ed lavandera covering the court-martial in texas for us. ed, what is the very latest on this? >> good morning. we are waiting for court procedure proceedings to bedwgin this morning. this is after everything was dramatically shut down in the courtroom yesterday after the three attorneys that are essentially standing by major hassan's side, he is acting as his own attorney, but the military has invited three attorneys that help him guide through any legal procedural issues. they are not actually speaking in the courtroom because hasan has been doing it. those three attorneys started voicing concerns. hasan is trying to help the prosecution to ensure that he gets the death penalty and those attorneys don't feel like they can stand by and watch that happen. as soon as the attorney said that the judge shut everything down and put into private meetings that we haven't heard anything else as to anything else is going to happen. we are eagerly anticipating and the court is beginning this morning to see what the judge will tell these stand-by attorneys. they're helping major hasan. wh

they sat down with ed lavandera for their first face-to-face interviews. here's what they told him. >> reporter: look into the eyes of gabrielle, you see a babyfaced 21-year-old, and then he blinks and you see something else. another set of sinister eyes staring back. these tattoos on his eyelids. these eyes are a window into the soul of a drug cartel assassin. >> in all, how many people did you kill? >> no idea. >> no idea? you lost track? >> so out of the world, man, when you're in mexico. >> could you guess, are we talking 10, 20, 30, 50? >> between 20 and 30. >> reporter: gabriel says he was 15 years old when a cartel recruited him to kill. he was part of a secret crew of hit men living in laredo, texas. along with this man retta. they spoke from texas prisons where they're serving life sentences for murder. they both say they worked for miguel angel trevino. the ruthless violet leader of a drug cartel recently arrested in mexico. >> i know this man. he's not going to tell you to do something if he won't do it, and that's why a lot of people followed h

nadal hassan appeared flustered, repeatedly asking for breaks during the testimony. >> ed lavandera is live from ft. hood. once the witnesses get a chance to finish up the statements in court. presumably it turns to the defense and nadal hassan would be able to stand up and make some kind of allocution. if he does that, can he say things now that he couldn't say during the trial? >> reporter: well, i think he has a bid more leeway. nadal hassan asked on friday when the prosecution is done presenting its witnesses that he gets the rest of the day to be able to prepare for what he wants to do, so that kind of implies there that he seems to be ready to say something. exactly what, we don't know, so if that does happen and the prosecution wraps up, it has several more witnesses to call through the morning, we anticipate the judge will perhaps give him the rest of the day and come back tomorrow morning. so that's the best we can tell you at this point. >> well, if he decides to spout on in defense of orders which he wasn't a -- i have seen judges shut people down. i've seen judges shut them

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ed lavandera is covering this trial live at ft. hood.he news about that is astounding opening statement from defense counsel and defense -- and the defendant himself yesterday on this program at this time. and now this. has everything shut down or are we awaiting sort of the results of this motion? >> we're at a standstill right now. yesterday's opening statement should have been a clear indication this was not going to be your average ordinary murder trial. and things were not going to go smoothly as planned here. clearly that's what we've seen. the testimony today or the court hearing today started about 40, 45 minutes late and we got there, the jury was not in the room. no witnesses had been called so far. and this is because the lawyers that are sitting next to major nidal hasan, hasan is acting as his own attorney but has this counsel to the side that can provide advice to him. they have now filed a motion with the judge basically saying they don't want to help him. these are their words from this morning's hearing, don't want to he

cnn's ed lavandera is live at ft. hood where the sentencing came down less than two hours ago.d, any reaction from the victims' families yet? >> reporter: well, john, in just a few moments we're about to hear from some family members that wanted to speak with reporters in the next couple minutes or so that process will begin, but inside that courtroom when the death sentence verdict was read, family members clutched one another. they held on to each other. nadal hassan had no reaction, sat that stoically. he has basically took on the lines. speaking only briefly. the prosecutors really went after him this morning, taking their last time to speak to the jury and spoke poignantly in snapshots in each of the 13 victims, talking about the struggles and pain that each of these individual families have been talking about. there was a lot of question how he wanted to be seen around a martyr around the world, but the prosecutor ended by telling the jury that nidal hasan would never be a martyr, because he has nothing to give. he is not giving his life, we are taking his life. as you me

