MINNEAPOLIS – A third week of testimony started Monday in the Derek Chauvin murder trial in Hennepin County District Court, where the prosecution nears the end of making its best case that George Floyd was killed by the now-fired Minneapolis police officer late last spring.
District Judge Peter Cahill said late Friday that prosecutors will first call another among several medical experts Monday who will help the state explain why Floyd died on May 25 at 38th and Chicago.
Along with calling witnesses to buttress its case that Chauvin killed Floyd, the prosecution is on schedule to call a "Spark of Life" witness Monday in order to give jurors a fuller and largely sympathetic view of Floyd as a son, brother, father and friend.
The witness is expected to be a Floyd family member. The judge has ordered that this testimony can only be allowed to be shown on the livestream if that person gives permission.
The first witness called Monday was Dr. Jonathan Rich, a medical expert in cardiology from Northwestern Memorial Hospital in the Chicago area, who the prosecution hopes to counter defense contentions that Floyd died from health problems and illicit drug use.
"I believe that Mr. George Floyd's death was absolutely preventable," Rich testified Monday.
Rich testified that he believes Floyd's cause of death was cardiopulmonary arrest caused by low oxygen levels. Those oxygen levels, he said as have others before him, "were induced by the prone restraint and positional asphyxia that he was subjected to."
Further, the doctor said, "I can state with a high degree of medical certainty that George Floyd did not die from a cardiac event and he did not die from an overdose."
Rich said he has watched bystander and other video from the scene and saw no evidence in Floyd's behavior or appearance that he was having difficulty with his heart until be pinned on the pavement by Chauvin and two other officers.
He had been stricken in connection from ongoing heart condition, he would immediately fall unconscious, Rich said.
In Floyd's case, the doctor said, low oxygen sent him into cardiopulmonary arrest "much more gradually and slowly. ... His speech [was] starting to become less forceful ... until his speech became absent and his muscle movements were absent."
The doctor added that his review of autopsy records also led him to conclude that Floyd did not suffer a heart attack on May 25 or at any other time in his life.
Rich went to say that despite seeing coronary artery blockage in Floyd's heart, the doctor said he saw nothing in the medical records to suggest that played a role in the death.
Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell turned his questioning to Floyd's illicit drug use, and Rich echoed what many earlier witnesses told the jury: "I see no evidence to suggest that a fentanyl overdose caused Mr. Floyd's death," said Rich who treats patients who have used fentanyl.
The doctor dismissed just as firmly any impact methamphetamine had on Floyd's fate, saying the drug "no substantive role" given that where was "a very relative low level of methamphetamine in his system."
Prevention measures that would have helped included "not subjecting him to that prone restraint" in the first place, relieving Floyd from that position and administering CPR once another officer said no pulse was detected.
Blackwell wrapped up by asking Rich whether Floyd have survived his encounter with police if not for his 9 minutes and 29 seconds on restraint on the pavement. "Yes, I believe he would have lived."
Defense attorney Eric Nelson asked on cross examination whether Floyd would have survived if he had followed police orders and gotten into the squad car upon arrest.
Rich replied "yes, I would agree with you" that any number of scenarios before being pinned to the pavement, including complying with the officers, would have spared Floyd's life.
The doctor did agree that Floyd had a significant presence of heart disease but tried to fend off Nelson's questions about the dangers of a 90% narrowing of a coronary artery being especially life-threatening, saying the heart finds way to create new paths for blood to circulate under those conditions.
Also, while Rich said during prosecution questioning that he reviewed all of the 46-year-old Floyd's medical records, the doctor acknowledged to the defense attorney that those records went back only three years.
Once the prosecution rests, the defense gets its turn to prove several elements it has raised starting with Nelson's opening statement and consistently continuing throughout the cross examination of the stream of witnesses so far. Those points include that Floyd's health problems and drug use caused his death.
Cahill disclosed in court Monday before jurors were called into the courtroom that he believes closing arguments will be made next Monday ahead of deliberations.
Also before testimony resumed Monday, defense attorney Eric Nelson asked the judge to immediately sequester the jurors and question them regarding what they might have learned about the civil unrest following the fatal shooting of a man Sunday in Brooklyn Center.
