SEVIERVILLE, Tenn. — The trial of an amusement park manager facing charges for the death of a park visitor opened Thursday with testimony from the victim's teenage son, who was sitting next to his mother on a ride when she plummeted 60 feet to her death.

Charles Stan Martin, general manager of the Rockin' Raceway amusement park at the time of the incident, faces 25 years in prison on charges of second-degree murder and reckless homicide after visitor June Alexander's safety harness disengaged in midair as she rode "The Hawk," a pendulum ride that swings higher and higher until it turns a complete 360 degrees.

The victim's son, Cody Alexander, told jurors he begged his mother and two aunts to pull into Rockin' Raceway after he spotted the ride from the parkway while they drove through Pigeon Forge on March 14, 2004, to celebrate his birthday.

After he boarded the ride with his mother and his aunt, Judy Sprinkles, he testified his aunt asked the operator to let them off.

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"They were told they could not be let off until the ride finished its course," the 16-year-old stoically testified, as his older sister, aunts and cousins began to quietly sob in the audience.

As the ride began its pendulum swings, Cody noticed his mother's safety harness loosening. They began to call out to the machine's 17-year-old operator, to no avail.

Cody Alexander, the victim's son, testified Thursday.

"At the height of the ride, her harness opened and she fell," Cody said.

June Alexander, 50, died instantly when the back of her head hit the machine on her way down, causing her body to ricochet and land face-up about eight feet away from the ride, according to Mark Vance, an EMT who testified Thursday.

Sevier County District Attorneys believe the accident occurred because Martin, who was responsible for the ride's maintenance, tampered with The Hawk's electrical panel.

In his opening statements Thursday afternoon, District Attorney General Al Schmutzer told jurors the evidence would show that the defendant installed cables in the electrical panel to bypass a safety mechanism that prevents the ride from starting unless all safety harnesses are locked down.

"That safety system was wiped out," Schmutzer said. "When Mrs. Alexander got on that ride, she may as well not have had the lap bar in front of her at all. It was nothing more than a farce."

Both prosecution and defense agree that The Hawk, a prototype and the only ride of its kind in the United States, showed problems as soon as the park's owner purchased it for $475,000 in 1998.

To secure a conviction against the defendant, prosecutors need not prove Martin intentionally caused the victim's death, but must prove that he tampered with the safety system, fully aware of the outcome his actions would likely produce.

"This ride was giving him constant problems, and it was a headache," said Schmutzer. "He was only man who worked on that ride and kept it running."

Martin's lawyers vehemently deny he put the cables in the electrical panel.

"He put his own family on the ride the day before this happened," defense attorney Bryan Delius said in his opening. "He rode it himself. Is that the kind of thing a person would do if he's certain he's going to cause harm?"

The jury is being sequestered for the trial's duration because of the publicity surrounding the case, which is taking place in the small town of Sevierville, Tenn. The town is also home to Dolly Parton's amusement park, Dollywood.

The tourist-based economy caused jury selection in the trial to go longer than expected, because many potential jurors work in amusement parks. In fact, the safety manager of Dollywood was dismissed from the panel after making it to the final 20.

Another accident

Trial testimony began Thursday afternoon in Sevier County Circuit Court after Judge Vance ruled the state could introduce evidence of a similar incident as a prior bad act.

Outside the jury's presence, Vance granted the prosecution's request to let Ken Mace describe his own encounter with The Hawk. Mace's harness came loose in July 2003, and he clung to the ride with his legs until he could be rescued.

The prosecution claims that even if Martin had been previously unaware of problems with the ride, Mace's accident should have put him on guard. In his opening, Schmutzer maligned the defendant for continuing to operate the ride after the incident.

Pigeon Forge police officers who responded to the scene also testified Thursday about the wires they found in the Hawk's electrical panel.

They described red-and-black jumper cables that were connected by alligator clips to the machine's wiring, which had apparently been spliced open in order to attach the clips to the bare wires.

In his cross-examination, Delius asked the officers whether they saw the defendant place the jumper cables in the electrical panel or if they had any reason to believe he was involved. Each officer responded, "No."

Defense attorney Andrew Roskind hinted at a wider conspiracy involving the ride's Italy-based manufacturer, Zamperla, and the park's insurance provider in his questioning of Pigeon Forge Police Dept. forensic technician Wayne Knight.

Knight was at the scene when attorneys and technicians for Zamperla and the amusement park conducted their own investigation of the ride. Representatives from the Pigeon Forge Police Dept were not present during the investigation, which took place three days after the incident.

"The Pigeon Forge Police Department gave access to the interested parties before it completed its investigation?" Roskind asked Knight, who testified that the investigators pulled up the ride's paneling and disassembled the seats, but that nothing was removed.

"Did you make them wear gloves?" Roskind asked.

The officer responded, "No."

Testimony will resume Friday afternoon. The trial is being aired live on Court TV and streamed live on Court TV Extra.