from desperation to jubilation. an arizona mother of seven, grandmother of two, is now a free woman after spending a week in a jail in mexico. she didn t want to let her husband go. can t say i blame her. she s are her cries early this morning from yanira maldonado as she walked into the long awaited embrace of her husband, gary. she was freed after a mexican judge saw video of the couple just last week, boarding a bus, carrying just a couple of blankets, bottles of water, her purse and that video was enough for this judge to drop the drug smuggling charges against yanira maldonado, a u.s. citizen born in mexico. mexican soldiers had accused her of sneaking 12 pounds of marijuana under her bus seat as
recall and when the jury begins to laugh at the witness, it should be a cause for concern by the defense that perhaps the jury s thinking this witness is just not credible. let s move on to another case that a lot of americans are concerned about, i think, which is the one of yanira maldonado. she is this mother of seven on her way back from a family funeral in mexico when she was arrested, and she s facing these charges of having 12 pounds of marijuana under her bus seat. tom, what do you make of this case? well, i think it s a tragedy for this family, and i think the heat is going to be so intense on the mexican government that she ll be released at some point. you have mexican public officials saying they think she was set up. you have very conservative, very experienced law enforcement veterans in america saying they think she was set up. she has no history of any criminal behavior at all. she sounds very credible.
because when a witness continues to say, says over and over i don t recall as apparently this witness has, then it starts to give the impression of untruthfulness to the jury and in fact, it s reported that the jury began to laugh when this witness continued to say i don t recall and when the jury begins to laugh at the witness, it should be a cause for concern by the defense that perhaps the jury s thinking this witness is just not credible. let s move on to another case that a lot of americans are concerned about, i think, which is the one of yanira maldonado. she is this mother of seven on her way back from a family funeral in mexico when she was arrested, and she s facing these charges of having 12 pounds of marijuana under her bus seat. tom, what do you make of this case? well, i think it s a tragedy for this family, and i think the
hook, line, and sinker. so why did the united states government have to respond to this? it is an amazing story. good morning, everyone. i m john berman. i m christine romans. it is friday, may 31st. welcome to starting point. and we do have a great deal of news this morning, but we want to get first to the breaking news. the arizona mother, finally free after a horrifying week in a mexican jail. a judge in nogales released yanira maldonado this morning. she was arrested last week after authorities claimed they found 12 pounds of marijuana under her bus seat. this mother of seven thanking god, thanking her family, and thanking her lawyers for her newfound freedom. rafael romo is live for us in kn nogal nogales, arizona, this morning. what s the latest? reporter: it s been a very difficult couple of weeks for yanira, maldonado. first, she lost her aunt, a woman who helped raise her in mexico. then she spent her first wedding
very much and helped raise her. on their way back from the funeral, that s when she gets stopped at the military checkpoint and accused of smuggling drugs. last saturday it was their first wedding anniversary. they had plans to celebrate that. instead of doing that, she spent the day behind bars. but the good news is that she s back home, she s on the american side and very glad to be back with her family. back to you. all right. rafael romo, thank you so much. you were mentioning the video that was critical. that was key. they got the surveillance. she was accused of having sixz kilos, 12 pounds of marijuana in the seat under her bus seat. and the video shows her and her husband getting on with like a handbag and a couple of handkerchieves and they re like she wasn t carrying that much marijuana. two bottles of wine and a blanket. that s pretty much looked like she was on vacation, not smuggling marijuana. exactly. goodness. coming up later this hour, how you can protect you