Continuing Coverage of Boston Bombings; An Arrest is Reported in Texas Prosecutor Shootings Case
CUOMO: Welcome back. We're live here in Boston with CNN's continuing coverage of the attacks at the Boston marathon, Erin Burnett, Chris Cuomo, Juliette Kayyem. We're going to go to a different developing story right now, an arrest in the killings of a Texas district attorney and his wife. The wife of a former justice of the peace is in custody now, charged with capital murder. Police shared details of the arrest a short time ago. Take a listen.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kim Lene Williams, 46, of Kaufman has been arrested and charged with the offense of capital murder for her part in the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. McLelland and Mr. Hasse. She's been held in the Kaufman County jail on a $10 million bond.</s>CUOMO: All right, so a big bond in this case shows how serious it is. I want to bring in CNN's Martin Savidge in Kaufman, Texas. Martin, what led to this arrest?</s>MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chris, there were a number of things that led to this arrest. Primarily it was events that happened over the weekend, search warrants that focused on this woman's husband, Eric Williams. He's a former justice of the peace in this county here. He was pushed out of office, actually forced out, as a result of the fact that he was convicted of theft from office. And here is the key element to know in that. The man who prosecuted that case, the chief lead prosecutor in the courtroom, Mark Hasse, the assistant D.A. who was later murdered. Who oversaw the entire investigation? That was Mike McLelland, the district attorney who was also murdered along with his wife Cynthia in their home. So now apparently, it is Kim Williams who has come forward and said, yes, she was part of that. She implicates her husband. The authorities classify it as a confession. In fact, they say that she confessed to involvement in the scheme and in the course of the conduct of the shooting deaths of Hasse, McLelland, and Cynthia McLelland, and Kim Williams described in detail her role with that of her husband. Her husband is currently in jail here, but on a charge unrelated to the specific murder. So it really is all beginning to unwind. There were many scenarios that were thought that investigators were looking at. Now it appears more and more it may have been a family that had a grudge. Chris?</s>CUOMO: Right, Martin. That's a very important point. Let me follow up on that. This is a major twist in the case. You said the husband of the woman who was just charged with capital murder already in jail, but on unrelated charges. What are you hearing about what could come next?</s>SAVIDGE: Well, we anticipate that there are going to be capital murder charges that will be brought against her husband, Eric Williams. As we say, the wife has now implicated him. There is other evidence that has been gathered. Those search warrants over the weekend turned up a vehicle that some witnesses say they saw in the areas where the murders were carried out. And also there were a number of weapons -- some people say as many as 20 -- that were recovered. You can guarantee ballistic tests are being done against those weapons and the bullets that were removed from the bodies of the victims, Chris.</s>CUOMO: All right, Martin, thank you very much. Appreciate the reporting. We'll be back to you later on. We're going to turn back now to the developing story here. It has been a busy afternoon, Erin. There's a been a lot of different word coming out of the investigation about that is going on. The big headline that's reportable and has the benefit of being true at this time is that, by analyzing videotape and photos, authorities now believe that they have identified somebody on videotape near where the second blast went off who seemed to place down a nylon bag that matches their description of what was containing the pressure cooker device, that turned out being an explosive, and then exits, and they believe they have identification of him. We have Tom Fuentes with us right now. Tom, we have been puzzling today at how you can go so quickly from finding an image like that of a vague description, putting a name to it, and then ultimately capturing that person. How belabored is that process?</s>TOM FUENTES, FORMER FBI ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Well, extremely. That's why they haven't gotten that far yet. And I think that's why the authorities are saying hold horses and wait a minute here. They have a very good picture of a suspect from the videos, as we know. That we were aware of, but putting a name with a face is another matter. And then, once they have that name, then trying to locate that person and get him into custody and then at that point probably execute search warrants at the residence, maybe find other paraphernalia of bomb-making equipment, or wire cutters that could be traced to the cut wires that went to make the device. But these are all incremental steps that are beyond where the authorities have been as of this morning and this afternoon. What we would hope is that at the 5:00 press conference they'll put a description out, put the face out there, and say, OK, does anybody know this person? Help us locate. That may happen. I don't know at this point. But what I do know is that, through the morning, they did not