Tennessee carnival ride murder trial begins
Cody Alexander told jurors he was seated next to his 51-year-old mother, June Carol Alexander, as the gondola-like ride rocked back and forth, going higher each time as it moved toward a full over-the-top rotation.
“‘I’m loose. I’m unhooked,'” the teenager said his mother told him. “At the height of the ride, about 60 feet in the air, her harness opened, and she fell.”
The teenager was the first witness in the trial of amusement park manager Charles Stan Martin on charges of second-degree murder and reckless homicide in the woman’s March 2004 death.
Prosecutors contend the ride at the Rockin’ Raceway park in the Smoky Mountain tourist town of Pigeon Forge was plagued with problems, and that Martin was the mechanic in charge of keeping it running.
The youngster testified that after his mother’s fall, the ride slowly came to a stop, but that it took a half-hour to release him from his harness. Only then did he learn his mother was dead.
“I was not told until after I had already gotten to her,” he said.
In opening statements, defense attorney Bryan Delius said the ride’s Italian manufacturer, Zamperla Inc., bore the blame rather than Martin.
“Stan Martin could never recklessly hurt anyone,” Delius said.
Delius said the $475,000, 24-passenger ride was beset with mechanical and electrical problems since it was delivered to Rockin’ Raceway in 1998. The ride was a prototype and came without a manual, he said.
Delius said Zamperla experts spent only two days setting up the ride, called The Hawk, and training Rockin’ Raceway staff, then were called back soon after the ride crashed into its own platform and the manufacturer’s crew made major modifications.
Investigators have said the ride’s safety systems failed, and circuits to prevent the ride from shutting down were overridden with “jumper wires” in the main electrical panel.
Martin, who managed Rockin’ Raceway for 17 years with his wife, “did not put a jumper on The Hawk. We don’t know who did,” Delius said.
If convicted, Martin could face up to 25 years in prison for second-degree murder and up to four years for reckless homicide.
Alexander’s family, from the Nashville suburb of Millersville, has filed negligence lawsuits against Martin, Rockin’ Raceway’s local owners and Zamperla seeking a total of $96 million.