MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The chief medical investigator who ruled the death of George Floyd as murder took the stand during the murder trial of former officer Derek Chauvin and said he did not watch the disturbing video of the arrest before investigating Floyd did not, so that he would not be prejudiced according to what he saw.
“I was aware that at least one video had gone viral on the internet, but I deliberately chose not to watch it until I examined Mr Floyd,” said Dr Andrew Baker. “I did not want to prejudice my exams by introducing preconceived ideas that could lead me in one direction or another.”
Baker, the Hennepin County medical examiner, concluded last year that Floyd died of cardiopulmonary arrest (that is, his heart stopped), complicated by the way police restrained him and squeezed his neck when the 46- year-old Swartman lay on the sidewalk for the last time. May.
Another medical expert on Friday accused Floyd of killing on the way the police let him down, while Chauvin’s lawyer pushed the witness with hypothetical questions and other ways to indicate that Floyd’s drug use or heart disease had killed him.
The testimony of Dr. Lindsey Thomas, a forensic pathologist who retired from the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office in 2017, corroborated the findings of other prosecuting experts who took the stand during the Chauvin murder trial.
Thomas, who did not work on Floyd’s case, said the ‘primary mechanism of death’ was asphyxia, or insufficient oxygen – a conclusion she said she mostly reached from video showing Floyd struggling to breathe. fetch while Chauvin kneels on his neck and two others Minneapolis. police officers helped hold him.
‘It’s a death where the heart and lungs have stopped working. “The point is that it is due to covert law enforcement, self-control and compression,” Thomas said.
The autopsy itself ruled out heart attack, aneurysm and other causes, and Thomas said it was not the death from a drug overdose either.
“There is no evidence that he would die that night, except for the interaction with law enforcement,” she testified.
Thomas said she agrees with Baker’s findings, but she went further to specify that Floyd died of suffocation. She said there was nothing in Floyd’s autopsy that pointed to it, but that’s not uncommon.
Chauvin, 45, is charged with murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death on May 25. Floyd was arrested outside a neighborhood market after being accused of trying to pay a counterfeit $ 20 bill.
Bystander video of Floyd crying that he could not breathe when bystanders shouted at the white officer to get away from him caused protests and widespread violence in the US.
Attorney Chauvin, Eric Nelson, argued that the now fired white officer did what he was trained for and was not responsible for Floyd’s death. Floyd had high blood pressure and heart disease, and an autopsy found fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system.
Under cross-examination by Nelson, Thomas said she believes Floyd’s heart has been “slightly” enlarged.
Nelson asked Thomas about what could suddenly stop a heart beating, and he noticed that Floyd’s bigger heart needed more blood and worked hard in a moment of tension and adrenaline, and that one of his veins was 90% clogged. .
Thomas said any blockage of more than 70 to 75% could be used to declare death, in the absence of another cause. But she also said that some people can only live well with an artery that is completely blocked.
The defender pushed Thomas by asking a hypothetical question.
‘Let’s assume you’re Mr. Floyd was found dead in his home. No police involvement, no drugs, right? The only thing you found is these facts about his heart. What would be the cause of death for you? Ask Nelson.
“In that very close situation, I would probably conclude that the cause of his death was his heart disease,” Thomas replies.
She also agrees that fentanyl can slow down a person’s breathing and that methamphetamine can make the heart work harder and cause heart arrhythmias – a potentially fatal heart rhythm disorder.
In response to another hypothetical representation of Nelson, she agreed that she would confirm Floyd’s death as an overdose if there were no other explanations.
But during re-examination, prosecutor Jerry Blackwell insulted the attorney’s hypothetical and quickly had Thomas repeat that the cause of Floyd’s death was the restraint by the police.
“Aren’t the questions very much like asking,” Mrs. Lincoln, if we take John Wilkes Booth out of this … ” Blackwell began before Nelson objected.
Floyd’s death certificate listed certain contributing conditions: narrowed arteries, high blood pressure, fentanyl poisoning and recent use of methamphetamine. But Thomas said they did not directly cause his death, and that such factors are usually listed on death certificates to notify public health officials.
Instead, Floyd died because the position of his body – on his stomach, his hands cuffed behind his back and officers pushing their body weight into him – made it impossible to breathe, Thomas said. He calls Floyd’s death ‘so well documented’ due to extensive video evidence.
For the first time, a seat for Chauvin’s family was occupied by a woman. She was not immediately identified. Chauvin’s marriage ended in divorce in the months following Floyd’s death.
Judge Peter Cahill also summoned a jury member on Friday and asked her if she was subject to outside influences. She replied that she briefly saw TV coverage with the sound off and said that her mother-in-law had sent her an SMS: ‘It looks like it was a bad day’, but that she did not answer.
The judge allowed her to remain on the jury.
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Find AP’s full coverage of George Floyd’s death at: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd
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Webber reported from Fenton, Michigan.