Fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted on Tuesday of unintentional murder in the second degree and other charges in the death of George Floyd, Jr. Next comes the pending trial against Chauvin’s fellow former police colleagues and charges against Morries Hall, Floyd’s suspected drug dealer.
In an interview with Law&Crime, Hall supported the guilty verdict against Chauvin and referenced video of the incident.
“We all saw it,” he said of the murder, in an interview with the Law&Crime Network’s Angenette Levy. “We all witnessed it.”
Hall remembered Floyd glowing terms, describing him as a “giver” with a great sense of humor. He did not address the matter of his potential liability in Floyd’s death. He also said he did not know if he would receive immunity to testify in the upcoming August 23 trial of Chauvin’s former fellow officers Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng, and Thomas Lane.
Hall faces pending charges on unrelated matters including alleged sex trafficking and drug dealing.
It has been alleged that Hall might have given Floyd drugs. He refused to testify in the Chauvin trial and ended up invoking his Fifth Amendment rights.
As seen on video, Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck during an arrest for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill on May 25, 2020. The medical examiner found meth and fentanyl in Floyd’s system, but the ex-officer’s defense attorney was unsuccessful at making Floyd’s drug use sound like a reasonable causative factor in his death.
Minneapolis defense attorney Joe Tamburino, who is unaffiliated with the case, previously told Levy about the potential liability.
“Third degree murder has two parts. One is what Mr. Chauvin is accused of, which is a depraved mind, extremely dangerous act,” he said in an April 6 report. “The second part to third degree murder is giving someone drugs and that person dies from the drugs…If Mr. Hall doesn’t testify, it helps the prosecution.”
Usually, “you get the prosecutor to give you immunity” when someone does not want to testify, Tamburino said. But that did not happen here. On top of that, Judge Peter Cahill ruled that Hall’s statements to police after the incident were inadmissible hearsay.
[Screengrab via Law&Crime Network]
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