George Floyd’s friend who was with him before he died while Minneapolis police were bringing him into custody indicated that he plans to plead the Fifth in the upcoming state trial for two of the ex-cops.
Morries Lester Hall, who was with Floyd before he was killed on May 25, 2020, has indicated that he intends to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination again if called to testify in the upcoming trial of former officers, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng, both of whom are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.
His public defender, Adrienne Cousins, wrote of Hall’s plan in a motion filed on Tuesday in Hennepin County District Court, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
Hall previously decided to plead the Fifth in the trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of Floyd’s murder and sentenced to 22 1/2 years.
Chauvin was later sentenced to 21 years for violating Floyd’s civil rights.
Chauvin's attorney, Eric Nelson, had argued that Hall’s testimony might reveal that he and Floyd were using drugs in the area before police arrived at the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue while responding to a report of Floyd allegedly using a counterfeit $20 at the Cups Food convenience store.
Nelson claimed that Floyd could have died of a drug overdose. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's office ruled that Floyd died of cardiac arrest, but attorneys representing Floyd's family maintained that Floyd died of asphyxia. In the federal trial for the three other officers on the scene, a toxicology expert told the court that Floyd died of asphyxia after Chauvin restricted his airway for more than nine minutes.
Thao, who held back concerned bystanders while Chauvin held a knee to Floyd’s neck and upper back as the Black man called out that he could not breathe, as well as Kueng, who pinned Floyd’s back, rejected a final plea offer at a hearing earlier this week and will stand trial on the state charges beginning on Oct. 24.
At the hearing, Thao said, "It would be lying for me to accept any plea offer."
The fourth officer on the scene, Thomas Lane, who held Floyd's legs and twice asked if he should be turned on his side, pleaded guilty to the lesser state charges of aiding and abetting manslaughter to avoid a trial. His sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 21.
Thao, Kueng and Lane were convicted in federal court in February of violating Floyd's civil rights. Thao, was sentenced to 3 1/2 years. Kueng was sentenced to 3 years. Lane, who held Floyd's legs and twice asked if he should be turned on his side, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years.
Chauvin remains in the state's maximum-security prison at Oak Park Heights pending his transfer to federal prison. The other three remain free on bail.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
