Martin Lee Anderson would be alive today if Bay County Boot Camp guards hadn't repeatedly kept him from breathing, a medical examiner testified Friday in the guards' manslaughter trial.
Tampa's chief medical examiner, Dr. Vernard Adams, told the jury Anderson died of suffocation because the guards held their hands over his mouth while pushing ammonia close to his nose three separate times -- once for a full five minutes.
His findings contradicted the results of the first autopsy performed by Bay County Medical Examiner Dr. Charles Siebert, who ruled that Anderson died of sickle cell trait, a normally benign condition.
Adams blamed Anderson's death on the guards, who punched and kicked him for 30 minutes and covered the teen's mouth while using the ammonia -- all of which was captured on videotape.
The teen died Jan. 6, 2006, the day after he was admitted to the Bay County Boot Camp. The seven guards and a boot camp nurse, who watched the entire incident, were charged with manslaughter after Adams released his findings.
Adams said he did find the signs of sickle cells that Siebert found in Anderson's organs, but he concluded the ''sickling'' did not kill the teen.
''All of that sickling can be explained by lack of oxygen after he was brain dead'' in the hospital, he said.
Adams also concluded that none of the blows against Anderson was severe enough to kill him.
The defense has argued that Anderson died of ''exertional sickle cell collapse'' while jogging at the boot camp.
But Adams said that wasn't enough to kill him. ''If Martin Lee Anderson fell during the run as a result of sickling, would he have survived, but for the actions of the guards?'' prosecutor Mike Sinacore asked.
''I believe so, yes,'' Adams responded.
Sinacore asked if Anderson would have died if the guards had not used the ammonia. Adams said yes, because they covered his mouth so long.
''And no ammonia, no hands, the guards not touching him at all, what happens to your opinion then?'' Sinacore asked.
''No opinion -- because he's not dead,'' Adams replied.
During cross-examination by defense attorneys, Adams insisted he was not pressured to contradict Siebert's findings.
Defense attorney Waylon Graham asked him why he thought the use of ammonia could have killed Anderson when nothing like that has ever been recorded ``in the history of the world.''
''This is the only place in the world to my knowledge where ammonia capsules were used this way,'' Adams said. ``So no other deaths would have occurred.
Adams said he didn't think his findings conflicted with Dr. Thomas Andrew, chief medical examiner for the state of New Hampshire, who testified for the prosecution on Wednesday. Andrew told jurors Anderson died of sickle cell trait aggravated by the beating and the suffocation.
''What I said is it's reasonable sickle cell contributed to his death. What Dr. Andrew said was it's more likely than not that sickle cell contributed to his death,'' Adams explained.
''But for Martin Lee Anderson's sickle cell trait, would he have survived boot camp?'' defense attorney Bob Sombathy asked.
''There's where we differ,'' Adams said. ``My opinion is . . . this suffocation would have killed anybody.''
Testimony is expected to continue through next week. If convicted, the eight defendants each face 30 years in prison.
8 boot camp defendants
Posted on Fri, Oct. 05, 2007Digg del.icio.us AIM reprint print email
Seven guards and one nurse are on trial in Panama City, where they face
aggravated manslaughter charges in the death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson
on Jan. 6, 2006. The camp has since closed. The defendants, who each face up to
30 years in prison if convicted, are:
• Henry Leslie Dickens, a retired military officer who had worked at the boot
camp since 1995 and was an administrative drill instructor.
• Charles Steven Enfinger, who was hired in May 2003 as an entry-level drill
instructor.
• Patrick Tate Garrett, who was hired in February 2000 as an entry-level drill
instructor after serving in the U.S. Army, where he earned an ``expert
marksmanship badge.''
• Raymond Morris Hauck, who was hired in 1994 as an entry-level drill
instructor.
• Charles William Helms Jr., a retired military drill instructor who was hired
in 1994 and rose to lieutenant.
• Henry L. McFadden Jr., who was hired in November 2004 as an entry-level drill
instructor.
• Joseph Lawrence Walsh II, who was hired as an entry-level drill instructor in
May 2002.
• Kristin Anne Doward Schmidt, who was hired in June 1994 as the boot camp nurse
and was awarded merit raises.
Civil-rights groups say Anderson jury unjust
NAACP mobilizing to protest selection of all-white panel
By Stephen D. Price
FLORIDA CAPITAL BUREAU Print Email to a friend Subscribe
Civil-rights groups Thursday prepared a response to a jury with no black members
in the criminal trial for the death of Martin Lee Anderson.
''This is ridiculous,'' said state Sen. Tony Hill, D-Jacksonville. ''I know with
all the people in Bay County they can find a person who looks like that young
man.''
On Wednesday, jury selection concluded with five potential black jurors struck
from the jury pool. All the jurors chosen were white except for one Asian man.
Attorneys in the case would not reveal which of the 10 chosen are alternates for
the six-juror panel.
Anderson, who was black, died Jan. 6, 2006, a day after he was hit, kicked and
kneed by drill instructors at the Bay County boot camp, after he had collapsed
while running laps.
Charged with felony aggravated manslaughter of a child are Henry Dickens,
Charles Enfinger, Patrick Garrett, Raymond Hauck, Charles Helms Jr., Henry
McFadden Jr., Joseph Walsh II and the camp nurse, Kristin Schmidt.
Two of the defendants are black, one is Asian and five are white. Their trial is
set to start Wednesday.
The racially charged case has divided Panama City along racial lines.
Civil-rights leaders have called for a quick response to the jury selection.
