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| Florida boot camp staff acquitted | Florida boot camp staff acquitted |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| Seven Florida boot camp guards and a nurse have been acquitted of manslaughter in the case of a teenager whose beating was caught on videotape. | |
| The 14-year-old boy collapsed after running laps on his first day at the camp for juvenile offenders in 2007. | The 14-year-old boy collapsed after running laps on his first day at the camp for juvenile offenders in 2007. |
| The boy was beaten by guards for 30 minutes and made to inhale ammonia in what they said was an attempt to revive him. He died in hospital a day later. | |
| The jury took about 90 minutes to find the guards not guilty. | The jury took about 90 minutes to find the guards not guilty. |
| Defense lawyers argued that the guards properly handled what they thought was a juvenile offender faking illness to avoid exercising. | |
| They argued that Martin Lee Anderson died from complications linked to an undiagnosed sickle cell trait - a usually harmless blood disorder which can hinder the blood cells' ability to carry oxygen during physical stress. | |
| But a medical examiner said the "forced inhalation" of ammonia caused the teenager's vocal cords to spasm and block his upper airways, and he died of suffocation. | |
| The boy's mother, Gina Jones, left the courtroom after the verdict was read. | |
| "I cannot see my son no more. Everybody see their family members. It's wrong," she said. |