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Defense objects to more charges :
Selection of jurors in Martin Lee Anderson boot camp death case will
begin Sept. 24
August 31, 2007
By David Angier
PANAMA CITY - Tampa Assistant State
Attorney Mike Sinacore told a Panama City judge Thursday that he
would file a second count against eight former boot camp employees
if the judge didn’t approve a lesser charge than manslaughter for
jurors to consider during trial.
Sinacore is prosecuting seven
former drill instructors and a camp nurse on a charge of aggravated
manslaughter of a child in the death of Martin Lee Anderson, 14, on
Jan. 6, 2006.
Selection of the jury is scheduled
for the week of Sept. 24, with trial beginning Oct. 3. The eight
face up to 30 years in prison each if convicted as charged.
Sinacore asked Circuit Judge
Michael Overstreet on Thursday for an offense of child neglect to be
included on the verdict form for jurors to consider if they feel the
main charge isn’t proved.
Defense attorney Walter Smith
objected, saying it is a homicide case and any lesser charge had to
convict the guards of Anderson’s death. The defense wants two
options for jurors: the main charge or not guilty.
Overstreet decided to take time to
consider his ruling, and Sinacore asked him to rule well before the
start of trial. Sinacore said if the judge is going to exclude child
neglect as a lesser charge, then he would charge the eight with the
crime as a second count so jurors still would have it as an option.
What’s out
The sides also went through
numerous items Thursday that will be included and excluded as
evidence.
For example, the defense was
restricted from discussing Anderson’s “bad character,” including
evidence that he was involved in gangs, drugs or sexual activity,
his school discipline problems or threats of violence he might have
made — unless these subjects were discussed in a guard briefing when
Anderson was admitted to the juvenile detention facility. If the
guards were aware of these issues and they contributed to their
handling of Anderson, then it might be admissible.
The judge said he would rule on
these issues as they arise in trial.
Overstreet also restricted evidence
that Anderson’s mother asked for her son to be placed in the boot
camp and circumstantial evidence as to her knowledge of his having
sickle cell trait. In the first autopsy, the medical examiner ruled
that Anderson died from sickle cell trait, but a second medical
examiner, in a subsequent autopsy, ruled the guards suffocated him.
Anderson was diagnosed with sickle
cell trait as a baby, but his mother, Gina Jones, said in a recent
deposition that she didn’t know of the diagnosis. Sickle cell is a
condition that would have kept Anderson from being admitted to the
boot camp.
Defense attorney Jim White argued
Thursday that he should be able to show that Jones knew or should
have known that her son had sickle cell trait and might have lied to
boot camp authorities about the condition so they would take him
into the camp.
Overstreet said it was irrelevant
to the case. The judge is considering whether to allow an
instruction to jurors that would say the guards can’t be excused
from criminal culpability because Anderson had a condition that they
were unaware of that led to his death.
A pre-existing physical condition
can’t be used as a defense in a homicide case. For example, if a
store clerk has a heart condition and dies of a heart attack during
a robbery, the robber can be charged with murder.
White said the defense’s argument
would be that Anderson’s death was “totally unforeseeable.”
What’s in
The judge will allow testimony
about a lawsuit against the state and county relating to Anderson’s
death that resulted in a $7.4 million settlement.
Additionally, defense attorneys
might be allowed to ask the second medical examiner, Dr. Vernard
Adams of Tampa, about issues of bias that might have come into play
in his opinion.
Defense attorney Waylon Graham
asked Adams during his deposition if he felt pressured into giving a
differing opinion about the cause of Anderson’s death because of the
outcry over the first autopsy opinion. Adams said he didn’t want to
be criticized, but he didn’t say there was any direct pressure to
form a different opinion.
Any discussions between Adams and
Ober about pressure being brought by then-Gov. Jeb Bush might be
excluded unless Graham can prove the discussion wasn’t protected by
attorney confidentiality.
Both sides said they wouldn’t call
experts to talk about use-of-force issues.
Jury selection
The case is coming down to the
conflicting causes of Anderson’s death and whether the guards were
criminally negligent through their use of ammonia capsules on him,
or by not getting him medical attention fast enough.
Overstreet told the lawyers that
jury selection would be a weeklong process, with 1,450 people
summoned in an effort to get six deliberating jurors and three or
four alternates. Because of the numbers, jury selection will be at
the Marina Civic Center.
The trial will be at the new
Juvenile Justice Courthouse on 11th Street.
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