Guard Testifies In Teen Boot Camp Death

Former Drill Sergeant Says Force Used Against 14-Year-Old Was Part Of "Behavior Matrix"

(CBS/AP)  A guard charged with killing a 14-year-old boy at a juvenile boot camp choked up as he told jurors Monday that the teen's death troubled him deeply.

Charles Helms, a former Army drill instructor who had worked at the now-closed Bay County Boot Camp since its opening in 1994, said he stayed with Martin Lee Anderson from the moment paramedics put the teen on a stretcher and carried him away from the camp.

"You never leave a man behind," Helms said.

Helms, six other guards and Kristin Schmidt, a nurse from the now-closed camp, are charged in Anderson's death. A 30-minute surveillance video shows the guards hitting, kneeing and dragging the limp boy in the camp's exercise yard as Schmidt looked on. Anderson died the following day.

The eight defendants face up to 30 years in prison each if convicted of aggravated manslaughter of a child.

Helms said their actions depict training designed to protect themselves and the child. The reason for the large number of officers on the exercise yard is to deter the teens from violence, he said.

"They will look around and say 'there's too many of them, I'd just better do what I should do,"' Helms said.

He later demonstrated the hammer strike blows, and knee strike techniques the guards used to gain a youth's compliance. The blows were a method of gaining control without seriously hurting them, he said.

Ammonia capsules also were used to get the attention of an uncooperative youth he said.

Prosecutors say the guards suffocated Anderson by covering his mouth and forcing him to inhale ammonia fumes.

Defense attorneys say Anderson's death was unavoidable because he had undiagnosed sickle cell trait, a genetic blood disorder. The usually benign disorder can cause blood cells to shrivel into a sickle shape and limit their ability to carry oxygen under physical stress.

Helms entered the exercise yard near the end of the videotaped encounter between Anderson and the other guards.

When he arrived, Anderson was resisting, Helms said.

"I heard the offender say something along the lines of, 'I'm not going to do this', or 'I'll do it tomorrow,"' Helms said.

He said he used an ammonia capsule to get Anderson's attention and watched as the other guards moved Anderson and made him walk.

Helms said he was on the exercise yard for a few minutes before he realized something was wrong.

"I attempted to reapply the ammonia capsule the second time and there was no reaction," he said.

Anderson had sand in his eye but was not blinking, Helms said.

He and Schmidt looked at each other, "and said 'call 911' at the same time," he said.

Helms followed Anderson to Bay Medical Center in Panama City and drove to Pensacola after he was life-flighted to hospital where he died the next morning on Jan. 6, 2006.

Earlier Monday, Defense attorney Walter Smith opened the defense argument by telling jurors the video taped altercation was just "a day at the office" for the drill instructors and the nurse.

[ramos937]

"Helms said their actions depict training designed to protect themselves and the child."

Yeah - and in the process of protecting the child, they beat him to death. And the nurse stood by and let them do it.

This guard did not show "concern? for the child until he was dead. And it was not concern. It was fear of what he had done and the consequences.

[phillipreyno]

I am the owner of four homes in western NC for boys between the ages of 10yrs-17yrs I know there is problems out there but you only focus on the bad ones what about the ones like us that are realy working hard to follow the rules an to help change lifes we have phoilosophy at our company "MAKING A DIFFRENCE ONE CHILD AT A TIME" we are not perfict but we put our kids first I know that you must show the world what is going on in it but you can also show them that not everything is bad that there are people trying to do what is right even though the state wants to shut dowm programs that are changing lifes CBS prids it''s self on telling the truth you want everyone to know that you go to every mesure to asure that it is the truth you don''t like it when someone says that all news people lie just to get the story you want to be judge based on what you do not what everyone else is thats what I want for people like me that really care a try to make a diffrents.
Thanks.
Phillip Reynolds

[sad4u]

I just wanted to say that those people who did that to this poor child deserve everything they get.

