MISSOULA, Mont. —

A federal jury ruled Wednesday that a health clinic in a Montana town where hundreds of people have died from asbestos exposure submitted 337 false asbestos claims that made patients eligible for Medicare and other benefits they shouldn't have received.

The seven-person jury said that the fraudulent claims caused more than $1 million in damage to the government.

The case focused on the Center for Asbestos Related Disease in Libby, Montana. BNSF Railway filed a lawsuit against the clinic under the federal False Claims Act in 2019.

The railroad company owned by billionaire Warren Buffett is also a defendant in numerous lawsuits over its own role in the town's contamination. In 2020, Montana's Supreme Court found BNSF liable for shipping asbestos-tainted vermiculite from a nearby mine through Libby.

The clinic and its high-profile doctor, Brad Black, have been at the forefront of efforts to help residents of the town, which came to national prominence when it was declared a deadly Superfund site two decades ago.

The jury's finding leaves the clinic subject to additional penalties. Under the False Claims Act, the railway could be eligible for 15% to 25% of any amount recovered by the government.

CARD and its attorneys had denied it made false medical claims on behalf of patients, arguing its diagnoses were in line with requirements of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which included special provisions for the Libby victims.

"CARD was doing exactly what the law said," clinic attorney Tim Bechtold said earlier Wednesday during closing arguments that followed 11 days of testimony.

BNSF's lawsuit alleged CARD submitted more than 300 false claims on behalf of patients without getting outside confirmation that they had asbestos-related disease. The company also said 1,369 people received federal benefits with no disease diagnosis.

Dr. Black and the CARD clinic have certified more than 3,400 people with asbestos-related diseases, according to court documents.

Asbestos-related diseases can range from a thickening of a person's lung cavity, hampering breathing, to deadly cancer. Under the 2009 federal health law, victims of asbestos exposure in the Libby area are eligible for taxpayer-funded services including Medicare, housekeeping, travel to medical appointments and disability benefits for those who can't work.

Dr. Black is a pediatrician by specialty and has served as the Lincoln County Health Officer. He has previously said the ailments caused by the type of asbestos found in Libby are difficult to detect and can be missed by outside radiologists.

BNSF attorney Adam Duerk criticized Black's stated ability to perceive early signs of asbestosis disease that others missed.

"That's not the practice of medicine, that's the practice of roulette," Duerk said. "When you see it, when you're certain it's there, that's when you diagnose, not before."

Former Democratic U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, of Montana, helped craft the Libby provision in the health law. He said in depositions with attorneys that the clinic's practice of declaring some patients eligible for benefits without confirmation of their condition from a secondary source such as an X-ray was legitimate.

However, U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen barred Baucus's statements from the trial, saying it was the court's role to decide whether the law was followed.

At least 400 people have been killed by asbestos-related disease in the Libby area, according to health officials. Because of the long latency period for those diseases, symptoms can take decades to develop.

The tainted vermiculite came from a mine owned by the Maryland-based chemical company W.R. Grace. It polluted the Libby area over decades, including at a BNSF railway yard in the heart of the town of about 3,000 people.

Cleanup work began in 2000 after media reports of widespread health problems spurred a federal investigation. The EPA years later declared the agency's first public health emergency in the town. More than $600 million was spent to remove vermiculite from thousands of properties in Libby and surrounding communities.

Scientists say exposure to even a minuscule amount of asbestos can cause lung problems.

The case was sealed under court order for two years until the U.S. attorney's office of Montana declined to intervene. Officials have not given a reason.

Asbestos-tainted vermiculite was used as construction material in Libby and it remains inside many houses, where it was used as insulation. It was also shipped across the country by BNSF and installed in millions of homes.

Lawsuits against companies and officials over the contamination in Libby have resulted in large settlements and awards for victims.

More than 2,000 Montana residents reached settlements with the state totaling $68 million for failing to warn them about the dangers of asbestos exposure. In February 2022, a jury awarded an Oregon man $36.5 million in a lawsuit against W.R. Grace's insurer.

WAVERLY, Ohio —

Jurors in Pike County will begin deliberations Wednesday morning in George Wagner IV's murder trial.

The jury will return to the courtroom at 8:30 a.m. to begin deliberations.

Prosecutors spent the last two-and-a-half months trying to prove Wagner is guilty of murdering eight members of the Rhoden family in April 2016.