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so that kind of pushes me through. >> reporter: ed lavandera, cnn, ft.ood, texas. >>> it's a victory of sorts for convicted army private bradley manning. a military judge reducing his maximum term for giving secrets to wikileaks to 136 years to 90 years. the judge ruling there was some overlap in his defenses. meantime, manning's father believes his son is innocent and was grandstanding when he confessed to the leak in court. >> logistically, i can't understand, because knowing the computers as well as i do, how you could get that much data out of a room with three other people in there, you know, sitting close proximity, where everybody could see what everybody was doing, it's -- i can't understand how that could be done. >> the sentencing phase of manning's court-martial is now in its second week. he was kwigtded of the largest leak of classified information in u.s. history. >>> this morning, demolition crews will begin tearing down the house in cleveland where ariel castro held three women for a decade. security is going to be tight there to discourag

cnn's ed lavandera has been on top of this story. he shows us some of the most important rulings regarding what prosecutors say about his motive. >> reporter: almost four years after the ft. hood massacre, nadal hassan will be center stage expected to try to justify why he killed 13 unarmed fellow soldiers and wounded more than 30 others. >> there's no telling what he'll do when he gets on the stand if he testifies which i suspect he will to tell his story which admits to the fundamental crimes and then gives an excuse for doing so. >> reporter: for the victims' families, the testimony could prove to be a painful side show. hasan has been told he cannot argue he killed american soldiers because in his view they were preparing to fight muslims in afghanistan and iraq. since hasan is acting as his own attorney, he'll write out questions for his standby attorneys to ask him. >> a defendant has a right to represent himself and he has a right to do it poorly and i think he has the right to ask for capital punishment. >> reporter: prosecut

our ed lavandera has been following this trial from the very beginning.was it like in the courtroom? how did people react to this? >> reporter: ashleigh, it's been an intense day for them when the verdict was being read, family members when those guilty verdicts came down, family members that have been inside the courtroom for the duration which is now almost three weeks long, this trial, crying quietly, hugging each other, they were told by the judge no loud outbursts or anything like that, but we saw them clutching each other. we've spoken to other family victims and survivors who weren't able to be inside the courtroom and they talked about how much emotion they felt even though they knew the guilty verdicts were coming down, it was very much an emotional day. as for nadal hasan, he sat stoically, no reinvestigation and looking at the soldier that read the verdict that was it. >> what about the whole notion that there is this death/life phase and that this jury needs to determine whether he lives or dies for these crimes? it's no secret he wants to die

ed lavandera thank you. >>> we're facing a brutal heat wave sitting over the midwest. what does that mean, more schools closing down. indra petersons has more. >> so hard to believe we're still talking about this. it's been all week long, temperatures in the 90s and feeling like they're 100 degrees making it so hard for the children in their first week of school. it's been three days of near record-breaking temperatures in parts of minnesota, the temperature reaching a burning 92 degree mark. some schools are being closed for the rest of the week. >> friday's canceled, too? >> reporter: it's just too hot and the schools don't have air conditioning. >> right now our situation we feel like the best thing to do and the safest thing to do is to stop school for two days. we have more people that are feeling tired and sluggish. >> reporter: and the temperatures aren't just affecting minnesota, a giant heat dome has been perched over the midwest since sunday, lingering there and keeping that hot air locked in. >> let's talk about what we're looking at, adviceries again, south

ed lavandera has been down there for the trial.rguments today, incredibly emotional inside that courtroom. >> reporter: brooke, it was incredibly powerful the way prosecutors wrapped up the testimony and the work here in this -- what is a court martial that is now into its fourth week. prosecutors before sending the jury off to deliberate went one by one with poignant snapshots of each of the 13 victims. talking about their family members, the struggles that they've had coping with the loss and everything that they've had to deal with. and it was extremely powerful. and if there was any doubt in these jurors' minds, they had seen all along as nidal hasan basically had put up no fight, that he wanted to become a martyr, be sentenced to death himself, the prosecutors finished their closing arguments this morning by saying that nidal hasan would never become a martyr because he has nothing to give. he is a criminal, a cold-blooded murderer. he is not giving his life, we are taking his life. and it took the jury about 2 1/2 hours or so

