By J.D. CALLAWAY
Tribune Staff Writer

      TAMPA -- A Hillsborough County jury awarded $7.5 million Friday to a Lakeland couple who had sued the makers of a baby exerciser after their 2-year-old daughter accidentally strangled in the device.
      The jury found that the Johnny Jump-Up Baby Exerciser was flawed and that the Spalding and Evenflo Co. Inc., the Tampa-based makers of the product, were negligent in the March 1988 death of Jessica Bowden.
      The jury of three women and three men deliberated for less than 90 minutes before returning the verdict to Circuit Judge John M. Gilbert.
      The parents, Carl and Cherie Bowden, wept and hugged each other and their two lawyers after the verdict was announced to a packed courtroom. Each parent was awarded $3.75 million in damages.
      The company's lawyers, Ronald Fraley and David Banker, left the courtroom without making any comment. It was not known whether the company would appeal.
      "We can't buy her [Jessica] back," said Cherie Bowden, who added that the money wasn't important.
      Having a jury decide that he and his wife weren't negligent was worth a lot more, Carl Bowden, Jr. said. "Not only was Spalding on trial, but we also put ourselves on trial. We're happy."
      The Bowdens sued Spalding and Evenflo in 1989, claiming the Johnny Jump-Up had safety flaws and the consumer warnings were insufficient.
      The company had argued that the parents were negligent because the toddler was unsupervised when she tried to climb into the device, which is suspended from a door frame by a large clasp and spring.
      Her mother, who had been shopping, returned home to find her daughter dangling in the straps of the exerciser she'd bought for $1 at a garage sale. Carl Bowden had been sleeping in the bedroom and was awakened be his wife's screams. The company's lawyers reluctantly agreed to proceed with the trial on Monday after arguing that Christmas time was not the right time to try a product-liability case involving a dead baby.
      But one of the jurors said the holiday season had nothing to do with the verdict.
      "Christmas wasn't even a factor," juror Tim Singleton said in a telephone interview. "The only problems we had in the jury room was with how much to give the parents. We didn't want to go too high or the company would automatically appeal."
      During opening arguments, Singleton said he was siding with the company. "I initially though the Bowdens didn't have a chance. But the testimony changed all that."
      The family's lawyers, Steven Yerrid and Henry Valenzuela, presented an expert witness, mechanical engineer Charles E. Benedict of Tallahassee, who testified that the baby exerciser had design flaws that made it unsafe.
      The company's expert, retired Spalding engineer Jerry Kozatec, testified that there had been consumer complaints limited to the support straps that held the exerciser seat, not the adjustment straps where Jessica strangled.
      Singleton said he was surprised that the other jurors also had made up their minds before they began deliberating. "It was the testimony that swayed me," he said. "The problem was with the product, not the parents."