It's a verdict prosecutor Andy Wilson told jurors during closing arguments they can reach even if they don't believe Wagner pulled the trigger.

"If you're firmly convinced that he aided, abetted, assisted his family in these crimes, participated in these crimes, then he's guilty," Wilson said during closing arguments.

Defense attorney John Parker tried distancing Wagner from his brother, Jake Wagner, and mother, Angela Wagner. They both pleaded guilty in this case.

"Jake and Angela have destroyed this man's life," Parker said.

They both testified against George Wagner.

"They're liars. They're con artists. They're thieves," Parker said.

Parker said Jake and Angela Wagner took the stand solely for their own benefit and asked jurors to revisit their testimony.

"What about Jake when he was up here laughing and smiling and smirking as he's talking about these murders? He's cult-like. I think he's psychotic. He's a sick man. You can't believe what that guy says, and Angela's not a lot better" Parker said. "She sold her testimony. She's a con artist. She's a liar, and she pulled another one, because nothing she said about George can be verified. Nothing."

Wilson disagreed.

"Their statements and their testimony show that everybody in the family was acting under the same collective intent and that everybody participated in the murders and that everybody is guilty," Wilson said.

George Wagner was indicted on 22 counts including eight counts of aggravated murder.

Disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh was convicted of murder Thursday in the shooting deaths of his wife and son in a case that chronicled the unraveling of a powerful Southern family with tales of privilege, greed and addiction.The jury deliberated for less than three hours before finding Murdaugh guilty of two counts of murder at the end of a six-week trial that pulled back the curtain on the once-prominent lawyer’s fall from grace.Murdaugh, 54, faces 30 years to life in prison without parole. His sentencing has been scheduled for Friday morning.Through more than 75 witnesses and nearly 800 pieces of evidence, jurors heard about betrayed friends and clients, Murdaugh’s failed attempt to stage his own death in an insurance fraud scheme, a fatal boat crash in which his son was implicated, the housekeeper who died in a fall in the Murdaugh home, the grisly scene of the killings and Bubba, the chicken-snatching dog.In the end, Murdaugh’s fate appeared sealed by cellphone video taken by his son, who he called “Little Detective” for his knack for finding bottles of painkillers in his father’s belongings after the lawyer had sworn off the pills. Testimony culminated in Murdaugh’s appearance on the witness stand, when he admitted stealing millions from clients and lying to investigators about being at the dog kennels where the shootings took place but steadfastly maintained his innocence in the deaths of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh.“I did not kill Maggie, and I did not kill Paul. I would never hurt Maggie, and I would never hurt Paul — ever — under any circumstances,” Murdaugh said.Murdaugh’s 52-year-old wife was shot four or five times with a rifle and their 22-year-old son was shot twice with a shotgun at the kennels near at their rural Colleton County home on June 7, 2021.Prosecutors didn’t have the weapons used to kill the Murdaughs or other direct evidence like confessions or blood spatter. But they had a mountain of circumstantial evidence, led by a video locked on Paul Murdaugh’s cellphone for more than a year — video shot minutes before the killings that witnesses testified captured the voices of all three Murdaughs.Alex Murdaugh, 54, had told police repeatedly after the killings that he was not at the kennels and was instead napping before he went to visit his ailing mother that night. Murdaugh called 911 and said he discovered the bodies when he returned home.But in his testimony, Murdaugh admitted joining Maggie and Paul at the kennels, where he said he took a chicken away from a rowdy yellow Labrador named Bubba — whose name Murdaugh can be heard saying on the video — before heading back to the house shortly ahead of the fatal shootings.Murdaugh lied about being at the kennels for 20 months before taking the stand on the 23rd day of his trial. He blamed his decadeslong addiction to opioids for making him paranoid, creating a distrust of police. He said that once he went down that path, he felt trapped in the lie.“Oh, what a tangled web we weave. Once I told a lie — I told my family — I had to keep lying,” he testified.Prosecutor Creighton Waters grilled Murdaugh about what he repeatedly called the lawyer’s “new story” of what happened at the kennels, walking him moment by moment through the timeline and assailing his “fuzzy” memory of certain details, like his last words to his wife and son.A state agent also testified that markings on spent cartridges found around Maggie Murdaugh’s body matched markings on fired cartridges at a shooting range elsewhere on the property, though the defense said that kind of matching is an inexact science.Murdaugh comes from a family that dominated the local legal scene for decades. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather were the area’s elected prosecutors for more than 80 years and his family law firm grew to dozens of lawyers by suing railroads, corporations and other big businesses.The now-disbarred attorney admitted stealing millions of dollars from the family firm and clients, saying he needed the money to fund his drug habit. Before he was charged with murder, Murdaugh was in jail awaiting trial on about 100 other charges ranging from insurance fraud to tax evasion.Prosecutors told jurors that Murdaugh was afraid all of his misdeeds were about to be discovered, so he killed his wife and son to gain sympathy to buy time to cover his tracks.Murdaugh’s lawyers will almost certainly appeal the conviction based on the judge allowing evidence of the financial crimes, which they contend were unrelated to the killings and were used by prosecutors to smear Murdaugh’s reputation.

