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Surveillance Video Of George Floyd In Store Played In Derek Chauvin's Murder Trial. Aired 11:30a-12p ET
Aired March 31, 2021 - 11:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:30:00]
LAURA COATES, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: And this defense strategy will fall by the wayside.
BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST: Derek Chauvin's hand didn't move from his pocket the entire time. I mean, are you talking about body language? I don't know anyone who's under distress and just keeps their hands in their pockets.
Chief Ramsey were you going to say something.
CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes I was just going to say, as far as this whole notion of a crowd being hostile, I mean, they were upset but they were still complying with what the officers wanted. They told they, you know, get back up on the curb. They got back up on the curb. I mean hostile crowds don't do that, believe me.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. Yes.
RAMSEY: You know, and so, that's another indication, I mean how hostile could they possibly be when you give an order, even under those circumstances and they still comply?
GOLODRYGA: Well we are going to take another quick break right now. Trust us, you're not miss anything. The judge had issued a five minute delay, it is no longer than that. We are going to go to our Omar Jimenez when we come back from this break on the ground there in Minneapolis to get a sense of the color inside of the courtroom. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:35:00]
GOLODRYGA: And any moment day three of testimony in the Derek Chauvin trial will resume. What is happening there in the courtroom right now? Let's ask our correspondent in Minneapolis, Omar Jimenez, and Omar I know the judge had called for a five-minute break, that was about 15 minutes ago. Any sense of what's going on right now?
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT, MINNEAPOLIS: Yes, to be honest, it was initially called for a five-minute break, we believe that that was solely because the judge was calling for one but as we're learning right now it appears that it -- this was mainly motivated by a juror who seemed to exit or need to exit the courtroom relatively quickly.
We're getting a report from inside the courtroom saying that this juror stood up, waved her hand, gestured toward the door. It's unclear why this juror needed to do that but it seemed, again, from this report that she seemed flush or perhaps ill, she appeared to be fanning herself. So, that's when a break was a called, and the judge said it was five minutes but clearly something else seems to be going on where they need to take a little bit more time.
But again, just to add it does seem that something is happening with one of the jurors that they want to check in on. It's unclear what that is at the moment. Now, when trial -- when the testimony was going on prior to that we do have a representative from the George Floyd family who's in the courtroom.
As allotted they have one spot for the George Floyd family and one for the Chauvin family. But at least for the Floyd family, Shareeduh Tate is her name, she's a cousin of George Floyd, a registered nurse from Houston. And before court got going today she was asked by again, the pool reporter who's inside about how yesterday's testimony from the bystanders affected her.
Because, of course, she is a family member watching this and she said the whole day yesterday was emotional, "watching that bystander testimony I could almost feel like I was living in that moment with them. Countless times I myself have wished I would have been able to intervene." And obviously with her as a registered nurse background, there are things that maybe she would have liked to do even watching from a distance.
But that is really the -- what is happening from inside the courtroom right now. Again, we're in this break trying to figure out what's happening with this -- with this juror as we understand.
When we get back, we will continue testimony from Christopher Martin, of course, who's the cashier at Cup Food who is laying out all of the context about what led up to the call to police over a counterfeit $20 bill about when George Floyd handed him this money, he was examining it, he laid out the store policy of if you take counterfeit money you then have to pay it back from your personal paycheck.
He considered doing that, he then reconsidered it, got a manager, the manager told him to go out to the car to speak with Floyd, they did that twice and that is where things were left. Of course, he was the ninth witness that's been called so far in this trial.
GOLODRYGA: Christopher Martin just doing his job, not knowing of course that his world and the country would change in the subsequent minutes and hours. As you noted, there appears to be juror who is a bit ill right now, so we are going to wait for that juror to come back. But if that doesn't happen, if this juror does fall ill, one of the 12 jurors, we know that there are alternate jurors as well.
So, Omar Jimenez, you are going to be following this for us and we will bring you back to the courtroom as soon as that resumes. But, of course, there's other news developing throughout the day and we want to talk about COVID in particular. Some governors are ignoring President Biden's pleas for states to re-impose mask mandates to slow the spread of COVID.
Here's what Mississippi's Republican Governor Tate Reeves tweeted, quote, "Let me get this straight - POTUS Biden wants Mississippi to reverse course and reinstate a mask mandate because cases are going up in New York and New Jersey. No thank you. Mr. President."
