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Manhunt For Murderer Who Escaped From Mississippi Prison; U.S. Whooping Cough Case Surge To Highest In A Decade; Officials: 38 Dead, 29 Survive Kazakshstan Plane Crash. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired December 25, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

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[13:00:43]

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A manhunt is underway in Mississippi for a convicted killer who escaped from prison. We have new details on the search. Plus, dramatic video out of Central Asia, where dozens of people survived a Christmas morning plane crash. However, many others are feared dead. Also, whooping cough cases have jumped to their highest level in a decade in the United States. We'll take a closer look at what's behind this troubling trend. We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN News Central.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

FREEMAN: Good afternoon. I'm Danny Freeman. We are following major breaking news today. Authorities now say at least 38 people are dead after an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed and burst into flames in Kazakhstan. But there were 29 survivors as well, including two children. Eleven are in critical condition.

Now you can see dramatic video shows dazed survivors being pulled from the wreckage. We have to warn you this next video may be disturbing to watch. Just terrifying images right there. And in this video posted to social media, you can actually see the plane descending to the ground in what appears to be the moment of impact.

A Russian aviation watchdog says preliminary information suggests the pilot tried to make an emergency landing after a bird strike. CNN transportation analyst and former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Trans Partition Mary Schiavo joins me now.

Mary, I mean, just incredible to watch some of this video. You see the plane really erratically circling the airfield before that crash. A Russian aviation watchdog, like I just said, is suggesting that this may have been an attempt to land after a bird strike. What's your take on what you're seeing here?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: Well, what I'm seeing is it has to be more than a bird strike because the plane did not have what's called pitch control. In other words, how many degrees up or down the nose is. How much is the nose pointed up or how much is it pointed down? So it obviously had some damage to the pitch control, which could be from the trim system, which helps the pilot keep the nose in the right place up or down, or the elevator, which is in the back of the plane. So there had to be something additional going on.

Also, there's unconfirmed reports that the pilot had done what's called squawking. In other words, you put your radio, you put your equipment on, and it sends a certain Signal, which is 7700, which says you've got a serious onboard problem.

And then also, when looking at a publicly available flight radar system online, you can see that the pilot fought with this plane for some time before choosing to land it at another airport. And so this wasn't something that happened. And then the plane was brought down. For example, on landing, you hit a flock of birds, and the altitude makes me wonder, you know, would the birds been at that altitude? But the pilot really fought. Pilots really fought with this plane for some time and then did a figure eight before landing. They did two circles and then tried to land. So it appeared that they were trying to gain control of this aircraft and really put quite a fight up on this Embraer 190.

FREEMAN: That's remarkable. Remarkable that you can, just by looking at some of that publicly available flight data, tell what that story may have been as it was playing out. Mary though at least 29 people, as far as we understand, survived this crash, though that seems truly extraordinary.

SCHIAVO: Well, and it's reminiscent of other, you know, accidents that we've talked about here on CNN or that I've worked as a, you know, an aviation lawyer and doing investigations. And we see crashes, more and more crashes where people survive because of the safety features built into aircraft. There's more survivability, there's less flammability, the ability to get out. And we have actually seen many crashes where the plane was completely destroyed. And in several cases, everyone got off, or in some cases, there were just a few deaths, including cartwheeling like this, as the plane did when it came in.

[13:05:17]

And there are pictures circulating showing holes punctured in the fuselage. And some people are saying, well, that looks like bullet holes. Actually, in doing accident investigations, I can tell you that looks like damage from the explosion of the aircraft when it exploded on the ground. So those don't look like bullet holes to me on the pictures that are circulating around.

And, you know, clearly, this pilot, these pilots, there are two of them on this plane, could not get this nose up, which suggests you don't have pitch control, which is reminiscent of other accidents. Even the 737 Max 8 crashes in Indonesia and in Ethiopia. The final sequence looked very much like this, a dive into the ground.