SAN JOSE, Calif —

Lawyers for opposing sides in the trial of former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes are expected to wrap up closing arguments Friday, paving the way for a jury to begin deliberations over criminal charges accusing her of turning her blood-testing startup into a massive scam.

The case revolving around Holmes' meteoric rise to become a self-made billionaire and ensuing downfall has captivated Silicon Valley for the past three months as the long-delayed trial unfolded.

That fixation intensified after Holmes made the risky decision to take the witness stand for seven days in front of the jurors who will determine her fate. The jurors, after attorneys wrap up closing arguments that began Thursday, will then be instructed by U.S. District Judge Edward Davila on how to proceed with deliberations.

Holmes, 37, faces 11 felony counts of fraud and conspiracy. If convicted, she could receive a sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison less than a year after giving birth to her first child.

Federal prosecutors have cast Holmes as a desperate con artist who brazenly lied to get rich. Attorneys representing Holmes say she was a well-meaning entrepreneur who never stopped trying to perfect Theranos' blood-testing technology and deliver on her pledge to improve health care.

The concept was so compelling, Theranos and Holmes were able to raise more than $900 million from billionaire investors such as media magnate Rupert Murdoch. The company struck partnerships with major retailers Walgreens and Safeway and Holmes quickly began to grace the covers of national magazines as a wunderkind.

Unknown to most people outside Theranos, the company's blood-testing technology was flawed, often producing inaccurate results that could have endangered the lives of patients who took the tests.

After the flaws were exposed in 2015 and 2016, Theranos eventually collapsed and the Justice Department filed its criminal case in 2018.

When they begin deliberations, jurors will consider the testimony of 32 witnesses and more than 900 exhibits submitted in a trial that has lasted more than 14 weeks. Besides Holmes, other prominent witnesses that have testified include former U.S. Defense Secretary Gen. James Mattis — a former Theranos board member — and former Safeway CEO Steve Burd, who was negotiating a deal with Holmes to bring Theranos' technology into its supermarkets.

Jury deliberations were scheduled to resume for a second day Wednesday in the trial of three white men charged with chasing and killing Ahmaud Arbery after the 25-year-old Black man was spotted running in their coastal Georgia neighborhood.

The disproportionately white jury received the case around midday Tuesday and spent about six hours deliberating before adjourning without a verdict in the trial of father and son Greg and Travis McMichael and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan.

Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley told jurors to reconvene at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

The McMichaels told police they suspected Arbery was a fleeing burglar when they armed themselves and jumped in a pickup truck to chase him on Feb. 23, 2020. Bryan joined the pursuit when they passed his house and recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael blasting Arbery at close range with a shotgun as Arbery threw punches and grabbed for the weapon.

Arbery’s killing became part of a larger national reckoning on racial injustice after the graphic video of his death leaked online two months later and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case, quickly arresting the three men. Each of them is charged with murder and other crimes.

Defense attorneys contend the McMichaels were attempting a legal citizen’s arrest when they set off after Arbery, seeking to detain and question him as a suspected burglar after he was seen running from a nearby home under construction.

Travis McMichael testified that he shot Arbery in self-defense, saying the running man turned and attacked with his fists while running past the idling truck where Travis McMichael stood with his shotgun.

Prosecutors said there was no evidence Arbery had committed crimes in the defendants’ neighborhood. He had enrolled at a technical college and was preparing at the time to study to become an electrician like his uncles.

