PANAMA CITY, Fla. — The eight former boot camp employees accused of aggravated manslaughter will take the stand to explain what they believe happened the morning teenager Martin Lee Anderson collapsed during a drill and later died, a defense lawyer said Monday.

Florida prosecutors allege that the seven drill instructors and a nurse at the Bay County Sheriff's Office Juvenile Boot Camp caused the 14-year-old's death from suffocation and ammonia inhalation.

Defense lawyer Walter Smith said the defendants, most of whom are parents and grandparents who served in the military before coming to the camp, did exactly what they were trained to do and were as disturbed by the outcome as anyone else. (VIDEO)

"By putting our clients up there on the stand, we are not telling you we can prove what happened to Martin Lee Anderson. All we can provide is another reasonable interpretation of what you saw and raise in your mind a doubt that this was a homicide," Smith said.

Henry Dickens, Charles Enfinger, Patrick Garrett, Raymond Hauck, Charles Helms Jr., Henry McFadden Jr., Joseph Walsh and Kristin Schmidt each face up to 30 years in prison if convicted of the top charge of aggravated manslaughter of a person under 18.

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The jury can also consider lesser charges of felony child neglect and misdemeanor culpable negligence, which would carry lighter sentences.

A 27-minute surveillance video of the Jan. 5, 2006, incident shows the drill instructors manhandling Anderson and covering his mouth while administering ammonia capsules after he stopped participating in a mandatory run. Anderson died the next morning in a Pensacola hospital after his family took him off life support.

There was public outrage about the guards' actions when the tape was released, but in an opening statement Monday, Smith said the guards were simply doing their job.

Smith, who reserved his opening until after the prosecution's case, which ended Monday, said the guards were following the policies of the Department of Juvenile Justice, the state agency that ran the boot camp program. Each of the defendants will take the stand to tell their side of the story.

"What you will come to know and understand is that many of these people devoted their lives to the boot camp and were very disturbed about the incident," said Smith, a lawyer for Enfinger.

Smith said the guards thought Anderson, who was committed to the camp for violating his probation on grand theft auto, was faking when he told them he was too tired to finish the 1.5-mile run.

Such complaints were typical from new arrivals at the camp, Smith said, so when Anderson's legs buckled and he fell over, the guards tried to revive him by using ammonia capsules, just as they had many times before.

"In their eyes, they were dealing with one kid who just didn't want to finish the physical assessment," Smith told the 10 members of the jury. "This is a day at the office for these people and they're just following the rules."

There was no way for the defendants to know that Anderson was actually showing signs of complications from sickle-cell trait, a typically benign genetic disorder that impeded the flow of oxygen through his blood to his muscles, Smith said.

According to Smith, the stress of the exercise sparked a chain reaction that was unavoidable because of his medical condition.

"This is a death that would have resulted whether or not the defendants used ammonia or struck him," said Smith. "They did not cause the death of Martin Lee Anderson. The death of Martin Lee Anderson resulted from natural causes."

The defense will call its first witness, another former boot camp employee, Monday afternoon.