Key moments at Derek Chauvin’s trial in George Floyd’s death

The three weeks of testimony at a former Minneapolis police officer's trial in the death of George Floyd were filled with indelible moments, ranging from witnesses breaking down as they relived what they saw to a clinical account by one expert pinpointing on video the instant he believes Floyd died.

Derek Chauvin, 45, is on trial for murder and manslaughter after pinning Floyd to the pavement last May for what prosecutors said was 9 1/2 minutes. The case is expected to head to the jury Monday after closing arguments.

Here's a look back at some of the most compelling moments of the trial:

Jurors heard testimony from several witnesses to Floyd's arrest, and many of them grew emotional as they recalled their frustration and desperation at not being able to help Floyd.

Darnella Frazier, the teenager who shot the harrowing video of the arrest that set off nationwide protests, testified through tears that Chauvin ignored bystanders’ shouts as Floyd gasped for air, pleaded for his life and finally fell limp and silent.

“It’s been nights I stayed up, apologizing and apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more, and not physically interacting and not saving his life,” Frazier, 18, said, adding of Chauvin: “But it’s like, it’s not what I should’ve done, it’s what he should’ve done.”

Christopher Martin, the convenience store cashier who sold cigarettes to Floyd and was handed a suspected counterfeit $20 bill, said he felt “disbelief and guilt” as he stood on the curb a short time later, his hands on his head as he watched Floyd's arrest.

“If I would’ve just not tooken the bill, this could’ve been avoided,” the 19-yearold said.

And Charles McMillian, 61 — who tried to persuade a panicky Floyd to cooperate with officers trying to put him in their squad car, shouting “You can’t win!" — wept openly after watching police body camera video of the struggle.

“I feel helpless,” he said.

As part of prosecutors' effort to humanize Floyd for jurors, Floyd’s girlfriend Courteney Ross recounted how they met at a Salvation Army shelter where he was a security guard with “this great, deep Southern voice,” and how they both struggled with an addiction to opioids.

Chauvin attorney Eric Nelson drove hard at Floyd’s drug use while cross-examining Ross, then slipped in a seemingly unrelated question: What name, he asked, came up on Floyd's phone when she called him?

“Mama,” Ross answered.

With that, Nelson called into question the widely reported account of Floyd crying out for his late mother as he lay pinned to the pavement — likely part of a wider strategy to sow doubt where he could.

Dr. Martin Tobin, a lung and critical care specialist, was one of the most compelling of many medical experts called by the prosecution. He discussed the mechanics of breathing in simple terms, including loosening his tie, placing his hands on his own neck and encouraging jurors to do the same as he explained why he believes Floyd died of a lack of oxygen that damaged his brain and stopped his heart.

Tobin also narrated video of Floyd held to the pavement and pinpointed what he said was a change in Floyd’s face and a telltale leg kick that told him Floyd was dead — around 5 minutes after police began holding him down.

“You can see his eyes. He's conscious, and then you see that he isn't,” Tobin said. "That’s the moment the life goes out of his body.”

Prosecutors were mostly clinical in examining witnesses. One exception came after Nelson — trying to raise doubt about Floyd's cause of death — posed a series of hypothetical questions to a retired forensic pathologist testifying for the prosecution.

“Let’s assume you found Mr. Floyd dead in his residence. No police involvement, no drugs, right? The only thing you found would be these facts about his heart. What would you conclude to be the cause of death?” Nelson asked Dr. Lindsey Thomas, noting Floyd’s enlarged heart, high blood pressure and blocked arteries.

Thomas conceded in such a “very narrow set of circumstances," she probably would rule heart disease as the cause. She also agreed that she would certify Floyd’s death as a drug overdose if there were no other explanations. Fentanyl and methamphetamine were found in his system.

Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell was sarcastic in his response.

“Aren’t those questions a lot like asking, ‘Mrs. Lincoln, if we take John Wilkes Booth out of this ...’” Blackwell began, before Nelson objected.

Prosecutors also pounced when a useof-force expert called by the defense, former California police officer Barry Brodd, said police were justified in keeping Floyd pinned because he kept struggling instead of “resting comfortably.”

That sparked a lectern-pounding response from prosecutor Steve Schleicher: “Did you say ‘resting comfortably’?" he asked incredulously.

“Or laying comfortably,” replied Brodd, whose testimony contradicted that of authorities from inside and outside the Minneapolis Police Department who said Chauvin violated his training.

“Resting comfortably on the pavement?” Schleicher asked again. Brodd: “Yes.”

The chief medical examiner who ruled Floyd’s death a homicide was called to the stand by prosecutors only to disagree with their carefully built case that Floyd died of asphyxia when his airway was blocked by Chauvin's knee.

Instead, Hennepin County Medical Examiner Dr. Andrew Baker said Floyd’s heart gave out because of the pressure on his neck. He said Floyd's heart problems combined with the way police held him down and compressed his neck, “was just more than Mr. Floyd could take.”

Though Baker did not rule asphyxiation as a cause of Floyd's death, at one point he testified that he isn't an expert on breathing and would defer certain questions to those who are.