So because there are several, you know, many survivors, which is fortunate, and because of the newer plane, they will have newer black boxes, flight data recorder, and cockpit voice recorder. It'll have all the parameters. And I think they will have their answer of what happened fairly soon. However, they may not have their answer very soon as to whether it was a bird strike or something else. There's lots of speculation it might have been a drone. But they will have to carefully examine the plane, the engines, the windscreen. Ordinarily, birds take out your engines or engine, and you have time to tell air traffic control. You have time to get a mayday call in. You have time to communicate and tell what happened.

So whatever happened, obviously they had to fight up there in the air to keep that plane in the air for as long as they did.

FREEMAN: Well, just remarkable that there were any survivors, but still so sad and really terrifying seeing that video of that plane coming down. Mary Schiavo, thank you so much as always for your expertise. I really do appreciate it.

SCHIAVO: Thank you.

FREEMAN: Also happening right now, a manhunt is underway in Mississippi after authorities say a, quote, "dangerous and desperate convicted killer escaped from prison in Leaksville on Christmas Eve." Officials telling residents there to not let their guard down today. CNN's Nick Valencia joins us live with more details.

Nick, where are authorities searching now? And just what more do we know about this man?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Hey, Merry Christmas, Danny. This is a scary situation for those in the region. In Mississippi, this individual, Drew Johnson, 33 years old, he was last seen Tuesday afternoon after he escaped the South Mississippi Correctional Institution. That's the newest prison in Mississippi. But somehow Johnson was able to find his way out.

According to Mississippi police, he was last seen in the old Highway 24 area. That's Leakesville, Mississippi, in between Hattiesburg and Jackson, Mississippi. And we want you to take a quick look at this photo. Take a good look at this photo because police in the region are asking for your help in trying to find him. He may look slightly different than he looks in this photo, though.

There is another photo that we've yet to verify that's floating around the Internet that shows Johnson with a beard, also hair, new tattoos around his eyelids, potentially. Police want your help trying to track this down man. Trying to track this man down. Danny.

FREEMAN: And Nick, as I understand it, he also has a criminal record in the state of Tennessee. What more can you tell us about that?

VALENCIA: Yes, a very violent streak and a violent list offenses for Johnson. It was back in 2016 that he was convicted of the murder of a friend who posted on social media and just four days later was found buried in a field with more than two dozen stab wounds. After he was detained and taken into custody, he had another run in with an inmate and tried to kill that inmate. According to authorities, pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder after trying to kill that inmate with a brick, repeatedly striking him in the head. Not only that, he set fire to the Shelby County Jail in Tennessee not

once but twice. So this is a man with a violent streak and authorities are very concerned. They call him desperate and violent and they're very worried that he's on the run during Christmas. They say this is a time when people tend to be more generous. They tend to let their guards down. They want you to remain vigilant and stay vigilant and be careful. Again, Drew Johnson, 33 years old, has been on the run since yesterday afternoon. Danny.

FREEMAN: Man, thinking about that community in Mississippi, especially over the holiday. Nick Valencia, thank you very much. I really appreciate it.

All right. And in New York, the man accused of killing a woman by setting her on fire inside of a subway car is reportedly telling authorities he has no memory of what happened. He also is acknowledging his use of alcohol.

Now prosecutors say Sebastian Zepeta-Calil identified himself in images of the horrific attack. Those details coming from the Associated Press after the 33-year-old was arraigned on murder and Arthur charges yesterday. He did not enter a plea though, and is due back in court on Friday.

Joining us now is CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Jennifer Rogers. Jennifer, first of all, merry Christmas. I'm sorry that we keep having to talk about this really disturbing story, but let's get into it. What do you make of him saying reportedly that he doesn't recall this attack? Is that a viable defense?