our ed lavandera is there with the very latest. ed, what can we expect today?ll, this is hardly your regular ordinary kind of capital murder trial. but, what you see going on here is prosecutors continuing their fight to ensure that major nidal hasan is sentenced to the death penalty. meanwhile, he doesn't pay a lot of attention to the guilt or innocence of this trial. he is fighting his own war trying to show he was justified in killing 13 american sole skrrs and wouskrr and wounding 30 more. >> reporter: this morning military prosecutors will continue calling survivors to testify against major nadal husane. heaavy security and rows of massive steel containers. major hasan is flown in by helicopter and in court he is dressed in an army combat uniform with an american flag decorating his sleeve. yesterday he quickly admitted to killing defenseless fellow soldiers. the evidence will clearly show i am the shooter, he declared in an opening statement. hasan went on to say, i was on the wrong side and i switched sides. prosecutors say he felt a jihad duty to kill a

thank you so much, ed lavandera in florida.nd we'll be right back with much more on the "newsroom" after this. >>> college football, well, it's back. kicking off with a full slate of games today, but the biggest story this hour is on the nfl level. tim tebow, jerry greenberg is here with more on this morning's bleacher report. we are talking about somebody who was big in college ball but what's the latest now? >> one of the all-time greats in college, but tim tebow's stint with the patriots is over. nfl.com says the polarizing figure has been released just two months after signing a two-year nonguaranteed deal. the quarterback was on his third team since being drafted in the first round in 2010. he completed less than 37% of his passes while playing in three preseason games for new england. he threw two touchdowns, two interceptions, and was sacked seven times. that's a lot of times to go down in three games. he was trying to win the backup quarterback job behind future hall of famer tom brady. once official tebow will become a

ed lavandera, cnn, ft. hood, texas. >> thank you for that. >>> there is a lot of news developing at this hour. straight to michaela with the latest. >> the body of an arizona teenager who had gone missing last week in oregon has been found. 1-year-old jonathan croom's body was spotted a short distance from an suv, his death being investigated as a suicide. he was grieving the end of a relationship and talked about running away from society, like in the book "into the wild." >>> now that george zimmerman has been acquitted in the death of the unarmed teenager trayvon martin, zimmerman's legal team plans to ask the state of florida to pay up to $300,000 of his legal expenses, that would cover some of the money spent on expert witnesses, under a florida law an acquitted defendant can ask the court to pay some of the costs in the case. >>> a break of measles eight a megachurch, all leegd to the eagle mountain megachurch. most of the people who had gotten sick had not been vaccinated against measles. the church

ed lavandera is here with more breaking news in the case.rday everything shut down because the backup lawyers say they can't stand by any longer and watch him march himself to the death penalty. what has the judge said in this case? >> reporter: it was another tense morning. the judge came out this morning first thing and denied those attorneys' request to modify how they would work with major nidal hasan in his death penalty murder case here at fort hood. the judge denied that motion. it didn't end there. basically the judge ruled that this was simply a disagreement in strategy, that major hasan is fully kachab abcapable of repre himself, that he has a constitutional right of defending himself how he so chooses. but then the lawyers said -- the attorneys kept hammering at the judge about it and said it would be "morally repugnant" to force them to allow major hasan to essentially in their opinion work with the prosecution to ensure that he get the death penalty. despite all of that and those strong claims from these attorneys, from what we

our ed lavandera has been following the trial. he's live at ft. hood.re we standing right now? are they getting towards the very final words? >> reporter: well, we are just moments away from the jury beginning the deliberation process in nidal hasan's sentencing. closing arguments have wrapped up. prosecute spent about 45 minutes speaking with the jury this morning. nidal hasan chose not to say anything. we've talked a lot over the last few weeks about how nidal hasan wants to be seen as a martyr and the prosecutor ended their statement to the jury addressing that int point. he will never be a martyr because he has nothing to give. is he a criminal, a cold-blooded murderer. but for most of those 45 minutes prosecutors spent snapshots of each individual victim killed, going through all 13 of them, talking about their families, the struggles that their loved ones have been through. incredibly powerful testimony and incredible descriptions of what these families have been through and the lives that were taken here and every story ended with the image and t

