An American woman accused of killing her nine-year-old granddaughter by forcing her to run back and forward carrying wood for almost three hours acted like a military drill instructor, a prosecutor said at her trial on Monday.
Joyce Garrard, 49, is accused of forcing Savannah Hardin to run non-stop at her home in Etowah County in Alabama in February 2012 as punishment for lying about having eaten chocolates.
Hardin collapsed, went into seizures and died days later at a Birmingham hospital from dehydration and low sodium, a condition common in marathon runners.
During opening statements, Etowah County assistant district attorney Marcus Reid told the jury that Garrard acted like Sergeant Vince Carter, the drill instructor in the TV series Gomer Pyle USMC.
"When paramedics arrived, little Savannah was in a T-shirt and panties, soaking wet, but cold to the touch," Reid said.
Neighbours raised the alarm, he said, and when police and paramedics arrived at the home, Garrard gave different accounts of what had happened: that she had fallen in the yard, she had a seizure, or she had a neurological problem.
Defence lawyers are expected to say the death was not the fault of Garrard, who has been charged with capital murder.
The judge in the case has refused the defence's request to move the trial to a venue where Garrard is less well known.
Defence attorneys have said that it was Hardin's medical condition, and not the punishment, that caused her death.
The child's stepmother, Jessica Mae Hardin, has also been charged with murder for allegedly failing to intervene.
The girl lived with her father, who was out of town at the time of the incident.
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