4:21 p.m. - Central Time

Shortly before reading a jury’s verdict, Circuit Judge Michael Overstreet asked the courtroom to refrain from expressing emotion.

As he named each of the eight defendants, and as he followed each name with the word “not guilty,” the sound of stifled weeping crept across the courtroom. Mostly, members of the defendants’ families were trying, in vain, to withhold their relief.

Others in the courtroom were less able to control themselves.

Gina Jones, the mother of the 14-year-old boy who died after his first day in the Panama City boot camp, stood up and walked toward the courtroom door.

“They will see their family,” she said. “I don’t get to see my family no more. It’s wrong!”

Minutes later, while addressing the media outside the courthouse, Jones’ disappointment turned to anger.

“How in the hell did they let them walk away!” she yelled.

Seven boot camp drill instructors and a camp nurse were charged with aggravated manslaughter in Martin Lee Anderson’s January 2006 death. After seven days of testimony, the jury took two hours on Friday to acquit all the defendants.

Anderson had been sent to the boot camp, a juvenile diversion program, after violating probation. His probation stemmed from a joy ride in his grandmother’s car. For her to collect the insurance, she had to turn him in to authorities.

Hours after arriving at the camp, Anderson slowly fell to the ground, unable to complete a 1.5 mile run. Seven drill instructors wanted Anderson get up and finish. At first, they used use pain pressure points and strikes to his forearm when he would not release a balled fist. When he began to faint, the instructors used ammonia capsules to see if he was faking.

After 30 minutes, a nurse who had been monitoring the situation told them to call 911. Anderson had become completely unresponsive.

He died early the next morning at a Pensacola hospital.

An autopsy completed in Bay County determined Anderson had died of natural causes – complications from sickle cell trait. The typically benign genetic disorder, common in blacks, can cause sudden death when under extreme exertion.

The day after the medical examiner’s report, a surveillance video was released that showed the 30-minute altercation with the drill instructors. Through much of the video, the nurse looked on, her hands on her hips.

Then-Gov. Jeb Bush appointed Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober to handle the investigation. A year later, after a second autopsy determined the drill instructors had suffocated Anderson, the instructors and nurse were charged.

Since Anderson’s death, several supporters of his family have said sickle cell trait is not a deadly disease.

At trial, however, doctors testifying for the defense, and the prosecution, said severe exertion can cause death in people with sickle cell trait.

Prosecutors argued that the ammonia capsules, delivered while instructors held Anderson’s mouth close, caused – or contributed to – Anderson’s death.

Defense attorneys maintain that Anderson would have died anyway. The drill instructors, the attorneys said, had no idea Anderson had a medical condition, they would have excluded him from the program had they known and they did nothing to Anderson that was not approved in their training as drill instructors.

Waylon Graham, the attorney for instructor Charles Helms Jr., said he was happy with the verdict, but felt terrible for Anderson’s family.

“I’m very sorry about what happened to their son,” he said. “It was a true tragedy, but these men did not commit a crime.”

He said some of them had to file for bankruptcy to pay their legal fees, and most of them just want to get away from all of this.

Graham said that a local state representative, Jimmy Patronis, has said he will sponsor a bill so the state can pick up the tab for the drill instructors’ legal fees.

Asked what the drill instructors are going to do tonight, Graham laughed.

“We’re going to have a party later,” he said. “We’re probably going to drink a lot of alcohol and smoke a lot of cigars.”

Regarding those who are upset about the verdict, Graham said he is certain they will act civilly.

“We have a good community here and they are going to behave admirably because they always do.”

 

After the verdict was read, the judge asked all the defendants to leave the courthouse area as a security precaution.

Two stayed back: Henry Dicken and Henry McFadden Jr. They were the only two black defendants.

McFadden said people who think the instructors are bullies or cold hearted are short sighted.

“Trust me,” he said. “Every one of us feels bad about this. A child has died.”

Had his child died, he said he would probably feel the same way as Anderson’s family.

“Emotionally, I could see how the family feels,” he said. “Who could blame her?”

Bob Sombathy, a defense lawyer who represented drill instructor Patrick Garrett, said the scientific evidence was on their side. Still, he said, he felt the tide changed when the defendants took the witness stand and gave their sides of the story.

“Everybody wished they could have gone back in time and done everything differently,” he said. “But that doesn’t make it a crime.”

Anderson’s family filed lawsuits against the state and Bay County. In settlement agreements, the state awarded the Anderson’s $5 million and Bay County $2.4 million.

Outside the courthouse Friday, Anderson family attorney Benjamin Crump said he was extremely disappointed in the criminal verdict.

“You kill a dog, you go to jail, “Crump said. “You kill a little black boy, you don’t.”

Another feels exonerated

The drill instructors and nurse were not the only exonerated parties on Friday. Bay County Medical Examiner Dr. Charles Siebert also won a victory – if only a moral one.

After Siebert’s ruling that sickle cell trait killed Anderson, the Florida Medical Examiner’s Commission declined to recommend Siebert for another term. He was vilified by many media pundits, statewide and nationally.

After Friday’s verdict, he walked around the courthouse grounds wearing a big smile. Asked how he felt, Siebert chuckled.

“Obviously happy,” he said. “I’m glad people listened to the evidence for a change.”

The Bay County state attorney appointed Siebert the interim medical examiner until a replacement can be found. Names are supposed to be submitted by December. He said he will wait and see if his name appears as a candidate.

“Because of all the political pressure, because of the racial undertones and because of all the special interest groups, a lot of the true facts did not come out,” Siebert said. “I had the truth behind me. I had the science behind me.”

Dickens, one of the black drill instructors, said he grew up in the segregated south and was disappointed that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored people called for his conviction.

“Today’s NAACP, the only thing they care about is race,” Dickens said. “That’s not what Dr. Martin Luther King talked about. He talked about a world without race. We need to get away from race in this country. When a kid is born, he doesn’t know the difference between black and white. Their parents teach them that. As long as the parents continue to teach that, we’ll be divided.”

The U.S. attorney in North Florida announced on Friday that his office will review evidence in this case. NAACP officials said they will ask for civil rights indictments against the former drill instructors.

Dickens said that he and all the drill instructors are very sorry that this happened and never intended any harm to Anderson.

The retired Navy command master chief said that he also is very sorry that this incident caused the closure of all the state’s juvenile boot camps.

“Now these kids have nowhere to go,” he said, “no one to help them. If I had one wish, it would be to have these boot camps back.”

As Dickens spoke, a car drove by the courthouse and a young man yelled out the window, “Murderers!”

Dickens said it doesn’t bother him.

“I’m beyond that now.”

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