‘Justice for my baby’ : 7 drill
instructors, 1 nurse face 30 years in prison if convicted of
manslaughter in Anderson’s death
November 29, 2006
By David Angier
dangier@pcnh.com
PANAMA CITY - Charles Helms Sr. had
a grim look on his face as he left his attorney’s office Tuesday
afternoon.
He knew the fight was on.
Helms’ son was charged Tuesday,
along with seven other former Bay County Boot Camp employees, with
aggravated manslaughter of a person younger than 18. The charges are
the first brought in the investigation into the Jan. 6 death of
14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson.
Anderson collapsed during his first
day at the boot camp, a medium-security, military style juvenile
facility, and died the next morning. He collapsed during a run, and
drill instructors allegedly manhandled him for 20 minutes to get him
to comply with their orders. When Anderson became unresponsive, he
was taken to Bay Medical Center and transferred to Pensacola’s
Sacred Heart Hospital, where he died.
Seven drill instructors — Helms
Jr., 50, Henry Dickens, 50, Charles Enfinger, 33, Patrick Garrett,
30, Raymond Hauck, 48, Henry McFadden Jr., 33, Joseph Walsh II, 35,
and camp nurse Kristin Schmidt, 53 — turned themselves over to
authorities Tuesday.
Their charges, a first-degree
felony, each are punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
The seven former guards were
assigned $25,000 bonds at their first appearances before a judge
Tuesday afternoon. They were scheduled for arraignment Jan. 18
before Circuit Judge Michael Overstreet.
Schmidt was expected to have a
first appearance today.
“To a degree, it is a relief to
have the charge filed because that other shoe has finally dropped,”
said attorney Waylon Graham, who represents Helms Jr. “This wasn’t a
surprise to anybody. Now we can go forward.”
Tampa State Attorney Mark Ober
charged the eight with causing Anderson’s death through neglect or
“by failure or omission to provide Martin Lee Anderson with the
care, supervision or services necessary to maintain his physical or
mental health.”
Ober was assigned to Anderson’s
case when Panama City State Attorney Steve Meadows asked Gov. Jeb
Bush to remove his office from the investigation to avoid the
appearance of conflict or impropriety.
Ober said in a letter to Bush his
investigators reviewed more than 20,000 pages of documents and
traveled across the state and nation. He said his office received
full cooperation from all agencies involved.
“This case has been and remains
very complicated, both legally and factually,” Ober wrote. “Shortly
after being appointed to this investigation, I inherited a myriad of
conflicting information and unusual circumstances, including, but
not limited to, conflicting autopsy opinions, the replacement of the
original investigating agency and additional collateral issues.”
Graham likened gross negligence,
the legal standard of neglect alleged in this case, to driving 100
mph through a school zone.
“Not driving 25 mph through a
school zone,” he said. “These men were doing exactly what they had
been trained to do by the written policy of the Bay County Sheriff’s
Office — clearly not gross negligence.”
Graham said all eight were charged
the same regardless of their participation in the incident. He said
Helms Jr. arrived at the end of the encounter to find out what was
happening and had no other involvement.
Jonathan Dingus, who represents
McFadden, said he and his client were ready to begin their defense.
He said, in effect, his client is charged with doing nothing.
Garrett said through his lawyer,
Bob Sombathy, that he was disappointed that charges were filed.
“He’s relieved that the facts in
his case will finally come out,” Sombathy said. He said Garrett had
dedicated his life to turning around youthful offenders.
Sombathy said the evidence will
show that Garrett could not foresee that his actions in dealing with
Anderson would “lead to the death of another human being.”
Panama City Medical Examiner
Charles Siebert Jr. determined in February that Anderson died of
natural causes from a previously undiagnosed blood disorder, sickle
cell trait, that was aggravated when drill instructors pushed him
beyond his physical limits.
Tampa Medical Examiner Vernard
Adams later found the drill instructors had smothered Anderson by
forcing him to inhale ammonia gas. Adams labeled Anderson’s death a
homicide.
Siebert said Tuesday that the
charge Ober filed did not conflict with his autopsy findings.
“Not at all,” Siebert said. “He’s
not saying the guards directly caused his death. He’s saying the
guards caused his death through lack of care, that (Anderson) was in
distress and it just wasn’t recognized in time. I haven’t heard
anything in this report to conflict with my findings.”
The charge, Siebert said, seems to
be an attempt to incorporate both autopsy reports.
Bonds
All eight former boot camp
employees were given the opportunity to turn themselves in early
Tuesday morning so they could have a first appearance by 2 p.m.
McFadden and Helms Jr. made the morning deadline, but the other six
did not. Some of the attorneys said they missed it by 15 minutes.
County Judge Elijah Smiley would
only hear McFadden’s and Helms Jr.’s cases during the regular round
of first appearances. Graham and Dingus asked Smiley for conditional
releases for their clients, citing their legal careers, ties to the
community and lack of criminal records.
Tampa Assistant State Attorney
Michael Sinacore, however, asked Smiley for a monetary bond of
$15,000.
“We do feel a bond is appropriate
considering the nature of the charge and that a 14-year-old child
died as a result of the criminal conduct alleged in this case,”
Sinacore told the judge.
Smiley set bond at $25,000 for both
defendants. He said he would set the same bond for all eight unless
there were exceptional circumstances.
Attorneys Hoot Crawford, Bob Pell
and Jim White were told their clients probably would have to spend a
night in the Bay County Jail to await a first appearance today.
Instead, they sought out a circuit judge to hear their cases Tuesday
afternoon and assign a bond.
They said they were mainly
concerned about their client’s safety as law enforcement officers if
exposed to the jail’s general population.
Circuit Judge Glenn Hess agreed to
hear the cases and set the same $25,000 bonds for Dickens, Enfinger,
Garrett, Hauck and Walsh. The seven guards had bonded out by late
evening, according to a jail official.
Schmidt’s lawyer, Jim Appleman, was
involved in a first-degree murder trial when he was notified of the
charges Tuesday morning. He said it would be impossible for him to
leave the trial to assist Schmidt in her case.
Schmidt turned herself in shortly
before 11 p.m. CST Tuesday, according to the jail. She had been
fullfilling her obligations with a Hospice patient earlier Tuesday,
Appleman said. He said he was upset that the seven law enforcement
officers had been given bonds and his client had not. He said his
office was told that all eight would have to report to the jail at
the same time and wouldn’t have their first appearances until today.
“This is just the same old story,”
Appleman said. “Cops pulling strings to help each other out.”
He said Schmidt was the least
involved in Anderson’s death and was working under the supervision
of the drill instructors.
Most of the lawyers expect there
will not be pleas offered to their clients.
“That makes it easy,” White said.
“You don’t have to make a decision. We’re going to get ready for
trial.”
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