Jury hears of Floyd's opioid use
MINNEAPOLIS — Lawyers for Derek Chauvin Tuesday began presenting their case in the former Minneapolis police officer's murder trial, calling to the stand a now-retired officer who pulled over a car in which George Floyd was a passenger in 2019 — a year before his deadly encounter with Chauvin.
His lead attorney, Eric Nelson, argued in court filings that the earlier arrest supported his defence that a drug overdose may have caused Floyd's death in May 2020, not a lack of oxygen caused by Chauvin kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes, as prosecutors charge.
Nelson showed the jury a video taken by a body-worn camera during the May 6, 2019, traffic stop in which Floyd became distressed as officer Scott Creighton pointed a gun at him and ordered him out of a car.
“The passenger was unresponsive and noncompliant to my commands,” Creighton told the jury Tuesday, describing Floyd as nervous and anxious. “I then had to reach in to him because I wanted to see his hands.”
Before Creighton took the stand, Judge Peter Cahill warned jurors that the evidence was being admitted for the limited purpose of showing what effects the ingestion of opioids may have had on Floyd. “This evidence is not to be used as evidence of the character of George Floyd,” the judge said.
Chauvin, who is white, has pleaded not guilty to murder and manslaughter charges for pinning Floyd's neck to the ground in the deadly arrest on May 25, 2020.