Dozens of community activists and shooting victims' families gathered to promote healing and change in Kenosha following the Kyle Rittenhouse trial."What we're here today for is a very simple call. We want to reimagine what our community looks like," said activist Kyle Johnson. “We need to heal, and when we say heal we don’t mean going back to the status quo, because we saw where that got us, we mean improving.” Johnson and other community members said the Rittenhouse verdict should be a new beginning for change."We start a new chapter here in Kenosha," said Kyle Flood, a former school board member and activist. "A chapter where we start to reimagine what Kenosha looks like. We reimagine a demilitarized police where people never have to start a riot."They said they hope to improve the criminal justice system, schooling, housing and other issues in Kenosha."I just want the city of Kenosha to understand ... that nobody here is ever going to stop. No one here is going to stop attempting to expose the flaws in the system," said Hannah Gittings, the girlfriend of Anthony Huber who was shot and killed by Rittenhouse during the 2020 unrest."I miss Anthony every single day," she tearfully said. "I wish I could come home to him to unload, but I can't because he's dead. And now the system is telling me no one needs to answer to that, and I have a problem with that."She said all the community can do now is move forward.

KENOSHA, Wis. — Hannah Gittings and her boyfriend, Anthony Huber, were in Kenosha protesting the police shooting of Jacob Blake on Aug. 25, 2020. That night, Huber was shot and killed.

Gittings is now back in Kenosha awaiting a verdict in the trial of the man who pulled the trigger, 18-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse.

Tuesday saw tense moments outside of the Kenosha County Courthouse. For Gittings, it brings back feelings of when she last saw her boyfriend.

"It's been more dramatic than I thought it was going to be. We all knew the trial was coming, obviously," Gittings said.

Rittenhouse's defense team says Huber attacked Rittenhouse with a skateboard, and Rittenhouse killed Huber in self-defense. The prosecution and Gittings said Huber was trying to disarm Rittenhouse.

Gittings said she expected Huber's actions to be more of a focus during the trial.

TMJ4

"I just feel he was so underrepresented in this trial and I don't think that's fair, because what he did was assess an active-shooter situation, and he was just that type of man," Gittings said. "If he could've gotten that gun away, he would've held on to it. I don't think he would've thrown it. But clearly his main goal was to just stop this kid from doing what he just done, which was murdering Joseph Rosenbaum."

Rittenhouse faces charges of first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety and failure to comply with an emergency order. He faces life in prison if convicted of the intentional homicide count.

This story was originally published by Tony Atkins on Scripps station TMJ4 in Milwaukee.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A grand jury will not seek charges against officers shown on body camera video holding Daniel Prude down naked and handcuffed on a city street last winter until he stopped breathing.

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the decision Tuesday. She added that many will be “rightfully” disappointed, but said they must respect the decision.

“Daniel Prude was in the throes of a mental health crisis and what he needed was compassion, care, and help from trained professionals. Tragically, he received none of those things,” said James. “We concluded that there was sufficient evidence surrounding Mr. Prude’s death to warrant presenting the case to a grand jury, and we presented the most comprehensive case possible. While I know that the Prude family, the Rochester community, and communities across the country will rightfully be devastated and disappointed, we have to respect this decision.”

The 41-year-old Black man’s death last March sparked nightly protests in Rochester, New York, after the video was released nearly six months later.

The video made public on Sept. 4 shows Prude handcuffed and naked with a spit hood over his head as an officer pushes his face against the ground. Lawyers for the seven police officers suspended over Prude’s death have said they were strictly following their training.

The county medical examiner listed the manner of death as a homicide.

While the grand jury voted not to indict any officers, James says “serious concerns” remain regarding the actions of the Rochester Police Department.

“The current laws on deadly force have created a system that utterly and abjectly failed Mr. Prude and so many others before him. Serious reform is needed, not only at the Rochester Police Department, but to our criminal justice system as a whole,” said James. “I will be pursuing a multifaceted approach to address the very issues that have prevented us from holding officers accountable when they improperly use deadly force.”

The AG has issued a number of recommendations to address said concerns, specifically when handling mental health crises:

1. James says officers, dispatchers and EMS personnel must be trained to recognize the symptoms of excited delirium syndrome and to respond to it as a serious medical emergency.
2. She says all communities should assess models for responding to crisis situations that minimize or eliminate police responses to mental health calls whenever possible.
3. The AG believe New York should mandate de-escalation training for all officers, and police agencies should reflect a commitment to de-escalation in their use of force policies.
4. She says the City of Rochester should adopt a body worn camera release policy regarding critical incidents.
5. And lastly, James says law enforcement agencies should explore the use of spit sock alternatives.