Well, right now 26 states are seeing a spike in Coronavirus cases, this all comes as drug maker Pfizer releases the first results from its Coronavirus vaccine trial on 12 to 15-year-olds and the findings, well they couldn't be better.
I'm going to bring in CNN's Kristin Holmes to break it down for us. Kristen, you can't get better than 100 percent, which is what these results appear to be. Walk us through the data and its significance.
HOLMES: That's right, Bianna. I mean, this is some really positive stuff when we talk about results.
[11:40:00]
And we're already hearing from members of the medical community who are saying that this is likely going to serve as a green light to begin that process to get younger people vaccinated. So let's take a look at the data. This was a trial that was conducted among 12 to 15- year-olds, and they found it was 100% effective, that's 100% efficacy.
Now, they also found that the vaccine elicited strong antibody response, and that it was well tolerated. Now, in terms of side effects, they found that it had the same side effects in this group that it did in 16 to 25-year-olds, which was really mild. It was some pain or soreness at the injection site, as well as fever or fatigue, so all of this right here, good news.
Now, we do want to be clear, this is just the beginning of the process. There's still going to be some amount of time here before these younger age groups start being vaccinated. First of all, the FDA will have to approve this drug for an extended EUA. We know Pfizer has been approved for adults, not yet in this age group. The company says they're going to submit this data for approval as soon as possible.
But even when that is done, as we have seen with these other vaccines, several different panels have to go through, review the data, make sure that it is actually safe for these younger groups. But, you know - as you know, you have done an enormous amount of reporting on opening schools and this conversation around that and coronavirus, the concerns. This is a pivotal step as we continue those conversations ahead of the fall.
GOLODRYGA: No doubt a game-changer because initially it was about getting teachers vaccinated. And then many teachers are still concerned about returning to schools without children vaccinated, as are some parents, so this really could be a game changer.
We also got some disturbing, and I guess, eye opening news, right, from the CDC today announcing during the White House COVID briefing that COVID was, in fact, the third leading cause of death in 2020. The impact of that stunningly brutal as the U.S. saw an increase of nearly 16% in deaths compared to the prior year.
HOLMES: Yes, that's right. I mean, this is really stark data. It's not something that we didn't expect, but when you actually see the CDC having gone through all of the research, having examined the death certificates, these are now their findings.
As you mentioned, the death rate in the U.S. increased 15.9% between 2009 and 2020 - 2019, excuse me, and 2020. I mean, that is a huge percentage here. The only things in front of COVID right now are heart disease and cancer, so this again, the, now, third reason why people died in the last year. We knew this was happening, but when you actually see these numbers, when you see how many people died, it is really, really stunning data here, Bianna.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. Over half a million Americans lost their lives in just the last year. Kristen Holmes, thank you.
We want to bring you back to the courtroom in Minneapolis now for day three and the testimony of the officer Derek Chauvin. And there we are about to hear once again from the Cup Foods employee Chris Martin. Let's listen in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CALL)
MATTHEW FRANK, MINNESOTA ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL: Mr. Martin, what I'm going to do now is start playing exhibit 31, just like the previous video. At some points, we'll just stop and I'll ask you some questions about it. All right?
CHRIS MARTIN, CUP FOODS EMPLOYEE: Okay.
FRANK: So, for the record, this is starting at about 7:55:46 roughly on the time stamp on the video. Correct?
And I'm going to pause it right here because the first part that we watched showed you and somebody walking out of the store, correct?
MARTIN: Yes.
FRANK: And that portion of the video is from the security camera inside the store, correct?
MARTIN: Yes.
FRANK: And so the person that you were walking out with, and again you don't have to give us his name, but it was a co-worker?
MARTIN: Yes.
FRANK: All right. And so now we're looking at a separate camera angle from outside the store, correct?
MARTIN: Yes. FRANK: And this time stamp, obviously different than the previous one
because this shows 20:19:12, correct?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And do you recognize what's - what area is depicted in this video as we're looking at it right now?
MARTIN: This is 38th street on the side of Cup Foods.
FRANK: And if you can, if you want to use the stylus too, just kind of point out the door of Cup Foods and 38th and Chicago.