have the identification by name of a specific person and at no time had anybody in custody or under arrest. I would also like to clarify. A person wounded that's in the hospital can be under arrest. We have that happen in many cases where there's a shootout or something and people are arrested, but they're in the hospital being treated. They can be in custody with police officers or agents at the door preventing them from being taken out, and escaping, let's say, until their finished with their treatment. So the mere fact of whether somebody is in the hospital, whether they're in an office, whether they're in a jail, the arrest means they're not free to go. The authorities have determined that they have this individual, they're talking to this individual, and if the person says, OK, I'm not going to talk to you anymore, I'm done, if they can walk out the door, then they weren't in custody. If they don't walk out the door, then they have been under arrest and they are in custody and they go forward from there.</s>ERIN BURNETT, HOST, "ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT": Well, Tom, at this point, our understanding is, of course, there isn't anyone under arrest and not in custody. But they have someone who they think could be a suspect, right, so we're in that gray area. And my question to you is, where do we go from here? If they have someone that they think is a suspect, they want to talk to this person, why haven't they yet? Is it possible they don't know where the person is, that they're still waiting for tips or is there some sort of other issue that could be causing this sort of a delay in us seeing, yes, this person is in custody and I'm asking them questions?</s>FUENTES: Erin, there are several possibilities in a case like this. If they think there are more individuals involved, they may have that person under surveillance and, basically, they will refer to that as being "in pocket." In other words, they've got the person surrounded, so to speak, and they're following them, but they're not going to grab him because they don't want to alert other subjects to turn into fugitives. So they might be waiting until they can locate other people that were involved before moving on the first person or the first two people if they've been identified. So their investigative purposes vary depending on what they have, how many people they think are involved in this, and where they want to go from there. They would not want the person to be alerted and escape. And it is my understanding, again, that the leaks were not intentional this morning. This was not something that the top investigators were happy with. They didn't want the subjects alerted that there even was good photos of them or even good leads that are going to be followed up on during the day. That was not something the investigators wanted to become public.</s>BURNETT: All right, well, Tom, thank you very much. And, of course, we are awaiting, as all of you know, and Chris has been saying, we've been waiting for the FBI press conference where we hope to get some more information on some of this confusion, who this person is, what they know at this time, and whether they are looking for multiple people. But now we want to get to Washington where Michelle Obama is also talking about the tragedy here in Boston and listen to her.</s>MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY: Before we get started, I want to take a moment to say that our thoughts and prayers are with everyone in Boston. My husband continues to monitor the situation, and he has directed the full resources of the federal government to assist state and local authorities as they investigate this horrific act. And what happened on Monday was a reminder that, in times of crisis here in America, we respond with courage and grit and selflessness. That is exactly what we saw from the people of Boston and from all those who rushed to the aid, police officers, firefighters, first responders, and our men and women in uniform. That is the spirit of Boston, but it is also the spirit of this country.</s>CUOMO: And, you know, the first lady is speaking something that is felt so deeply here. We have word today, more good news, a hundred of the 180 people injured here have been released from the hospital. That is a direct testament to the phenomenal efforts by volunteers and medical professionals on the scene and triage follow-up that was beautiful at the hospitals ...</s>BURNETT: Right.</s>CUOMO: ... now allowing people to go home and try to put their lives back together. And equally in terms of the investigation here, the videotape you're looking at now is not one of their cameras. It came from a shopping store ...</s>BURNETT: Right.</s>CUOMO: ... from Lord & Taylor. So, again, there's been a spirit here of dealing with the situation that is helping this city get back on its feet, and that is a big part of the story that we're going to continue to follow.</s>BURNETT: That is true. And, of course, there are people right now who are -- and some young children, still fighting to not have another amputation, who are fighting for their lives. So every day that goes by is a better chance that they are going to make it. And that is what we hope will be the bittersweet joys, that they will be all right on that. But we're going take a break, and we're going to come back on the other side of it with our live team coverage from Boston.