Nelson pointed said that he has concerns that jurors could avoid finding Chauvin not guilty out because they are worried about the potential for violence in response.
"I understand that it's not this case, I understand it's not the same parties, but the problem is the ultimate response sets the stage for the jury to say 'I'm not going to vote not guilty because I'm concerned about the outcome,' " Nelson said.
Nelson also wanted Cahill to order the jurors to avoid all news media, an expansion of the judge's ruling that they only avoid coverage of this trial.
Prosecutor Steve Schleicher opposed both defense requests. While acknowledging that the incident in Brooklyn Center also involved a citizen's death during an encounter with police, "We don't know the real events of what happened."
Schleicher said, "We can't have every single world event that might affect somebody's attitude or emotional state be grounds to come back and [re-examine] the jurors," he said. "This is a totally different case, and I realize there is civil unrest and maybe some of the jurors did hear about that."
He noted that "all of the jurors were sworn to be fair and impartial, [and] the law presumes that jurors will follow the court's instructions. ... It's very difficult to avoid all media. Media comes at us in all different forms."
Cahill swiftly declined both requests of the defense, so sequestration will only begin upon deliberations, which the judge said he anticipates will start next Monday. He also declined to tighten his order on juror caution about avoiding news media.
"It's a totally different case," he said of the Brooklyn Center killing. "It's not a big surprise that there is civil unrest in this case."
One matter still to be settled from last week was whether a man in Floyd's SUV the night of his arrest should be compelled to testify.
Morries L. Hall has told the court that he intended to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination should he be called as a witness. Through his attorney, Hall has told the court that testifying could expose him to potential charges of third-degree murder and other felony allegations.
Autopsy results have shown that Floyd had illicit drugs — specifically fentanyl and methamphetamine — in his body at the time. Floyd's girlfriend has testified that Hall provided Floyd with drugs during the month of his death.
The judge told defense attorney Eric Nelson to make a list of questions he would like to ask Hall and present them to the court. Should Cahill decide that Hall can be called as a witness, he might limit the breadth of questioning.
After the prosecution and defense made their opposing pitches again Monday, the judge said he would rule by early Monday afternoon whether Hall will be called to the stand.
The attorneys also clashed Monday about whether another witness for the prosecution can testify about Chauvin's use of force. Nelson said having yet more testimony in this area is piling on, while the prosecution told the judge that Seth W. Stoughton, of the University of South Carolina, is an academic who brings a national perspective to the case.
Nelson said he was worried this witness will give the prosecution yet one more opportunity to show the jury the viral video of Floyd's arrest "minute by minute" and stop it along the way throughout the full 9 minutes, 29 seconds."
Schleicher pledged that the prosecution would only show "certain segments ... I'm not having him go through the entire video."
Cahill ruled the Stoughton can testify but only offer his opinion about national use of force standards. He can also talk about what he thinks about the impact of the bystanders to the actions of Chauvin and the other officers, but he cannot speak as an expert about crowd impact on law enforcement in the moment.
Chauvin is charged with second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the killing of Floyd. Three other fired officers who assisted in Floyd's 2020 arrest — J. Alexander Kueng, Lane and Tou Thao — are scheduled to be tried in August on charges of aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter.
On Friday, Hennepin County's chief medical examiner testified that Floyd's underlying heart disease contributed to his death a and that being held down on the street outside Cup Foods was "just more than Mr. Floyd could take."
Dr. Andrew Baker's testimony came after three other medical experts had already testified on behalf of the prosecution. Cause of death is a pivotal point of contention between prosecutors and the defense.
Baker's findings, based on his autopsy the day after the 46-year-old Floyd died, determined he died from "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression."
He did not cite a lack of oxygen, or asphyxia, a cause found by three prior prosecution experts, including Dr. Lindsey Thomas, a medical examiner who worked on Baker's staff from 2013 to 2017.
"In this case, I believe the primary mechanism of death is asphyxia, or low oxygen," said Thomas, a medical examiner of 37 years who retired from Hennepin County.
Questioned further by prosecutor Jerry Blackwell, she said, "There's no evidence to suggest he would have died that night except for the interactions with law enforcement."
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(Star Tribune staff writers Rochelle Olson and Chao Xiong contributed to this report.)