So that's the door, correct?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And there - which street is 38th, just so we're clear? And Chicago then is the other street depicted, right?
[11:45:00]
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And is the counter where you sell the tobacco products visible in this image?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And where is that? And so for the record you're drawing a small line sort of on the window on the side of Cup Foods, right?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And so, when you told the jurors earlier that you were able to look out and see where Mr. Floyd went did you use that window to look out and see that?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: All right. And so, then let's -- your Honor if you could clear the screen please. Thank you. And then we will roll this video here for a little bit.
And I'm going to stop it here, and so can you tell the jurors then when you crossed the road and went to this vehicle, obviously the video shows you approaching the passenger side, correct?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And why did you approach the passenger side?
MARTIN: Well, I didn't want to stand on the driver's seat side, because that's where George was, but there was also oncoming traffic that I wouldn't be able to see. So, I chose to go around.
FRANK: OK. Why didn't (ph) you want to go to the side where Mr. Floyd was?
MARTIN: Because of the oncoming traffic in the street.
FRANK: OK. It wasn't about Mr. Floyd? It was the traffic?
MARTIN: Yes.
FRANK: All right. And so, we see you then here sort of behind your co-worker and tell us about then did you have a conversation with the occupants of the car?
MARTIN: Sort of. I notified them that they needed to come back into the store and that the bill was fake and that my boss wanted to talk to them. To George actually. Sorry. Not to both of them. Just to George.
FRANK: And so when you approached the car from the passenger side did you see how many people in the car?
MARTIN: Three.
FRANK: And where were the three people in the car?
MARTIN: George was in the driver's seat. His friend was in the passenger seat. And there was a woman in the back seat in the middle. Or possibly on the right back behind the passenger.
FRANK: And so, had you seen any of those individuals before that day?
MARTIN: No.
FRANK: Had you seen them in the store earlier?
MARTIN: Just the male.
FRANK: OK. And when you had this conversation at the vehicle who were you talking to?
MARTIN: The person that George was with.
FRANK: OK. So, the guy in the passenger -- front --
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And did you make any observations at that time of Mr. Floyd?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: What did you see regarding Mr. Floyd?
MARTIN: He just seemed like he didn't -- like want this to happen. Like he was just kind of like, oh like why is it happening sort of thing.
FRANK: OK. Did he seem awake?
MARTIN: Yes.
FRANK: And did he talk to you at all?
MARTIN: Not really. He just kind of shook his head.
FRANK: And the passenger in the front passenger seat did he talk to you at all?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And I want you to tell us what he said, but the end result did they agree to come into the store?
MARTIN: No.
FRANK: When you were at the vehicle who did you do most of the talking to?
MARTIN: The person in the passenger seat.
FRANK: And did you think that you were talking loud enough for the other people in the vehicle to hear you?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And so then after that conversation, what did you do after that?
MARTIN: I went back inside with my co-worker.
FRANK: And when you got back inside the store what did you do?
MARTIN: I told my manager that he did not want to come into the store.
FRANK: All right. And did you get some further direction then from your manager?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And what was that?
MARTIN: Go back outside again and tell him to come inside the store so we can talk to him.
FRANK: All right, so try that again in other words?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And then for that second trip did you go with some different -- other co-workers?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: All right, so what I'm going to do now is start exhibit 31 up again and we'll watch that process. OK? (VIDEO BEING PLAYED)
[11:50:00]
FRANK: So I'm going to stop exhibit 7:31 here briefly because the image has changed, correct?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And now this video's of inside of Cup Foods again, correct?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And so, we'll see here that you come in and this is when you have the conversation with your manager about the first trip (ph).
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: All right, so let's let 31 (ph) run again, please. Now if we can stop here for a moment and the timestamp reflects 7:57:56. You kind of walked off screen, correct?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And what was going on at this point in time?
MARTIN: I think that was the conversation I had with my manager when I was saying that he did not want to come inside, but I would - I'd offer to pay, but he said no. Just tell him to come back inside.
FRANK: So did you tell your manager you would just take care of the 20 (ph)?
MARTIN: I believe so. I did.
FRANK: And he directed you then to go back to your vehicle again?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: Now we saw you go out in the first trip with another individual, another employee.
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And he did not come back into the store.
MARTIN: No, he left.