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JENNIFER ROGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Probably not, Danny. I mean, prosecutors have to prove each element of the crimes that they've charged. And for the murder charges, that's going to include some sort of intent. So to the extent that you were so inebriated that you didn't intend, you couldn't form the intent to do something. It's theoretically a defense, but I find it very unlikely.

I mean, they have video of this individual sitting pretty calmly. He goes over to fan the flames with a T-shirt. It seems to me that he's going to be unlikely to show that he was so drunk that he actually couldn't form the intent to commit these crimes. So unlikely to succeed, I would say.

FREEMAN: Well, let's talk about that because that was one of the details yesterday that I think really stood out to a lot of folks who have been watching this story, that he went over allegedly and then fanned the flames by waving a shirt around and basically watched his victim burned to death. Do the horrific details of this attack and details like that, does that impact how this case will likely be prosecuted?

ROGERS: Well, I don't know that it really impacts the prosecution. I mean, they're pretty workmanlike about putting in their proof and showing the elements of each element of the offenses that they've charged. If I'm the defense lawyer though, I'm thinking about how do I properly defend this case most effectively. And so when you think about the way that this appeared to have gone down, you might be thinking, if you're a defense lawyer, you think about that intoxication possibility, but also perhaps an insanity defense.

I mean, who could do something so cold-blooded if they were really in their right mind? So it likely will impact the case in some manner, but probably not as much from the prosecution side as from the defense side.

FREEMAN: So one of the things that we also learned over the course of the past 48 hours or so was that the suspect was in the United States illegally. I'm just curious, how -- does that have the possibility of complicating this case? Or is it really immaterial as the state-local charges proceed forward?

ROGERS: Yes, it doesn't really have any impact on this case except that to the extent that he is convicted and serves a sentence and then ultimately would be released, he won't be released. He'll be released into the custody of the immigration authorities and deported back to Guatemala. Similarly, if he were to be acquitted, he will be given to the immigration authorities and be deported. So he won't end up here on the loose in the United States after this case is resolved either way. But it won't really come into the courtroom because it's not something that would be relevant to the charges.

So it's not as if the jury is going to hear that he's an undocumented immigrant and that had something to do with the case unless there is some way that it did. And I can't think of any way that it would come in terms of relevance of the evidence.

FREEMAN: Jennifer, one of the things that we've been talking about over the course of the story is the question of motive. And I guess there are two questions. Is it important at all legally to figure out the motive potentially in this case? Because it seems like really understanding motive is more for the public of understanding why or how a person could do this to another person. What's your thought on that?

ROGERS: You know, it's funny because motive is not an element of the offense. Prosecutors really never have to prove motive in a murder case. But people want to know, as you say, the public wants to know. Jurors also want to know. So while prosecutors technically don't have to prove it as part of their checklist of what they need to prove, they do try to find the motive and they do try to give the jury the reason for the crime, because jurors want to know, just like we all want to know why someone would do such a thing. I just think in this case it's really going to be impossible to find a motive that makes sense, right, for this horrible crime.

So it'll be interesting to see what prosecutors put forward as kind of their theory of the case, why this man did this. If they can come up with anything at all.

FREEMAN: Jennifer Rogers, thank you as always for breaking that all down. And I hope you have a good rest of your holiday. ROGERS: Thanks, Danny. You, too.

FREEMAN: All right. Still ahead, with just a few weeks left in his presidency, Joe Biden signs 50 bills into law. We'll talk about the new laws and what they mean for Biden's legacy. Plus some researchers sounding the alarm on the bird flu. But how worried should you and I be as we head into the new year? We'll ask an expert. Coming up on CNN News Central.

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FREEMAN: This morning, President Biden sent the final Christmas Day message of his presidency, posting, quote, "For the last time as your president, it's my honor to wish all of America a very merry Christmas. My hope for our nation today and always is that we continue to seek the light of liberty and love, kindness and compassion, dignity and decency. May God bless you all."

