's happened there.

Senior international correspondent Ivan Watson was able to travel to Vanuatu and get a firsthand look at what's happening.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John and Kate, they're just trying to get a sense of the scale of the damage here in a country that has more than 80 islands. Some of them very difficult to reach right now. It's very hard to do. We've just been trying to survey some of the extent of the damage here in the capital Port Vila.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON (voice-over): It takes a view like this to give you a sense of the sheer power of the wind of Cyclone Pam when she ripped through here on Friday night, tearing trees in half, and damaging nearly every building in this area. Some houses were, quite simply, flattened. Fortunately, residents tell me nobody in this neighborhood was hurt in this terrible storm and that's due in large part to training and preparation.

Where was everybody on the night of the storm?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody was inside the evacuation center.

WATSON: This church right here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This church building, yes.

WATSON: And that was part of a plan?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course. It was part of the plan which we have trained and church is like main evacuation center from cyclones.

WATSON: Do you think that saved lives?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course, it did.

WATSON (voice-over): The church is still serving as a temporary shelter for dozens of people from this community. There is still no electricity three days after the storm. There's still no running water and I'm told thousands and thousands of people made homeless. A bigger problem is nobody really knows the extent of the damage or the potential loss of life on dozens of other islands of Vanuatu, one of the poorest countries in the Pacific.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON: John and Kate, what is striking is people, many of them have had their homes destroyed, some of these people rely on subsistence farming, basically, for food. They've had their farms destroyed. Estimated some 80 percent of these subsistence farms on one of the main islands here, Tanna, destroyed so people are spending what little money they have to buy some rice and they're going to run out of those funds as well. That gives you a sense of how difficult this challenge is going to be for one of the poorest countries in the Pacific. John and Kate?

BOLDUAN: Ivan Watson there for us. Ivan, thank you so much. It's just not the impact but what happens afterward. No water or electricity. Still, hat's when even more problems come.

CNN's Bill Weir, he spent time in Vanuatu recently filming the first episode of his show, "The Wonder List," and Bill is joining us now vie Skype.

So Bill, I mean, I know you have been able to see some of the images that are coming out of Vanuatu.

11:25:03

You were one of the few people that has traveled to Vanuatu that we really know. Have you been able to get in touch with all of the folks that you met while there?

BILL WEIR, HOST, CNN'S "THE WONDER LIST": No. It seems like a complete communication black hole right now. I've heard that maybe one cell tower survived those winds. We were surprised by the amazing cell service on some of the outer islands but our calls and e-mails to our new friends over there sadly go unanswered. So when I look at Ivan's reporting in the capital there, that's one thing. You have to understand, we stayed in a place on an island called Motolava where this farmer/fisherman decided he was going to go into tourism. He spent everything he had on a couple little thatched-roof bungalows and put in the first bathroom the island had ever seen and he asked me, "Do you know how I can get a toilet paper holder?" Because a consultant told him that's what he needed. He couldn't just have it on a nail inside there. This is the level of sort of naivete and just the most basic -- these are people who are building their homes or their would-be hotels, literally one board at a time so it's not just the pain of this, it's setting them back after years of clawing towards a better future, they thought.

BERMAN: It's a great point to bring up there. Because the pictures we're seeing are of the capital city, the main island. There are 80- plus islands spread out over an area the size of Connecticut and some of them have not even been contacted at this point. Bill, you can only imagine the possible devastation where they are. You were there obviously in better times. Explain to us this nation described as one of extreme beauty.

WEIR: Extreme beauty and incredible happiness. They are known as one of the happiest countries in the world, unlike some island nations, New Guinea, for example, really openly hostile to folks from the West. The people sort of -- Some tribes have been to our big cities but decided they would rather live virtually sort of naked in the forest as per their tradition. What was so sweet about it, you come in, and you see kids and you think they need maybe a better school or hospital here. They all say we have everything we need. Thank you any way. Obviously, that was before 150-mile-an-hour winds started blowing. So I know that we have some links on CNN.com/impact to some Australian- based NGOs who are eager to help as soon as they can get flights in there. But example, this is this little startup bed and breakfast I was telling you about. I guarantee all that man's work was blown away over this weekend. It's just crushing.

BERMAN: Bill Weir, they told you they have everything they need. Well right now, they need help. I think it's important we all do what you say, check out CNN.com/impact to find out ways that you can help the people of Vanuatu who have been so badly hit by this awful, awful cyclone. Thanks so much, Bill.

BOLDUAN: Thank, Bill.

Ahead AT THIS HOUR for us, negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. They have reached a critical phase with only two weeks left to get a deal in place. Could tensions between the White House and congressional Republicans derail these efforts? We'll talk with Republican Congressman Mike Turner next.

11:28:18

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)