Hennepin County's chief medical examiner testified in Derek Chauvin's murder trial Friday that George Floyd's underlying heart disease contributed to his death at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, 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 in Chauvin's Hennepin County District Court trial on second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter charges. Cause of death is a pivotal point for prosecutors and the defense.
Baker's findings, based on his autopsy the day after 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."
The prosecution is trying to show that Floyd died from a lack of oxygen caused by police holding him prone and handcuffed on the pavement. Defense lawyer Eric Nelson is trying to sow reasonable doubt, raising the prospect that Floyd died by heart attack brought on by illicit drug use and health problems.
Baker, who has been the county's chief medical examiner since 2004, said the 46-year-old Floyd had "very severe" hypertensive heart disease, meaning his heart weighed more than it should, requiring more oxygen.
"Now in the context of an altercation with other people that involves things like physical restraint, it involves things like being held to the ground, it involves things like the pain that you would incur from having your cheek up against the asphalt and that abrasion on your shoulder, those events are gonna cause stress hormones to pour out of your body, specifically things like adrenaline, and what that adrenaline is going to do is it's going to ask your heart to beat faster," Baker testified. "It's going to ask your body for more oxygen so that you can get through that altercation, and in my opinion, the law enforcement subdual restraint and the neck compression was just more than Mr. Floyd could take by virtue of those heart conditions."