Now the president is also wrapping up his legislative duties. He signed 50 new bills into law, including the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act, backed by Paris Hilton the Stop Campus Hazing Act, requiring schools to report hazing incidents and a change officially designating the bald eagle as America's national bird.

Joining me now, CNN political analyst Alex Thompson. He is a national political reporter for Axios. Alex, thank you so much for joining us on this Christmas Day. First off, let's start here. What do you make of President Biden saying he hopes people seek? I believe the quote was dignity and decency.

ALEX THOMPSON, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, AXIOS: I mean, this is part of what he's been doing since Donald Trump won, which is he is trying to sort of maintain the institutions. That's why you saw him meet in the Oval Office with Donald Trump. It's why you've seen him be very committed to a peaceful transition, even as some people within the Biden orbit have felt that he would have made his, at times been a little bit too friendly to Donald Trump. But Joe Biden has always been this sort of person, this person that believes in the institutions that he basically spent the majority of his life in. And that's how you should interpret it.

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FREEMAN: President Biden has less than a month now left in office. What are you learning about what he'll do with his remaining days? I know the one thing that's on the calendar is he's going to visit the Pope.

THOMPSON: Yes. And that's not an accident. Biden has had a very close relationship with Pope Francis going back to when Pope Francis visited the United States during the Obama administration. That was a really big event for his family because it came in the wake of the death of Biden's son Beau. And, you know, it was a very impactful meeting. You know, otherwise, I can tell you inside the White House, there's a

bit of divide here where some people are a little bit in senioritis mode. They're looking, you know, for their next job. They are sort of checked out. And there are some people that are sort of running through the tape and they're trying to get as much stuff done as possible.

But as a result, sometimes some of those attempts have been sloppy. You saw that the recent clemency announcements. Just this last week, there were people on that list that were politically problematic, including the judge that oversaw the Kids for Cash scandal. And that has been, I think, this divide in the White House as they close out and finish out these final 30 days.

FREEMAN: You know, it's interesting, Alex, you're describing the White House or members of the White House running through the tape because I feel like the Biden administration has done a decent amount of last- minute things with this clemency. Like we've heard about these things, these signing these bills into law, but we haven't seen President Biden as much. Do you think we're going to see him in front of cameras, I mean, speaking publicly very much in the last month here?

THOMPSON: I don't have any expectation that's the case. And it has been really striking to your point that Biden's public schedule has been relatively light. Now he's done some of the holiday parties, but some Democrats have come out of there feeling that they've seen a diminished Joe Biden. And I think it's been clear over the last few months that his abilities as a communicator have also been a bit diminished. And so I actually don't think we will see a ton of in front of the camera, public remarks in this final stretch. Now that could always change, but at the moment, I would not expect to see a lot of Joe Biden in these final 30 days.

FREEMAN: It's pretty remarkable. Just a way for this presidency to conclude. Alex, just to go back to talk about some of these clemency points and specifically the decision to commute the death sentences of almost all of the federal inmates on death row. From your perspective, you know, we've seen the statement, we've seen the reaction, we've seen the people he left out. Do you think this was mostly about a genuine fear of Trump coming into office and, I mean, executing more people? Was this more about his legacy or was this actually squarely in his moral beliefs?

THOMPSON: Combination of all those things. I mean, Donald Trump has made it very clear that he intends to expand the death penalty dramatically, the most dramatic expansion that we have seen in decades. And for crimes that have not usually fallen under the death penalty, Trump has made very clear that the thing about Joe Biden's clemency with the death penalty that has been really striking is that in some ways he framed it in moral terms that the death penalty is wrong. But then if it's wrong, then why were a few people exempted?

And that part is not made clear. Now, the people he exempted, Dylann Roof, for example, in South Carolina, that was a mass murder in a black church that Biden was very much involved in and the grieving process. So these are some experiences where he has personal. Some personal experience.

But I do think that some of this is really wrapped up in his Catholicism, in his belief that the death penalty is wrong in a lot of cases.

