George Floyd’s former girlfriend broke down in court and admitted the two purchased drugs from a man who now refuses to testify in the murder case against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
In Courteney Ross’s Thursday testimony, she said that two months before Floyd’s death, he purchased what appeared to be synthetic opioids that felt like “it was a really strong stimulant.”
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“I couldn’t sleep all night. I felt very jittery,” she told the court after admitting that the two suffered from an addiction to opioids.
Ross also told the court that Floyd had been hospitalized twice in the same month he purchased the pills. At one point, the drugs made her “feel like she was going to die.”
Those pills changed Floyd’s behavior for the next two months, Ross told the court. The man who sold Floyd the drugs is allegedly Morries Lester Hall, the same man who was in Floyd’s car on the day he died.
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“Both Floyd and I, our story, it’s a classic story of how many people get addicted to opioids,” she said. “We both suffered from chronic pain. Mine was in my neck, and his was in his back.”
Testimony from Hall was potentially critical to both parties in the trial. Prosecutors hoped Hall would discuss Chauvin’s allegedly brutal conduct in Floyd’s arrest, while the defense was looking to press him on his multiple felony arrests, including illegal possession of a firearm and domestic assault.
On Wednesday, Hall’s public defender informed the court that he would be exercising his Constitutional right not to testify.
“Mr. Morries Lester Hall, through undersigned counsel, hereby provides notice to all parties in this matter that if called to testify he will invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination,” said a notice filed by his attorney. “Therefore, counsel for Mr. Hall respectfully moves this court to quash the subpoena … and release Mr. Hall from any obligations therein.”
Last June, Hall told the New York Times that Floyd never resisted arrest and pleaded for his life.
“I’m a key witness to the cops murdering George Floyd, and they want to know my side. Whatever I’ve been through, it’s all over with now. It’s not about me,” he said at the time.
Chauvin’s defense has focused on Floyd’s drug use, arguing that a toxic combination of fentanyl and methamphetamine caused his death and not any use of police force.
Floyd’s family released a statement after Ross’s testimony, calling any allegations of drug use a distraction from the two murder and one manslaughter charges Chauvin faces.
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“As the defense attempts to construct the narrative that George Floyd’s cause of death was the Fentanyl in his system, we want to remind the world who witnessed his death on video that George was walking, talking, laughing, and breathing just fine before Derek Chauvin held his knee to George’s neck, blocking his ability to breathe and extinguishing his life for all to see,” the statement read.
