Video Transcript

it was in another emotional day in the George Floyd murder trial reliving the moments leading up to his death that’s witness Charles McMillan breaking down on the stand after watching police body cam video of the moments leading up to Floyd’s death McMillan was the first person to watch the interaction between Floyd and the police he testified today that he had met officer Chauvin days before he saw him kneeling on George Floyd’s neck i think i said to him five days ago i told you the other day go home to your pam to say that the next place you’re gonna make them to say but the dead guy looked at you as a maggot in later video McMillan could be heard telling Chauvin what happened was wrong joining us now is nbc legal analyst Enrique L1 Latoison Enrique our viewers just heard that emotional testimony from a witness Charles McMillan but the defense chose not to cross examine him why do you think that is well you know as defense attorneys as all attorneys we like to talk but sometimes you just you stuff that came out when the evidence that came out was helpful and there’s no reason to cross-examine so what was very helpful for the defense is that Chauvin’s testimony actually came out in that one witness’s testimony where you hear Chauvin say that i had to you know we had to subdue him he was a big guy he was under the influence and basically what happened was he was able to basically testify through this witness which i believe was helpful for the defense also the other part of the testimony was kind of the same kind of testimony that took place during the first two days so the defense decided that there was nothing else to talk about and they did not do a cross-examination and we saw McMillan breaking down on the stand as he watched the body cam video there was that right the judge then called for a break now if you were Derek Chauvin’s defense attorney would you be worried at all about the impact of that raw emotion on the jury well you of course you would counsel your client you would tell them like listen you know the prosecution goes first so of course all these things are going to come out but the defense is going to get their opportunity and they go second also there’s been the same type of emotional testimony over the last couple days i believe maybe the effectiveness the third day in might not be as effective as the first day and where you saw witnesses crying and at this point the defense is eventually going to get their opportunity to cross-examine and to put their case on and he’s just going to have to be patient many times on the video we heard the officers asking George Floyd if he was on something or under the influence does this set the stage for what may be a showdown of medical experts later in the trial i believe it does and i also believe the prosecution showed evidence today some bad evidence to maybe just to kind of get that out of the way which was they showed George Floyd inside of the market where he was purchasing uh you made that purchase you can kind of see how he was acting you kind of see he’s under the influence and i believe that what they were looking to do there was just kind of show this and get this over with you can see throughout the testimony today in the body camp video that clearly George Floyd is under the influence this is no longer a question it’s not upward debate it is what it is and i think eventually the defense is going to be using that in their case in chief as they say this is why they had to subdue him this is why they had to do what they needed to do in order to take him into custody NBC legal analyst Enrique L1 Latoison thank you for your insight on this day three of the Derek Chauvin murder trial