[Whitfield:] All right, top stories are straight ahead, including fuel prices fueling outrage. We'll take you to Nigeria, where high gas prices are sparking protests there. Joran van der Sloot wants more time to think about how he'll plead in his murder trial. Van der Sloot is charged with killing 21-year-old Stephany Flores in Lima, Peru nearly two years ago, but you also know him from the Natalee Holloway case. He was considered the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of the Alabama teen but was never charged in that case. So at his trial in Peru yesterday, he asked for more time to reflect.
[Unidentified Female:] So you do not plead or you don't deem yourself guilty according to what the prosecution has stated?
[Van Der Sloot:] Do do I have time to think this further?
[Whitfield:] So I want to bring in Jean Casarez from "In Session" on our sister network, truTV, who interviewed van der Sloot's lawyer. And so Jean, you know, earlier yesterday there were reports that van der Sloot planned to plead guilty to all the charges. So now he's reconsidering. Why?
[Jean Casarez, Correspondent, "in Session" On Trutv:] Well, Luis Jimenez told us personally yesterday morning, before the trial began, that he was going to plead guilty to the charges the prosecutor had brought, which is qualified murder, which is akin to maybe second degree murder, and he would offer a sincere confession. Well, then we get in the trial and you just heard what he did, and it's either that he wanted to stop this trial in its tracks, which he did, or he didn't understand the question from the judge because he doesn't want to plead guilty to cruelty and and that he was just so, so horrific with Stephany Flores when he killed her, so brutal. He doesn't want to admit that, but that's part of the charges and so he wouldn't didn't want to answer the question, and so he halted the whole thing.
[Whitfield:] And then there's something about this posttraumatic stress that he's experiencing?
[Casarez:] Now, this is very interesting. You know, we spoke with his attorney, as you said, and it was the fifth year anniversary of Natalee Holloway's disappearance, and when Joran confessed to this, and that's going to come into this trial, he said that he had gotten an e-mail on his computer that called him a mongoloid because it was the five-year anniversary of Natalee's disappearance. That caused the big issue between he and Stephany. Well, now the defense is going to turn that around to try help them. Take a listen to this.
[Luis Jimenez, Joran Van Der Sloot's Attorney:] We are sure that with the support from the corresponding experts it will be determined that Joran was living in a posttraumatic state during the attack. Let's remember that the fatal morning was the five-year anniversary of the disappearance of the American citizen, Natalee Holloway, and he's a young man, 22 years old, who has practically lived persecuted for a crime he says he didn't commit or for a disappearance that he cannot explain.
[Casarez:] So, Fredricka, what the what the defense is trying to do here is to mitigate so that he'll serve a lesser term. That's what they're trying to do all around, to get him to serve the least amount of time possible in Castro Castro.
[Whitfield:] This is really fascinating. And so meantime, you know, the judge talked to van der Sloot two different times yesterday, asking him to act appropriately. In what way? What was going on?
[Casarez:] It was amazing. He gets into the courtroom, everybody stands up out of respect to the court. He doesn't, and so the judge has to admonish him to stand up. And then, it even got worse. He started to close his eyes, he started to sleep, he started to repeatedly yawn. He even looked at his watch, and he wasn't wearing a watch. He just looked at his wrist. So
[Whitfield:] So he's not taking this seriously or he's mocking the court, the system?
[Casarez:] It appeared as though he was mocking the court. That's exactly right. Now, let's play devil's advocate. Was he so nervous that it just came about that that's how he reacted? Because this is the first time he's been in a courtroom and this was his murder trial that was beginning. But the three judges watched every single bit of it.
[Whitfield:] Wow, he's acting as though he doesn't want to see the light of day, I guess, right? Jean Casarez, thanks so much. Keep us posted on all that follows in this trial. Thanks so much.
[Casarez:] I will.
[Whitfield:] All right, meantime, another trial that all seems to be enamored by was the Casey Anthony case. Well, she's been out of the headlines for months now, but now she has resurfaced. In online videos earlier this week, she was seen in a four-minute video diary posted on YouTube and on Facebook, but her lawyer says she did not release it. This is the first we've heard from Anthony since a jury acquitted her of killing her daughter, Caylee. Here she's talking about how much things have changed for her.
[Casey Anthony, Acquitted From Murdering Her Daughter:] It's just a little surreal how much things have changed since July and how many things haven't changed. But the good thing is that things are starting to look up and things are starting to change in a good way.
[Whitfield:] Anthony is currently serving a one-year probation sentence for a 2010 conviction on check fraud charges. A bullied teen takes matters into his own hands and stabs his classmate to death. Our legal experts will weigh in on this case in just a few minutes.