MINNEAPOLIS —

Warning: This live video may contain violent and/or disturbing images. Viewer discretion is advised.

A former Minneapolis police officer went on trial Monday in the death of George Floyd, which sparked outrage across the U.S. and beyond after bystander video showed Derek Chauvin press his knee on Floyd’s neck for about nine minutes as the Black man went limp.

The judge began by instructing the jury about its duties and about courtroom procedures ahead of opening statements.

A jury of 14 people will hear the case — eight who are white and six who are Black or multiracial, according to the court. Two of the 14 will be alternates. The judge has not said which ones will be alternates and which ones will deliberate the case.

Legal experts said they expected prosecutors to play the video to the jury early on.

"If you’re a prosecutor you want to start off strong. You want to frame the argument — and nothing frames the argument in this case as much as that video," said Jeffrey Cramer, a former federal prosecutor and managing director of Berkeley Research Group in Chicago.

Floyd, 46, was declared dead after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for about nine minutes. He held his position even as Floyd's "I can't breathe" cries faded and he went limp as he was handcuffed and lying on his stomach on the pavement. Chauvin, 45, is charged with unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter.

Almost all of the jurors selected during more than two weeks of questioning said they had seen at least parts of the video, and several acknowledged it gave them at least a somewhat negative view of Chauvin. But they said they could set that aside.

Outside the courthouse Monday ahead of opening statements, Floyd family attorney Ben Crump said the trial would be a test of "whether America is going to live up to the Declaration of Independence." And he blasted the idea that it would be a tough test for jurors.

"For all those people that continue to say that this is such a difficult trial, that this is a hard trial, we refute that," he said. "We know that if George Floyd was a white American citizen, and he suffered this painful, tortuous death with a police officer’s knee on his neck, nobody, nobody, would be saying this is a hard case."

The trial is expected to last about four weeks at the courthouse in downtown Minneapolis, which has been fortified with concrete barriers, fencing, and barbed and razor wire. City and state leaders are determined to prevent a repeat of damaging riots that followed Floyd’s death, and National Guard troops have already been mobilized.

The key questions at trial will be whether Chauvin caused Floyd’s death and whether his actions were reasonable.

For the unintentional second-degree murder charge, prosecutors have to prove Chauvin’s conduct was a "substantial causal factor" in Floyd’s death, and that Chauvin was committing felony assault at the time. For third-degree murder, they must prove that Chauvin’s actions caused Floyd’s death, and were reckless and without regard for human life. The manslaughter charge requires proof that Chauvin caused Floyd’s death through negligence that created an unreasonable risk.

Unintentional second-degree murder is punishable by up to 40 years in prison in Minnesota, with up to 25 years for third-degree murder, but sentencing guidelines suggest that Chauvin would face 12 1/2 years in prison if convicted on either charge. Manslaughter has a maximum 10-year sentence.

Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, was expected to use his opening statement tell jurors that medical testimony and use of force experts will show a different view. Nelson has made clear that the defense will make an issue of Floyd swallowing drugs before his arrest, seeking to convince the jury that he was at least partially responsible for his death.

The county medical examiner's autopsy noted fentanyl and methamphetamine in Floyd's system, but listed his cause of death as "cardiopulmonary arrest, complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression."

"This case to us is a slam dunk, because we know the video is the proof, it's all you need," Floyd's brother Philonise said Monday on NBC's "Today" show. "The guy was kneeling on my brother’s neck ... a guy who was sworn in to protect. He killed my brother in broad daylight. That was a modern-day lynching."

MINNEAPOLIS —

A Minneapolis police supervisory sergeant who was on duty the night George Floyd died testified that he believes the officers who restrained Floyd could have ended it after he stopped resisting.

David Pleoger testified Thursday at the trial of since-fired officer Derek Chauvin, who is charged with murder and manslaughter in Floyd's death. He noted that officers are trained to roll people on their side to help with their breathing after they have been restrained in the prone position.

“When Mr. Floyd was no longer offering up any resistance to the officers, they could have ended the restraint,” Pleoger said.

“And that was after he was handcuffed and on the ground and no longer resistant?” prosecutor Steve Schleicher asked.

“Correct,” replied Ploeger, now retired.

Chauvin, 45 and white, is accused of killing Floyd by pinning his knee on the 46-year-old Black man’s neck for 9 minutes, 29 seconds, as he lay face-down in handcuffs. Floyd had been accused of passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a neighborhood market.