one resident told our ed lavandera, he thinks all the property around there will be worthless. >> reporter: are you worried about what it means long term? >> yes, yes. [ inaudible ] i'm retired, that's all i got coming in. >> reporter: while louisiana folks are dealing withes massive man made sinkholes natural sinkholes continue opening up in florida this time in ocala, north of orlando, people living around a five-acre lake say they watched it disappear in the matter of a few hours. while it seems there's been an increase in sinkholes lately in florida, experts say there's no scientific evidence to prove it. for "outfront," john zarella, cnn, miami. >> that video just absolutely incredible. >>> and now, "money and power" tonight. trading hall -- trading on the nasdaq was halted for three hours this afternoon. it was a technical glitch that they blamed, but the nasdaq is a big deal, apple, google, microsoft all trade there. the problem is trading glitches are happening a lot. earlier this week a programming error at goldman sachs led to massive erroneous trades. problems like these hurt co

first, ed lavandera is coverage the court-martial. ed, you were there today, take us inside. what was it like? >> reporter: well, anderson, in many ways, it was really intent. i think many people were anticipating to see how major nidal hasan was going to behave. it was the prosecutors that started off with the vivid and dramatic picture going through the steps that major hasan went through. it was very colored and poignant at times. the prosecutor talking about the screams of a pregnant victim who was dying screaming my baby, my baby. and other victim describing how her voice went quiet and that what the moment she died. very powerful descriptions of what happened in the homes before the brief massacre took place. >> i know hasan is representing himself. he gave his opening statement. it was relatively short. they're showing all of these pictures of him, does he have a beard in court? >> reporter: he does have a beard. we should point out, military officials are being very strict of what kind of access we're able to see of major hasan. news media every day. but his movements

they sat down with ed lavandera for their first interviews.ore at the top of the hour, erin. >> we'll see you in just a few minutes. >>> now our fifth story outfront, the brutal school bus beating caught on tape. it is shocking video. a 13-year-old victim left with a broken aarrm, two black eyes afr getting completely beaten up. it's horrible to watch. 15-year-olds beat up this 13-year-old child. there was only one adult on this bus and it was the driver. and he did call for help. >> get up out here quick, quick, quick, quick. bring somebody here quick. there's nothing i can do. >> should the driver have done more? outfront tonight, stephanie miller and hogan gidley. dean, you hear this man call and some people say why wouldn't he step in and try to save this child. well, he's 64 years old. >> yes. >> she decided not to get physically involved even though he was the only adult. he did make that call. >> right. >> was that enough or should he have tried to step in as he said on that call they're going to beat this boy to death. >> i think it's

. >> ed lavandera, we'll get back to you later.nk you, ed. >> and coming up, it's as bad for your privacy as publishing your social security number. we'll show you the spyware, that could be lurking in your apps. >>> many smartphones are the swiss army phones of technology. you can search the web, pay for your groceries and even make a phone call once in a while. but they can also betray you and your privacy when hackers begin to snoop around. >> reporter: your smartphone turned into a spy phone. i >> i'm looking at playing angry birds here. >> reporter: you see angry birds on the screen. on the other end, a hacker can see you. >> there's us looking at the phone. >> reporter: and that's just the beginning. >> the other thing we can do is record conversations. i can use the listen function here. and when i click listen, i'm going to record ten seconds of conversation on this phone. >> reporter: how did they do it? >> we used angry birds. it's a very popular game. >> reporter: popular app but be careful where you download it. >> they

ed lavandera, live in texas this morning. >>> the website is still down this morning some 19 hours aftertack. a syrian activist group that supports the embattled assad regime says it hacked the site. the syrian electronic army has taken responsibility for past attacks on cnn and other news organizations. >>> a state department envoy heads to north korea hoping to win freedom for kenneth bay. the u.s. citizen has been detained since november. he was found guilty in april for trying to topple the north korean government. his sister says he's a tour company owner who went to north korea for work and he's suffering from numerous health problems. >>> a virus is likely to blame for killing hundreds of dolphins along the east coast, according to government experts. it's similar to measles in humans and distemper in dogs. >>> the historic march on washington and you're being looking at the national mall where president obama will be speaking later this afternoon. it's more than a tribute made by the civil rights movement. it's also a reminder that there is work to be done still. cnn's don lemon