I hope they rot for their actions

[au_fait]

I love how some of you talk out of your a##. Sickel cell trait increase the chance of duress to a person in a boot camp evironment by 40%. As for beat him, unless you have watched the tape, stop being a lemming. Anderson was struck in the arms and legs, no body blows. All three medical examiners and commented that these blows could not cause death. The death, while sad, not needed and preventable, was due to a combination of circumstatnces. I personally have toured the boot camp in question before this accident. The program itself is warranted as many of these children would not have a place to go but jail. By going to these camps their records are wiped clean. If continued via the STAR program, the camps need more oversight and a set of standards developed. As for what will happend to those charged in this case, that is for the jury to decide. Our court system was created to have to prove guilt not innocence. The worst part of this case is that a child died, it is bad though when news media will not pick up the other support by th medcial examiner community, that the first autopsy has more merit than the second autopsy. Please go to talkradio101.com for more information as you will not find it in the main stream as the truth does not sale the story. The author of the information on talkradio101.com supported the family until he started doing research on the case. Before you choose to jump on the band wagon show you have intelligence an read all that is out there!

[toldyouso21]

If the fists stay clenched, he is choosing to disobey an order," "You can look at the jaw line muscles, if they are licking their lips a lot. You can tell if they are getting angry," he said.

How sad. The fact is, culturally, many black youths lick their lips when they are nervous and also clench their fists--not as a gesture of defiance but as a means to control some part of their own actions to keep from reacting in other ways. It would be like "clenching one''s fists" to prevent from yelling or screaming or clenching one''s fists to distract from pain or stress. turning fingernails into one''s own palms is often done to NOT do something else.

I think that culturally, the physical body cues differ from ethnicity to ethnicity and to expect a black child to abide by the physical stance or rules of a different environment is to expect him to change an entire lifetime of psychological behavior.it would be like telling a woman not to scream when she sees a mouse, or someone with a nervous tic--"to cut it out" you can tell them and they can try--but to beat them if they fail to do what you want? There is something rather sadistic "matrix or not" about beating a child for no reason other than, they licked their lips and to continue to beat them when they are limp is just sick. They should go to prison, be placed in general population and have the video taped played to all the inmates then let them learn their own brand of matrix for surviving and complying.

[toldyouso21]

The reason for the large number of officers on the exercise yard is to deter the teens from violence, he said.

Funny--deterring the teens from violence while beating, kicking and dragging around a limp teens--yep that sounds like something constructive.

As for sickle cell trait--understand that just means that a person has the ability to create a child with sickle cell anemia IF they have *** with and conceive a child with another person with that trait. Even then the chance of a child from that union is 50/50.

As for the person with the trait--it means NOTHING to them. They cannot get sickle cell anemia or ''infect or contract the disease under duress. Having a trait means the potential to pass it to offspring. It is like having a trait for being tall, if you are short--you can have that trait--but no amount of stress or pressure is going to make you shoot up and be tall--it means you could have a tall kid though.

I guess the guards and their attorneys are desperately grasping at straws and think the American people are as stupid as they were, when they killed that boy--or even beat him--knowing it was all going to be on tape. Idiots. Murderous idiots. They deserve 30 years with no chance of parole. And the country needs to look at the cruel and unusual acts done to prisoners in these camps.

Those guards were already animals--and the only reason the one was "choked up" is he is scared of going to prison and wants to garner sympathy from the jury.

[jacksteen1]

What kind of ignorant, green-teeth Hillrod Sigmund Freud wrote the "matrix" of these Nazi-style camps in Florida, land of the Republishit Party''s voting machines and hanging chads ? Apply pressure with the thumb "...to the back of the head behind the ear..."? What kind of ******* physical torture and abuse is this ?

And what a scientific and learned man can recognize "...licking...their lips a lot," and ,"...if he is clenching his fist, it is non-compliance..."

I truly hope this dead teen''s family soon moves into the Governor''s Mansion in Tallahassee and *** on the carpets and jacksoff on the drapes.

Florida is a filthy Republiscum backwater that deserves to be given back to the Seminole Indians in reparations for the white man''s many sins against them.

[sofi2hot]

i have been tempted to put my children in those boot camps but now i dont have to since my children have now seen this.. they know its better at home than in places like those... id like to know what montel williams has to say about this.. he promotes those places so much..

[Krazcarl]

I''d choke up to if I was a deputey headed for jail and going to lose everything I ever owned or will have, This was blantant abuse of power. Yes those children need a strong hand but these tactics were cruel I''ve sniffed one of those inhalents and it brought tears to my eyes and I''m a 200 lb man. They were torturing these children trying to teach them respect there children not horses you don''t break them and that my friends is the problem they need to be educated and rehabilatated not abused.

[hwy71so]

Wow,

And it probably all could have been avoided if the child''s parents had taught him discipline and compliance with societal standards.

What a shame. Too many people are wanting the government to be the parents these days...