FREEMAN: Alex Thompson, first off, congrats on a tremendous year of work. I'm a big fan of your byline. And after seeing your appearance on Casey's show this morning, I hope you get to watch It's a Wonderful Life today if you haven't already. Thanks very much for your time.

THOMPSON: Thank you so much. And Merry Christmas, Mom.

FREEMAN: Good man. All right, moving on. Health concerns are growing about the rapid spread of bird flu in the U.S. in cattle. The CDC has confirmed at least 65 cases of H5 bird flu in humans so far this year. Now the disease is tearing through cattle herds. Nearly 900 herds across 16 states have tested positive.

Dr. Jonathan Reiner is a CNN medical analyst and the professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University. Doctor, thank you so much for being here on this Christmas Day. Experts say they're losing faith in the government's ability to contain this virus. Is their concern valid?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Yes, I think it is valid. First of all, Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays.

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This bird virus, H5N1, is circulating widely in domestic poultry and on dairy farms. It's being carried by wild birds. As you've said, over 125 million domestic poultry have been either culled or died as a consequence of this virus over the last year. Hundreds of dairy herds have been infected now in 50 states, and there have only been 65 human infections, which is excellent news, nearly all of them in people with known exposure to either poultry or dairy workers or people who have been exposed to sick wild birds. But the concern is that this virus makes mistakes when it replicates, and most of these mistakes are meaningless. But every now and then, a virus like H5N1 will make a mistake that enhances its ability to transmit to humans. And when that happens, that's when a pandemic begins.

The question now is not whether we really should be worried about it. The question, I think, really is, are we prepared for it? And that's what I have a lot of concern about.

FREEMAN: While that we're asking if we're prepared for it since we've just come off of a pandemic not too long ago. But another top health concern, Doctor, that I actually wanted to get your perspective on while I have you, is whooping cough. The CDC reporting cases are surging to their highest in more than a decade. Dr. Reiner, what more do we need to know here?

REINER: Well, whooping cough is a vaccine-preventable illness. We've actually had a vaccine for the bacteria Portadella pertussis for over a century. And, you know, prior to the 1940s, when vaccinations were not that common in the United States, about 9,000 kids would die per year in the United States. And what this bacteria does is it attaches to the cells that line the airways. They're called cilia, the sort of hair-like cells, and damages those cells and creates a tremendous cough that can last for weeks.

It's highly contagious. People can be contagious for weeks. It can be treated with antibiotics. But young children or people with immune systems that are impaired or people with asthma are particular risk of severe illness from pertussis. And the vaccination rate in the United States is dropping.

Last year, only 91 percent of kids going to kindergarten had been vaccinated with the DTP vaccine, which contains the component for pertussis. And as this rate drops, the level of infection in the community rises. And so far this year, we've seen about six times more whooping cough than we did last year. And again, this is a vaccine- preventable illness.

I mentioned that 9,000 kids died in the 40s per year. Last year, only three children died of this. And that's where we really want to be. Why go back to the times when we would just wring our hands and say, wow, what can we do? There's a lot to do. We can vaccinate children. And we really need to get back to sort of a sane environment where parents are really taught that these childhood illnesses are unnecessary.

FREEMAN: Yes. Just emphasizing the continued importance of vaccines. Dr. Jonathan Reiner, thank you so much for joining us on this holiday. And I hope you have a good rest of your holiday week.

REINER: Thank you. Same to you, Dan.

FREEMAN: All right, coming up, holiday travelers have already been impacted by technical glitches on airlines and winter weather. So what tips should you have in your back pocket ahead of your next trip? Well, we'll break all those down.

Plus, it's been a tough year for residents of Asheville, North Carolina, after Hurricane Helene. But one K9 right here is lifting spirits there and putting the city's recovery efforts back in the national spotlight. You're going to meet Cora the Golden Doodle right ahead on CNN News Central. Can't wait.

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