cnn's ed lavandera is on the scene. he's been in the courtroom. ed, what's the latest? >> reporter: well, this was a bizarre day of what we thought would be testimony, wolf, but everything started about 45 minutes late this morning. when the judge did show up and major hassan was at his defense table as well as prosecutors, and this is what is called the standby counsel, three attorneys who have been assigned to help navigate him through this death-penalty case, said they want to modify their standing, their role in this case. they say that major hassan is essentially working with the prosecution to ensure he gets the death penalty and that they can't stand by and what much that happen. major hassan objected to that, and before anythinged could be said, the judge shut it all down, saying that's a conversation that those attorneys would have in private. so everything has been shut down for today. we're told everything is supposed to resume tomorrow, but a dramatic legal drama unfolding today, wolf. >> how did it get to this point where the trial had to be postponed for t

ed lavandera joins me from fort hood. what's the word? will he or won't he take the stand?asan would testify in his own behalf but i'm not so sure as this moves along exactly how this is going to play out. i suspect we will hear from nidal hasan at some point. the question is when. he had three witnesses on his witness list, two doctors, medical experts, that would talk about his religious conversion but he has dismissed those witnesses. he is the only witness left to call. so it sounds like there's a possibility that nidal hasan just says, look, i'm not going to testify, there are severe limits on what the judge will allow him trying to say in terms of him trying to justify the shooting here at fort hood. so perhaps he decides to wait and testify knowing that he's going to be convicted, perhaps he waits to testify in the punishment phase of this trial. it will be interesting to see tomorrow morning if he decides to take the witness stand or if he waits until the punishment phase after he's convicted. >> and since he's representing himself, just sort of logistically, if he

cnn's ed lavandera has been on top of this story. he shows us some of the most important rulings

. >> ed lavandera reporting for us.t to talk legal what we can expect in the coming days and weeks. monica lindstrom joins us from phoenix and dennis from philadelphia. let's begin with what we heard from ed in texas to sort of juxtapose the prosecution, you know, detail, meticulous, one hour opening statement with this, you know, two minutes from nadal hasan. is there any i don't even want to -- i would say what's the strategy in that? but is there even any strategy, danny? >> well, what's fascinating to me is that the judge usually tells jurors that opening statements and closing statements are not themselves evidence, however, what a unique situation where the actual -- someone's representing themself pro se and he stands up and admits that he is the shooter. however, i think what we're seeing is a rambling contrived justification that he believes in his mind he had to shoot because he had some greater good that he had to achieve or some form of defense of others. who knows though. when someone represents themselves

. >> cnn's ed lavandera has been following the dozier saga for us for the last five years. speaking with more of the men who once attended this school. >> reporter: the accused former school leaders of beatings, sexual abuse and even murder. which brings us to this cemetery on the school grounds. the bodies of 31 boys are buried here. florida authorities claim they know how all the boys died. some killed in a fire. others in flu epidemic. nothing criminal. new research shows other bodies could be buried in this area, too. and dozens of former students and families say that's proof of a more sinister story hidden in these woods. back in the early 1960s, the leader of the boys reform school had a local boy scout troop come in here and clean up the cemetery. they put up these 31 crosses. but now a team of anthropologists over the last year has been going through all of this area, cleared out all of the woods around here, and they're finding the possibility of many more grave shafts, which is only leading to the mystery of what happened here in mariana. the research project led

cnn's ed lavandera is in ft.ning, kate that, caveat representing himself leaves a lot of questions of just exactly what will nidal hasan's defense look like when it possibly starts later today. almost four years after the ft. hood massacre, nidal hasan will be center stage, expected to try to justify why he killed 13 unarmed fellow soldiers and wounded more than 30 others. >> there's no telling what he's going to do when he gets on the stand, if he testifies, which i suspect he will, to tell his story which essentially admits to the fundamental crimes and then gives an excuse for doing so. >> reporter: for the victim's family, hasan's testimony could prove to be a painful side show, hasan, who is an army psychiatrist has not been told he cannot argue he killed american soldiers because in his view they were preparing to fight muslims in afghanistan and iraq. since he's acting out his own attorney he'll ask a series of questions for his standby attorneys to ask him. >> a defendant i believe has the right to, we kn