His death triggered large protests around the U.S., scattered violence and widespread soul-searching over racism and police brutality. The most serious charge against Chauvin carries up to 40 years in prison.

Thursday's testimony began with Floyd’s girlfriend tearfully telling the jury how they met in 2017 — at a Salvation Army shelter where he was a security guard with “this great, deep Southern voice, raspy” — and how they both struggled with an addiction to painkillers.

“Our story, it’s a classic story of how many people get addicted to opioids. We both suffered from chronic pain. Mine was in my neck and his was in his back,” 45-year-old Courteney Ross said.

She said they “tried really hard to break that addiction many times.”

Prosecutors put Ross on the stand in an effort to humanize Floyd in front of the jury and portray him as more than a crime statistic, and also explain his drug use.

The defense has argued that Chauvin did what he was trained to do when he encountered Floyd last May and that Floyd’s death was caused by drugs, his underlying health conditions and his own adrenaline. An autopsy found fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system.

Ross said she and Floyd struggled with addiction throughout their relationship — testimony that could help prosecutors blunt the argument that drugs killed Floyd. Medical experts have said that while the level of fentanyl in his system could be fatal, people who use the drug regularly can develop a tolerance.

Ross said they both had prescriptions, and when those ran out, they took the prescriptions of others and used illegal drugs.

”Addiction, in my opinion, is a lifelong struggle. ... It’s not something that just kind of comes and goes. It’s something I’ll deal with forever,” she said.

In March 2020, Ross drove Floyd to the emergency room because he was in extreme stomach pain, and she learned he had overdosed. In the months that followed, Ross said, she and Floyd spent a lot of time together during the coronavirus quarantine, and Floyd was clean.

But she suspected he began using again about two weeks before his death because his behavior changed: She said there would be times when he would be up and bouncing around, and other times when he would be unintelligible.

Chauvin attorney Eric Nelson drove hard at Floyd’s drug use in cross-examining Ross, asking questions aimed at showing the danger of overdose and death.

Under questioning from Nelson, Ross also disclosed that Floyd’s pet name for her in his phone was “Mama” — testimony that called into question the widely reported account that Floyd was crying out for his mother as he lay pinned to the pavement.

Also Thursday, a paramedic who arrived on the scene that day testified that the first call was a Code 2, for someone with a mouth injury, but it was upgraded a minute and a half later to Code 3 — a life-threatening incident that led them to turn on the lights and siren.

Seth Bravinder said he saw no signs that Floyd was breathing or moving, and it appeared he was in cardiac arrest. A second paramedic, Derek Smith, testified that he checked for a pulse and couldn't detect one: “In layman’s terms? I thought he was dead.”

Bravinder said they loaded Floyd into the ambulance so he could get care “in an optimum environment,” but also because bystanders “appeared very upset on the sidewalk,” and there was some yelling. “In my mind at least, we wanted to get away from that,” he said.

Chauvin's lawyer has argued that the police on the scene were distracted by what they perceived as a growing and increasingly hostile crowd. Video showed around 15 onlookers near where Floyd lay.

Bravinder said after he drove the ambulance three blocks and jumped in back to help his partner, a monitor showed Floyd's heart was not beating. He said they were never able to restore a pulse.

On cross-examination, Chauvin’s lawyer questioned why the ambulance did not go straight to the hospital, and he pressed Smith on Floyd’s condition as he lay on the pavement. The paramedic expressed himself in blunt terms, saying Floyd was “dead” or “deceased.”

Ross began her testimony by telling how she and Floyd met at a shelter where Floyd was a security guard.

“May I tell the story?” she asked. “It’s one of my favorite stories to tell.”

She said she had gone to the shelter because her sons’ father was staying there. But she got upset that day because the father was not coming to the lobby to discuss their son’s birthday. Floyd came over to check on her.

“Floyd has this great, deep Southern voice, raspy,” Ross recalled. “And he’s like, ‘Sis, you OK, sis?’ And I wasn’t OK. I was like, ‘No, I’m just waiting for my sons’ father.’ He said, ‘Can I pray with you?’”

“This kind person, just to come up to me and say, ‘Can I pray with you?’ when I felt alone in this lobby, it was so sweet,” she said.

Minnesota is a rarity in explicitly permitting such “spark of life” testimony about a crime victim at trial. Defense attorneys often contend such testimony allows prosecutors to play on jurors’ emotions.