also the severe weather threat will continue tonight. plus heavy rains stick around through the weekend in much of texas and the plains keeping flooding a major concern into next week. jon: we are awaiting new details on the alleged beatings at a church in upstate new york that left one teenager dead and his 17-year-old younger brother in serious condition. as the 17-year-old survivor testifies in the hearing at least against one of his attackers and 33-year-old half-sister for her alleged role in a quote, counseling session, the police say it included strikes the boys with an electrical cord to get them to confess their sins. talk about with troy slayton, criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor. wendy patrick is a trial attorney. welcome to both of you. i just can t think of a more horrific case. these, the parents of these boys accused in this horrific crime,
less, it means the prosecutors think it is less. means the investigators think it is less. not just somebody. people investigated this crime think it s less. that is exactly what a preliminary hearing is for. charges were brought as a result of an investigation. in other words they don t just guess. they investigate. what happens at prelim when testimony starts colling out, that is one of the things that will be at issue. should it be less. what was her role and if the defense decides to raise the defense of duress, troy s right. it doesn t necessarily have to be done at the prelim. charges can be changed. they can be inflated. they can be deflated. they can be moved. more people can be charged. one of the things that came out during this investigation. jon: i don t get it troy, if you drive a car to bank robbery, somebody gets killed, even if you weren t in the room, you drove the car you could be charged with murder. why is a woman apparently in the room, in the church where this b
of a manslaughter or homicide? right, jon. she is only being charged with second degree assault which is class d felony in new york. that means that if this is the only charge that sticks, it means that she could only face up to maximum of seven years. this means that the investigators, that the prosecutors, that the people that have been looking into this for the last 10 days, feel that her level of culpability was much lower than her parents who were charged with manslaughter. jon: again the brother is testifying today and apparently testifying against his half-sister. we ll certainly let the viewers know what we learn about what happened there. the wendy patrick, troy slayton, thank you both. thank you. thank you, jon. jenna: other news, syrian dictator bashar al-assad, has a meeting with one of his staunchest allies, vladmir putin put in moscow. we ll discuss that story. we ll look what challenges border patrol officers face and
how can you claim duress leads you to solve yourself in the killing of your half-brother? this is something we see quite frequently. as troy knows being in criminal realm, what will the preliminary hearing will be about what are different levels of liability. we know the parents are accused manslaughter. what did the half-sister, what did she do? the reason this testimony is going to be so powerful, it will establish who did what, to the best this young man was able to observe given horrific hours-long beating that he was subjected to. so it is going to more simply than getting over the bar so to speak. it will be figuring out what charges are appropriate for horrendous jon: troy, fairly closed church in small town. if church members stick together, not a lot of information comes out, can t everyone in that room ban together against the surviving brother and say, no, it didn t happen that way?
if my colleagues entrust me to be the speaker, i want us to many about the solution. jon: chief con expressional correspondent mike emanuel on capitol hill live. what is the latest from the speaker on this big vote, mike? reporter: jon, the house republican conference is expected to select the nominee for speaker one week from today and vote in the house on floor of the house on speakers expected next thursday. congressman paul ryan as you mentioned laid out his vision for under terms he would consider next speak evident hours. calling gop unity. that speaker should be visionary. family should come first. calling for regular order in the house. doing away with the ability to fire the speaker so easily. here was the retiring house speaker moments ago. we all know paul ryan. he is very good member. he works hard. he is very bright and has good relationships i think with all the wings of the party. that s why i think he will be doing fine. reporter: from paul ryan s position h