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Vanessa Baden, co-founder of the Student Coalition for Justice, which had
rallied at the Capitol and staged a sit-in at the governor's office before
charges were filed last year, said the group is planning to show up next week
when the trial begins.
''It's riling some people up,'' Baden said.
Not everyone is upset.
''We have to quit second guessing everything,'' said Derrell Day, a contractor
in Bay County. ''I'm just going to have to believe the jury seated fits the one
the defense and prosecution agreed to.''
Jurors in the case are:
A 32-year-old business analyst. White male,
A 59-year-old landscaping manager. White male,
A 73-year-old homemaker. White female,
A 56-year-old homemaker. White female,
A 61-year-old retired teacher. White female,
A 62-year-old librarian. White female,
A 28-year-old maintenance worker. White male,
A 26-year-old mortgage loan processor. White female,
A 51-year-old retired Air Force member. Asian male, and,
A 51-year-old disabled white female.
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A year and a half ago, Charles Siebert was condemned as the medical examiner
with the gall to rule that a boy who collapsed at a boot camp died of natural
causes.
Crist Signs $5 Mil. Claims Bill for Family of Slain Teen His conclusion - that
Martin Lee Anderson died of sickle cell trait, a disease that mostly affects
blacks - stood in stark contrast to what millions saw on TV. A surveillance
camera captured guards hitting and kneeing the 14-year-old.
Protesters flooded the Capitol. They accused the doctor of racism and a coverup.
Seven guards and a nurse are scheduled to go on trial here next month, each
facing up to 30 years in prison. Siebert lost his job.
Now Bay County, the center of the controversy, has become Charles Siebert's
sanctuary, a safe haven, though probably temporary, from the legion of critics
who called for his head. Siebert was given his job back by Bay County State
Attorney Steve Meadows after being fired by the state Medical Examiners
Commission this summer.
"I will not sacrifice Charles Siebert on the altar of political expedience or
correctness," Meadows said in June.
"There have been so many conflicting stories from the experts about what
happened. We are all willing and anxious to let the courts try this case, not
politicians or the public," said County Commissioner George Gainer.
Siebert, 45, who is appealing his dismissal, says he has backers in more vital
corners: the medical community. Experts have come to his defense, calling the
sickle cell trait finding credible.
"I'm actually looking forward to the trial," Siebert said in an interview at his
office on a recent afternoon. "It's going to be the first time that all the
truth comes out."
A second rescue
Meadows has thrown a lifeline to another political figure disgraced by the
January 2006 boot camp death: former Florida Department of Law Enforcement
commissioner Guy Tunnell. Tunnell, a Panama City native and former Bay County
sheriff, is working as an investigator for the State Attorney's Office at
$72,000 a year.
"I felt it would be a waste to have that much talent just walk out the door all
because he made one mistake that he has apologized for. When is enough enough?"
Meadows said.
Tunnell got in trouble when reporters discovered he was trading e-mails with Bay
County Sheriff Frank McKeithen about the boot camp investigation - an inquiry
Tunnell's agency was leading. Then, in April 2006, Tunnell made snide remarks
about the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, who were
expected to come to Tallahassee for a protest.
Meadows is unabashed by his hiring moves, which have gone largely unnoticed
outside Bay County.
"I hope it says that we don't just make knee-jerk decisions based on press
accounts or protests, but rather that we make our decisions on the facts and the
best judgment we have regarding the abilities of the people who have come into
question," he said.
"Birds of a feather flock together," scoffed state Sen. Tony Hill,
D-Jacksonville, an early and vocal critic of Siebert. "That's what makes people
cynical about government."
Expert's support
"It's a horrible thing to watch, you've got to admit that," Siebert says of the
videotape at the center of the case. "But if you break it down, nothing they did
to him killed him."
second autopsy
Siebert's findings were so widely
scorned that the special prosecutor ordered a second autopsy.
Hillsborough Medical Examiner Vernard Adams concluded that Anderson was
suffocated, partly by the guards' hands and ammonia they pushed in his face.
Backed with that report, Hillsborough State Attorney Mark Ober charged the
guards and a nurse, who stood around while Anderson was being manhandled, with
aggravated manslaughter on a child.
That was November. In the months since, Siebert's confidence has grown from the
support he has received.
Dr. E. Randy Eichner, a sickle cell expert and retired professor of medicine at
the University of Oklahoma, prepared a report calling Siebert's autopsy
"scientific, explanatory and credible." In a court deposition he says Adams'
scenario about ammonia causing vocal chord spasms is "fantasy. It is just as
unscientific as you could possibly get."
Adams, who declined comment for this story, stood by his report in a deposition
in June. He said it was possible Anderson was suffering from the beginning of
sickle cell trait and perhaps it made him die sooner, but that "there's enough
suffocation going on to entirely account for the clinical events that followed."
Other experts have concurred with his findings, according to statements in the
case file.
high-powered critic
Meadows now chairs the committee that will pick a permanent medical examiner.
Only two people have applied, a man from Arizona and Charles Siebert.
"I've been saying all along that I'm right, and now I have the support locally,"
Siebert said. "That's one of the reasons why I'm fighting as hard as I am."
No matter how many people may support him, though, Siebert is facing an
unwavering critic: Gov. Charlie Crist, who has the final say in picking medical
examiners.
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Siebert all but concedes defeat. "I don't see a long-term future here anymore.
They took science out of the equation and it became a political game and that's
a shame."
Last modified: September 23. 2007 8:39AM