eric bland, thank you very much for your time. >> thank you for having me. pete: you got it.el: thank you, pete. turning now to this tragic story. the family of a baby who died from fentanyl poisoning in florida is now suing airbnb over the can death. they say their 19-month-old child died while napping in the rental home. the family claims the previous rents are to blame saying they admitted to throwing a a drug the-fueled party before checking out. the family's attorney saying what i want to show is airbnb provided no cleanup, no warning, no measure of safety for the family. what a totally tragic story. >>> a texas teacher is accused of taping a 10-year-old student to a chair with the help of another student. the child and his outraged mother shared the traumatic details with lawrence jones last night. >> my teacher grabbed my arm, she taped me, and when she left the classroom, all the other class start the hitting me. rachel: he managed to squeeze with himself out of the tape and go to the nurse. the school has parted ways with that teacher, but no charges have been filed

brother dies instantly. >> eric bland is alaynia's attorney. >> alaynia is pinned in the back of thehe case is settled for $9 million. a huge settlement. so they have to have somebody to help them manage their money. >> russell lafitte was the conservator for alaynia and her younger sister. >> over the course of them being 11 and 18 years old, as a conservator he loaned money to himself and to alex murdaugh from a conservatorship account. he loaned himself over $600,000. he loaned over $800,000 to alex murdaugh. and these girls would get nsf checks come back to them -- >> not sufficient funds. >> -- because he had spent all the money. >> alex, i remember him telling me, these people took your mom and your brother because of their mistakes and we're going to make it right and you're not going to have to work another day in your life. and knowing that i'm over here pinching pennies -- >> because he was limiting your funds. >> definitely. >> it's horrible. it's a horrible thought. you've got kids that are in need and scared to even ask to get money to buy something they need, and here t

he was in the courtroom during this trial. >> eric bland, thank you so much. we really appreciate a paerg here on cnn. be well. >> have a good day. >> thank you very much. >> so in our next hour, we're going to talk to a south carolina attorney general about this verdict. >> this morning, tornadoes tearing through north texas. forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights in dallas. wind gusts reaching up to 70 miles an hour, strong enough to topple tractor trailers and destroy some homes and businesses. we're live in little elm, texas. what happened there, ed? >> this was the facade of a meat market that was blown over. a half daz cars crashed under there. they blew into southern oklahoma. this storm system stretched about 500 miles long from san antonio all the way in to southeast oklahoma with winds close to 70 miles per hour at times. causing flight delays and cancellations at a number of airports and we're waking up to 100,000 customers without power. many customers include school campuses. so we're seeing reports of a number of school districts here in

eric bland is the attorney that represented the children of gloria satterfield.he was the housekeeper, long-time housekeeper for alec murdaugh who died. at the time it was reported that she died from injuries in a trip and fall accident on his front steps and then he took the family under his wing said i will show you how to file a claim and then the family never collected money because he was allegedly pocketing all of the money. eric bland is clearly happy about this verdict. he describes the jury as courageous. and is saying that alec murdaugh, his power, prestige and money afforded him no special treatment. so, clearly the people who have been wronged by not just the people who were directly affected, you know, obviously his wife and son killed and advocates for them saying that they are getting their justice from the grave. but people in this world who suffered as a result of his financial crimes are beginning to come out and express appreciation for the jury's verdict. and, again, a very speedy verdict, the jury reached this verdict in less than three hours

attorney eric bland represents smith's mother. >> she believes that stephen was murdered, and it was important for her for his legacy to prove that. >> reporter: nowhere in the files from 2015 does it indicate that investigators attempted to speak with or spoke with buster murdaugh. murdaugh's attorneys confirm they never did. lester. >> all right, catie, thank you. >>> in 60 seconds, the new cdc warning on eye drops following three deaths. >>> plus, the new plan to overhaul the country's organ transplant system. what it may mean for wait times and who gets s the orgagans next. organ transplant system. what it may mean for wait times and who gets the organs next. i suffer with psoriatic arthritis and psoriasis. i was on a journey for a really long timeme to find d some relieief. cosentyx w works for m me. cosentyx h helps reall peoplele get real l relief from the e symptoms o of psoric ararthritis oror psoriasisi. serious alallergic reaeactios and d an increasased risk of infnfections oror lowered ability y to fight them m may occur.. tell youour doctor i if you he an i infection o o

