News
Fill out this form to email this article to a friend
'Lethal train of events'
Multiple factors led to the boot camp death, several doctors agree.
By ABBIE VANSICKLE, Times Staff Writer
Published October 5, 2007
|
Dr. Thomas Andrew, New Hampshire's chief medical examiner, said Anderson's death was caused by a combination of exertion, dehydration, multiple soft tissue trauma and inappropriate use of ammonia capsules by drill instructors.
|
 |
|
[Andrew Wardlow, Pool | AP photo]
|
|
ADVERTISEMENT
 |
|
[Robert Cooper, Pool | AP photo]
Dr. Jason Foland, a pediatric critical care doctor who treated Martin Lee Anderson at the hospital, testifies during the manslaughter trial of seven former juvenile boot camp guards and a nurse charged with killing a 14-year-old Anderson.
|
|
PANAMA CITY - It was a day for science, not emotion.
Testimony of blood and breath and body chemistry filled a Panhandle courtroom Wednesday, as eight boot camp workers stood trial in the death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson.
New Hampshire's chief medical examiner, a prosecution witness, told a jury that Anderson had a genetic blood disorder known as sickle cell trait when he arrived at the camp in January 2006.
But he said guards provided the "tipping point" that led to Anderson's death.
Dr. Thomas Andrew said Anderson's death was caused by a combination of exertion, dehydration, multiple soft tissue trauma and inappropriate use of ammonia capsules by drill instructors.
"What significance would you attribute to the ammonia application?" asked Assistant State Attorney Scott Harmon.
"I think it's a critical component," Andrew replied. "It represents the tipping point in all of these events."
That was the story told throughout the day - by Andrew, a forensic pathologist with pediatric medicine experience; by Dr. Nikolaus Gravenstein, an anesthesiologist at the University of Florida; and by those who tried to save Anderson in the last hours of his life.
Doctors who testified agreed that the death was a complicated matter, that multiple factors led to it, including sickle cell trait, an often benign genetic condition. But they all were troubled by the ammonia capsules.
On cross examination, defense attorneys noted that drill instructors Henry Dickens, Charles Enfinger, Patrick Garrett, Raymond Hauck, Charles Helms Jr., Henry McFadden Jr. and Joseph Walsh II, and nurse Kristin Schmidt didn't know the teen had sickle cell trait.
They first thought he was malingering, trying to get out of running laps on the boot camp field that day.
Hauck's attorney, Jim White, accused Andrew of being "sort of like a Monday morning quarterback." Wasn't it easy to look back and accuse the guards, when they had no idea the teen needed medical attention?
Andrew testified that Anderson looked like a rag doll after he collapsed in the boot camp's yard. His body was starting to break down from the inside out. But instead of helping the boy, getting him fluids and rest, guards shoved ammonia in his face, Andrew said.
"I think it's unrealistic to separate one of these elements and say this and this alone caused Martin's death," Andrew said, adding that it was a "lethal train of events."
During opening statements Wednesday, Assistant State Attorney Pam Bondi had selected clips from the boot camp video to back up her argument that guards brutalized the boy.
The guards and nurse faces charges of aggravated manslaughter of a child, which carries up to 30 years in prison.
On Thursday, jurors watched the video again, uninterrupted and without introduction.
While experts focused on the science of Anderson's death, onlookers made it impossible to forget the human toll.
On one side of the courtroom sat Gina Jones, the teen's mother, and Robert Anderson, his father. "I just want it to be truthful," Jones said during a break. "The jury? Do right."
She later joined a prayer circle outside the courthouse.
Lynda Waller sat alone on the other side of the courtroom. She wore a soft gray suit and kept quiet.
She, too, feels the pain of the case, she said. Her son, Joseph Walsh II, is one of the accused guards.
"It's a really tragic event for all concerned," she said.
Abbie VanSickle can be reached at 813-226-3373 or vansickle@sptimes.com
[Last modified October 4, 2007, 23:46:51]
Share your thoughts on this story
News
Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
Print
Email story
Comment
Letter to the editor
