Hacking Charged With Wife's Murder
COOPER: 360 next, a husband arrested for murder. Find out why police think Mark Hacking killed his pregnant wife. First, today's top stories in the reset. Conflicting polls tonight on whether Senator John Kerry got a bounce from the Democratic convention. The latest poll from the "Washington Post"-ABC News shows Kerry leading President Bush by 6 points among registered voters. It says on the eve of the convention, Bush had led Kerry by 2 points. But the latest CNN-"USA Today-Gallup poll tells a different story, gives Kerry no bounce, and suggests the two candidates are in a dead heat. Choose for yourself. If Saddam Hussein is sweating in prison, it is not because of the temperature. Iraq's human rights minister says Saddam has an air- conditioned cell unlike other detainees. He says Saddam is also able to enjoy gardening a few hours every day. In Fort Bragg, North Carolina, lawyers for a sergeant accused of killing two fellow troops in Iraq say their client's admission shouldn't be used against him. They say Sergeant Hassan Akhbar wasn't read his rights before he allegedly told the officer who caught him that he had bombed the troops' tent with a grenade. And across America, gas pumps are squeezing a little less out of the wallet. Government says gas prices have dropped to their lowest level since early May. However, the average price for regular unleaded, $1.89 a gallon, is up 35 cents from a year ago. That's quick look at tonight's reset. Word that Mark Hacking was arrested today for the murder of his pregnant wife, Lori, didn't come as a surprise to many in Salt Lake City. Since she disappeared two weeks ago, his story about his life and their life and what he did the day she vanished seemed to fall apart. And tonight, while Hacking is on a suicide watch and being held without bail, police continue searching a landfill where they believe, amid the garbage, lies the body of Lori Hacking. Earlier I spoke about the case with Salt Lake City Police Detective Dwayne Baird.</s>COOPER: Detective Baird, on Sunday you issued a statement saying that a Hacking family member had provided police with substantial new information. Is it that information which led to this arrest today?</s>DWAYNE BAIRD, DETECTIVE, SALT LAKE CITY POLICE: I can't talk specifically about that information, but it was something that was a catalyst in helping us in this case. It actually verified what we had already gotten from other tips.</s>COOPER: Can you tell us at this point what you think happened to Lori Hacking?</s>BAIRD: You know, I can't tell you specifically. We do think that she was murdered and according to the chief, what he had released earlier, that she was in fact murdered in her apartment and that she is in the landfill, according to some information that we have. We're going to continue that search this Wednesday evening.</s>COOPER: You said you're going to continue the search Wednesday evening. Why not start it right away?</s>BAIRD: We have the search dogs that have been assisting us and frankly they need some rest. We had initially prolonged the search until Friday but we understand those dogs will be ready sooner than that and we want to get this taken care of as soon as possible.</s>COOPER: How big an area in this landfill is it that you're searching?</s>BAIRD: Well, it's a couple of acres just on the surface. However, it is about 25 to 45 feet deep. And it's compressed garbage and it's just a long arduous process. We're looking at 3,000 tons of garbage. We've gone through about 500 tons of garbage at this point and we've been out there several days.</s>COOPER: Are you asking for volunteers or is this all being handled by trained professionals?</s>BAIRD: These are trained professionals. We are not asking for volunteers, and no volunteer that I know of would want to go out there. This is a horrible, filthy situation where it's just basically sewage that you're walking around in and it's not comfortable by any means.</s>COOPER: I know you can't talk about details of what you think happened. Do you feel that you have all the information you need about what happened or are there still blank spaces?</s>BAIRD: We have enough of the information that we believe we can charge him. We have the probable cause to charge him for the murder. Are there still some pieces of this puzzle we would like to have, certainly. The body is a big one. But it's not necessary. We don't believe it's necessary in filing the charges in this case. We believe that he is responsible for her disappearance and murder. And so we're making sure we go forward with these charges. There are some things that will come in through the state crime lab and testing and so on, but understand that we feel that we've got a case that's worth pursuing and we're planning to take it to the district attorney's office in that regard.</s>COOPER: And he's going to be charged with aggravated murder rather than first-degree murder. Why?</s>BAIRD: You know, I'm not certain exactly why those charges are the way they are. There was some speculation about the fact that she, his wife, was pregnant. However, that can't be substantiated or has not been substantiated medically at this point.</s>COOPER: And if that is substantiated and she is found to be pregnant, would there be an additional murder charge?</s>BAIRD: There certainly could be in this case, absolutely. That wouldn't be out of the question.</s>COOPER: Detective Dwayne Baird, appreciate you joining us.</s>BAIRD: Thank you. Thanks very much.</s>LISA BLOOM, ANCHOR, COURT TV: Well, the aggravated murder statute in Utah is the worst type of murder, it's murder in connection with a rape, a kidnapping, extreme and egregious circumstances or two or more people being killed at once. So while we don't know exactly what the evidence in the case is, that charge gives us a little bit of a clue of what might be going on behind closed doors.</s>COOPER: Gary, obviously there are a lot of details we don't know. How do you start defending? As a defense attorney, how would you start defending this guy?</s>GARY CASIMIR, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: This case right now is only with the police department. As you can tell the detective indicated they're going to bring the case to the district attorney's office. These charges may change. They haven't been able to establish, as the first count, aggravated murder, whether or not she was really pregnant yet. The question is whether or not that was done medically, whether there was a doctor that tested it and proof positive. Once they can establish that by the time of indictment, that charge will be reduced to simply the first-degree murder charge.</s>COOPER: Now, this guy lied about going to college. He lied about going to medical school. How important to establish is it whether or not his wife knew about these lies.</s>BLOOM: You know, we may never know if she knew. Probably the prosecution theory will be that he disclosed it to her, they had a big fight about it, she threatened to divulge it. But Anderson, this isn't just a lie. This is a colossal lie about his entire life, about his entire future.</s>COOPER: Creating a false identity.</s>BLOOM: That's right, about the core of his being, who he is. He lied not only to his wife, but to his family, to her family for a period of 18 months. This is enough of a motivation for murder. I think what's that the prosecutor is going to argue.</s>COOPER: Do they need a motive for murder?</s>CASIMIR: They don't need a motive for murder. But I don't know if it's about motivation for murder. These two went to college together. Married husband and wife, you start to know. Medical school is not something you just say I'm going to. You start early on applying for it in college. You know what kind of guy, you know what kind of student, you know what the applications are. There's some indication that your wife would know if you were really going to medical school or not. So I don't know if they're going to be able to substantiate a case based only on that. But motive is not necessary. If they have evidence in the house, this guy may have a lot to defend. You don't have to worry about motive.</s>COOPER: There are those who say look, he's already going for some sort of insanity defense. He was running around naked. Picked up by police. He went to a psychiatric ward.</s>BLOOM: But that's not enough. Running around naked, and even going to a psychiatric hospital, that's nowhere near the standard for competency. He's going to probably argue he's incompetent to stand trial, but more importantly, he may argue insanity at trial. Basically he has to show he didn't know the difference between right and wrong. If that's so, why did he dispose of the body? That's probably what prosecutors are going to argue. He did he know the difference, even if he did have some level of emotional disturbance?</s>COOPER: Lisa Bloom, good to talk to you. Gary Casimir, thanks very much. Cracking the Al Qaeda computer. Next on 360, a report from Peter Bergen, who's in Pakistan, on the possible source of the increased terror alert and what the source is telling authorities about exactly how Al Qaeda is now communicating. Interesting stuff. And a little later, Victoria Gotti, daughter of the mob godfather stops by to talk about her new reality show.