FRANK: OK. And so, when you were told by the manager to go out a second time did you take some other coworkers with you?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: Who's idea was that?
MARTIN: I'm not sure. FRANK: OK. All right, so let's run exhibit 31 again, please. So let's pause the video right here if we could. This in from (ph) the record. Now we're back outside again, correct?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And record should reflect that we paused at 20:21:43. So we see the two other individuals coming out before, and there's a woman in a black jacket, correct?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And is she your coworker or was she at the time?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And she worked there longer than you?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And the other individual has a white t-shirt on, and he worked there longer than you?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: Was he actually related to the owners of the store?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And so, they were ahead of you at this point, correct?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: In fact, you had to sort of job to keep up with them even.
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And all right, so let's run 31 then. Now let's pause here just for a moment please, and the record should reflect we're at 20:22:15 as the timestamp when we paused it. The individual in the white t- shirt initially ran up to the driver's side, correct?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And we see you standing here behind the SUV, correct?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And I'm not showing (ph) the individual white t-shirt went around to the passenger-side door, which was open.
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And were you able to hear the conversation that the guy in the white t-shirt was having with the occupants in the vehicle?
MARTIN: At this - at this point in time I was not able to hear.
FRANK: So then let's run the video some more, please. All right, now we see if we can pause here, please, this is 20:22:21. You walked up to the passenger side of the SUV, correct?
MARTIN: Correct.
[11:55:00]
FRANK: So then let's run the video some more, please. All right, now we see if we can pause here, please, this is 20:22:21. You walked up to the passenger side of the SUV, correct?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: So at this point were you able to hear the conversations that the individual in the white t-shirt was having what the occupants?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And were you also able to hear what the occupants in the vehicle were saying and doing?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And can you describe for the jurors then what occurred during this period at the SUV?
MARTIN: So in this, the second time I went out, the person in the passenger seat was doing most of the talking. We were talking just come inside. We just want to talk to George, and the person in the passenger seat was saying how that's not me.
Like I tried to use a fake bill and you put me on game (ph), so I ripped it. And that all happened in the video because he also tried to use a fake bill that I did not let him use, and then he ripped it and threw it on the ground there. So he was just explaining like what had happened.
FRANK: And so, just to be clear he's in the passenger seat. You're talking about the front passenger seat?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And at that time did you have any interaction with Mr. Floyd directly?
MARTIN: I do not recall.
FRANK: All right. So let's run exhibit 31 a little bit. I want to pause it here really quickly, please. And for the record, it's 20:22:34. We saw the individual in the white t-shift sort of bend over and pick something up. Can you tell the jury what was happening there?
MARTIN: He was picking up the fake bill that the individual in the passenger seat tried to use. FRANK: OK, and the referenced one (ph) that was torn in half?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: Is that the bill that was torn in half?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: All right, and let's keep running 31 then, please. I'm going to ask to pause it right here, please. The timing stamp reflects 20:23:35, and it appears the two of you are now walking away from the SUV, correct?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: So during those preceding moments, it appears that the two of you are talking with maybe some occupants of the vehicle.
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And did you have any conversations with Mr. Floyd or was it just the passenger - the front-seat passenger?
MARTIN: Just the front-seat passenger.
FRANK: Were you able to see Mr. Floyd at all during that interaction?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: What did you see about him?
MARTIN: As I said earlier, he was just kind of shaking his head and putting his hands in the air like why is this happening to me. I don't want this to happen sort of thing.
FRANK: And so, he was - appeared to be awake?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And so, what was the end result of that conversation?
MARTIN: They did not - George Floyd did not choose to come into the store.
FRANK: And neither did the passenger, right?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And so, then let's watch exhibit 31 run here, please. All right, so the end of that video shows you and the other individual entering back into the store, correct?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: When you got back into the store, what did you do about, you know, your two trips out to the vehicle? MARTIN: We told our manager that he still refused to come into the store.
FRANK: And do you know what the manager decided to do about that?
MARTIN: He instructed one of my coworkers to call the police.
FRANK: And so, did you know if that happened?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: That somebody did call the police?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: Was it you who called the police about it?
MARTIN: No.
FRANK: Was it another coworker?
MARTIN: Correct.
FRANK: And did you ask the coworker to make the call?
MARTIN: No.
FRANK: And were you present
[12:00:00]
