Livestream: Medical Examiner Testifies In Chauvin Trial

MINNEAPOLIS — Friday will mark the tenth day of the murder trial against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd.

Expected to take the stand is Dr. Andrew Baker, the Hennepin County medical examiner, reports Minnesota Public Radio News.

Baker conducted the official autopsy on the body of Floyd. Both the defense and prosecution will try to use Baker's testimony to back their explanation of what, or who killed Floyd.

Watch Dr. Andrew Baker testify live below:

Defense attorney Eric Nelson has spent the past two weeks arguing that drugs and heart disease, not Chauvin, killed Floyd.

State prosecutors, however, say Floyd's behavior in his final moments was not consistent with a drug overdose. In his opening statement, prosecutor Jerry Blackwell said that people dying from an overdose are "not screaming for their lives" as Floyd did.

The medical examiner's autopsy report did note fentanyl and methamphetamine in Floyd's system. However, Floyd's official cause of death was attributed to "cardiopulmonary arrest, complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression":

How injury occurred: Decedent experienced a cardiopulmonary arrest while being restrained by law enforcement officer(s)

Other significant conditions: Arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease; fentanyl intoxication; recent methamphetamine use

Among the other findings by the examiner was that Floyd tested positive for the coronavirus on April 3, 2020. Floyd was likely asymptomatic, and the virus did not play a role in his death on Memorial Day, the report finds.

"Since PCR positivity for 2019-nCoV RNA can persist for weeks after the onset and resolution of clinical disease, the autopsy result most likely reflects asymptomatic but persistent PCR positivity from previous infection," the examiner stated.

Floyd's manner of death was listed as "homicide." However, the examiner's office noted that the manner of death classification "is a statutory function of the medical examiner, as part of death certification for purposes of vital statistics and public health."

Manner of death "is not a legal determination of culpability or intent, and should not be used to usurp the judicial process. Such decisions are outside the scope of the Medical Examiner’s role or authority. Under Minnesota state law, the Medical Examiner is a neutral and independent office and is separate and distinct from any prosecutorial authority or law enforcement agency."

Baker's testimony will come after Thursday's testimony from Dr. Martin Tobin, a forensic toxicology expert. Floyd died because of a lack of oxygen, according to Tobin.

"A healthy person subjected to what Mr. Floyd was subjected to would have died as a result of what he was subjected to," Tobin told the court.