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Parents Fear Boot Camp Trial Unjust

(AP File Photo/Florida State Attorney's Office)

This enhanced video released March 14 in Tampa shows boot camp guards manhandling and punching 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson, who later died, in January 2006.

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By THOMAS W. KRAUSE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 3, 2007

Special Report | Surveillance Video

PANAMA CITY, Fla. - The parents of a teenager killed at a juvenile boot camp in the Panhandle don't expect to see a fair trial, their attorney said Monday.

The trial begins today for seven boot camp drill instructors and the camp nurse charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child in the death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson. Each faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.

Martin Lee Anderson

Although many legal experts have shied away from making predictions, Anderson's parents, Gina Jones and Robert Anderson, were disappointed by the jury selected last week, said their attorney, Benjamin Crump. None of the six jurors and four alternates is black.

'The question is: Will an all-white jury convict?' Crump said. Anderson's parents 'would be very surprised if we get what we feel will be a fair verdict.'

Waylon Graham, the defense attorney for boot camp drill instructor Charles Helms Jr., discounted the racial aspect, pointing out that two of the drill instructors on trial are black.

Graham does agree with Crump that the drill instructors will be acquitted, but he bases that prediction on the facts of the case.

'We are going to have a real trial before a fair and impartial jury, and the state is going to have to put up or shut up,' Graham said.

Politics Or Race?

Although Crump and Anderson's parents have kept race a key issue in the case - as have protesters from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Florida A&M University - others have said the case is more political than racial.

'There is rarely a criminal case in America where race is not a factor,' said Charles Rose, a criminal law professor at Stetson University College of Law.

In this case, he said, race may not be as important. Outsiders from Hillsborough County were appointed to second-guess the local investigators. That, he said, could help the defense.

On Jan. 5, 2006, Anderson arrived at the boot camp for a probation violation and almost immediately began calisthenics and a long run. When he collapsed, drill instructors thought he was feigning fatigue. A surveillance video, which has been broadcast repeatedly, shows the instructors kneeing and punching Anderson for about 30 minutes while the nurse looks on with her hands on her hips.

Anderson died early the next morning in a Pensacola hospital.

The nurse is white, as are most of the drill instructors. Anderson was black.

During the jury selection process, hundreds of potential jurors were interviewed. Although some white panel members said they had seen the video and thought the instructors were guilty, Crump said, the majority of white panel members thought the guards were just doing their jobs and have become political scapegoats.

Among black panel members who expressed an opinion, nearly all thought the instructors had used excessive force, Crump said.

Outside the courthouse, on radio stations and about town, the polarization is clear, Crump said: Blacks think the instructors are guilty and whites do not.

Graham, one of the defense attorneys, disagreed with Crump's assessment. Several black potential jurors thought the instructors were just regular guys going to work each day until they were caught up in a political firestorm.

After the Bay County prosecutor recused himself from the case, then-Gov. Jeb Bush appointed Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober to investigate.

During the investigation, Ober asked Hillsborough County's medical examiner to perform a second autopsy. That autopsy disputed the findings of Bay County's medical examiner, who had attributed Anderson's death to natural causes.

In a town the size of Panama City, Crump said, locals do not like big-city lawyers coming in and telling them how they should feel about a case.

'It's us against the world,' Crump said. 'That's the mentality. More than one potential juror said this is going to be hard because 'we still have to live here.' At the end of the day, Panama City is a small town where everybody knows everybody.'

Law professor Rose said Panama City residents - including the jurors - might be turned off by the idea that a governor didn't like the results of an autopsy, so he appointed someone from the outside.

'If I were the defense attorney, I would use that to create doubt,' Rose said. 'I would say: 'The doctors can't even agree. Something may have happened, but not criminal conduct.' '

Outsiders And Small Towns

Hillsborough Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett is not affiliated with the case, but has paid attention to media reports. He said outsiders often have trouble in a small town, even if they are on the side of the angels.

In the late-1950s, Padgett was an undergraduate at Florida State University in Tallahassee. The federal government was forcing integration.

Even though Padgett agreed with integration and knew the federal government was correct, he said he had a nagging feeling in the back of his mind, wondering why these outsiders were coming into town to tell everyone they were wrong.

After more than 30 years as a judge, Padgett said, he's not likely to make predictions about any trial, including this week's boot camp trial. Some jurors might find the video tape to be absolute proof of a crime. Others might not see much evidence in it.

'That's why we have jurors,' he said. 'Let six people look at that and decide what happened.'

Reporter Thomas W. Krause can be reached at (813) 259-7698 or tkrause@tampatrib.com.

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