Teen’s New Autopsy Shows He Suffocated

The 14-year-old boy who died a day after a struggle at a Panama City boot camp suffocated after guards forced him to inhale ammonia, according to new autopsy results released Friday.

The findings contradict an initial autopsy by the Bay County medical examiner, Dr. Charles F. Siebert Jr., who ruled that Martin Lee Anderson died of complications from sickle cell trait, a typically benign blood disorder common to blacks. (Anderson was African American.)

“Martin Anderson’s death was caused by suffocation due to actions of the guards at the boot camp,” Dr. Vernard Adams said in a prepared statement. Adams, the Hillsborough County medical examiner, was asked to perform a second autopsy by the special prosecutor investigating the youth’s death.

It was a bittersweet moment for the boy’s parents, Gina Jones and Robert Anderson, who have been trying for four months to prove that their son did not die of natural causes, as the initial autopsy concluded.

“The truth is out. We all knew how Martin passed away,” Jones said. “It’s a beginning.”

Martin Anderson died Jan. 6, a day after guards were videotaped kicking, kneeing and dragging him.

Adams said Anderson’s suffocation was caused by hands blocking his mouth coupled with “forced inhalation of ammonia fumes” that made his vocal chords spasm, blocking his upper airway. The guards used ammonia capsules to keep Anderson conscious, according to an incident report.

The boot camp for young offenders, run by the Bay County Sheriff’s Office under a state contract, has since been closed. But no one has been charged with a crime.

Jones said Gov. Jeb Bush -- who, along with other state officials, had been criticized for not investigating Anderson’s death sooner -- called Friday to apologize.

“He told me how sorry he was what happened to my baby,” Jones said.

In a statement, Bush said that he was disturbed by the results of the second autopsy, and that the actions of the guards were “deplorable.”

Bush later told reporters he was not surprised by the new findings.

“Clearly, asphyxiation is a more logical conclusion,” he said, adding that he told Anderson’s parents “that this is the first step in making sure that justice is served.”

Siebert told the Associated Press on Friday that he stood by his findings. If Anderson had suffocated, there would have been higher levels of carbon dioxide in the boy’s body than were found in the autopsy, he said.

“I came to my conclusion by valid means,” Siebert said. “I’ve seen no explanation as to how he came to his conclusion.”

The youth had been sent to the boot camp for violating probation by trespassing at a school after he and his cousins were charged with stealing their grandmother’s car from a church parking lot.

The boy’s death has sparked outrage across the country, particularly among black people, amid accusations that those involved have tried to cover up a crime.

Two weeks ago, more than 2,000 protesters led by the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton descended on the Capitol in Tallahassee. The rally followed an overnight sit-in by about 30 college students in Bush’s office.

That sit-in came the same day Bush accepted the resignation of Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Guy Tunnell, who stepped down after he referred to Jackson as the outlaw Jesse James and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) as Osama bin Laden, during a top-level meeting.

Tunnell was already under intense criticism for sending friendly e-mails to the Bay County sheriff even as his agency was helping investigate the youth’s death.