we're hearing from representatives of some of the victims his financial victims, including eric bland respected family of gloria satterfield. the housekeeper who died of injuries after that was reported as a tumble and fall accident. eric said that alex murdaugh will drink from the same cup of justice as every other citizen and other convicted murderer, his power, prestige and money afforded him no special treatment. a lot of anger at alex murdaugh, he took gloria satter feel's family you were his week he would help them. -- satterfield, would take the family under his wings help them collect the insurance money, they never saw it, he pocketed that money himself. kennedy: and that was the road map. how to pay mallory beech's family in the settlement for her death in the drunken boating accident. maybe that is how alex thought he would pay for everything, was with his dead wife's riches. now he is paying with his life. because he will sit in a jail cell for the rest of his natural life. that you know these unnatural murders now we have some closure in the case. it will be interesting t

joining us now with more is smith family attorney and host of the cup of justice podcast eric bland. well now. is he a lawyer in south carolina in lexington, i believe, and is very involved in this case. you represented gloria satterfield the housekeeper's family first and retrieved millions of dollars back from the murdaugh family, which was supposed to be theirs. and now i understand you are representing stephen smith's mom? >> yes. it's-i'm honored to do so. she has fought for 8 years to change the cause of death the coroner's report, the certificate of death all said that steven died as a result of being hit by a car on a highway. and there was a lot of disagreement in the beginning of the investigation that it was not a highway fatality. his shoes weren't blown off. there wasn't debris from a car. you would expect if you hit somebody, there wasn't any skid marks. and had all the earmarkings of a homicide taking place somewhere else. and she has been screaming from the rooftops and this has he taken a back burner as the murdaugh murders unfolded. this week i received an extraordin

the attorney for stephen smith's mother eric bland says he plans to petition a judge to exhume smith'sndent autopsy conducted. he also said the murdaugh name had high influence in the area and possibly intimidated witnesses. he hopes they'll speak more freely now. back to you. >> c thank you for that. here to discuss, carol lamb, in studio, great to see you in person. i wonder a cold case like this, and the entire tv show dedicated to cold case, and eight years later, what are the challenges for prosecutors? >> as we have all seen on tv, chris, there are obviously challenges both forensic and witness challenges. forensic evidence obviously dissipates over time. it's a little bit harder to find murder weapons, and the body is not in the same condition anymore. but witness testimony is also critical in these cases, and you have people who have died. you have people who are incapacitated, memories fade over time. i think one of the interesting things here is a lot of potential witnesses are young people, people in the prime of their life at the time of the events eight years ago. it's qui

we're going to be joined by eric bland.resenting gloria satterfield's family, the house keeper who died on the murdaugh family. what he and the family think of the verdict. of that's coming up. >>> as we wait for that sentencing hearing that is happening this morning, there is outrage, fear, just plain desperation that is coming to a head in east palestine during a town hall last night. >> i'm begging you, by the grace of god, please get our people out of here! >> those are residence of east palestine speaking to officials for the area. they're demanding to be relocated from their own homes. they're afraid their kids are going to get cancer. they don't feel safe living in their own town anymore after a train that was loaded with those toxic chemicals crashed and burned a month ago. last night the train's company representati representative tried to reassure residents but they got an earful. >> we're very sorry for what happened. we feel horrible about it. >> then get us out! [ shouting ] we have plain. we're ready to start

let's bring in eric bland, he's an attorney. he actually represented the man we are about to talk to the sons of the late housekeeper. he is also the host of cup of justice podcast. good morning to you. >> good morning, ainsley. how are you. good morning brian and griff? >> you must feel justice has been served. >> well, yeah. this case from the start, ainsley, was about power and privilege. and the extension of that power and privilege. and this jury didn't just find him guilty. they found him incredibly guilty. this was a referendum on alex and the lifestyle that he lived for 12 years. not only betraying his family but doing to clients as an attorney it's the ultimate offense when you breach the trust of clients. and this jury kind of focused only on alex. amp he made that extraordinary decision to testify, the scientific evidence of blood d.n.a. and gsr went out the window, then the technology evidence of the videos, on star as well as the phone mapping went out. the jury did not want to believe him when he said look, i'm a l

i spoke with stephen smith's mom, sandy, and that attorney eric bland.andy, i appreciate you joining us. you have been fighting for nearly eight years now, too. to get justice for your son. how do you feel now that the investigation has been is being looked at as a homicide now, finally. i'm just overwhelmed. um, i've been fighting. this is what i've been fighting for. and i'm finally getting it. um and. i don't know how to explain it, but i have a little bit of peace in the hall. yeah. do you know? as you said, you've been fighting to get more attention on and find out exactly what happened to your son, really? from the beginning , and it has been nearly eight years now. it'll be eight years this july. did you know i mean when, early on when they said, well, it looks like it was. you know, it was blunt force trauma , you know, motor vehicle accident. he was probably hit on the road walking on the side of the road. did you believe that at all? i did not told him that i said there's no way this is a hit and run. my son would not walk in that road. there w