George Floyd’s Key Witness and longtime friend refuses to testify in Court
A key state witness has refused to testify in Derek Chauvin’s murder trial, DailyMail.com can reveal.
Morries Lester Hall, 42, was in the car with George Floyd, 46, on the day of his death.
He has spoken publicly in the months since the incident outside Cup Foods and has consistently claimed that Floyd did not resist arrest and that he himself attempted to diffuse the situation.
But in a surprise move Hall, who is on the State’s witness list, filed a motion with Hennepin County District Court late Wednesday evening in which he gave notice that he would plead the Fifth if called upon to testify by either side.
Hall’s decision came at the end of the third day in Chauvin’s trial, which saw the jurors shown previously-unseen footage of Chauvin with his hands around Floyd’s neck, trying to wrestle him into a patrol car.
The legal document filed by Hennepin County Public Defender and seen by DailyMail.com states: ‘Mr Morries Lester Hall…hereby provides notice to all parties in this matter that if called to testify he will invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.’
Hall, like Floyd, is a Houston native and the two men connected with each other in Minneapolis through a pastor.
According to an interview with The New York Times he and Floyd had been in touch every day since 2016 and he considered the older man a ‘confidant and mentor.’
In that same interview Hall himself boasted: ‘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.’
Yet despite his claims, Hall was far from co-operative at the outset of the investigation into Floyd’s death.
He had outstanding warrants for his arrest on felony possession of a firearm, felony domestic assault and felony drug possession at the time of Floyd’s death.
He gave a false name at the time, and then left the city two days after Floyd died, and hitch-hiked to Houston, The New York Times reported.
Agents of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension attempted to contact Hall numerous times to no avail.
He was tracked down to Houston and arrested, spending a night in jail following questioning.
Chauvin is standing trial on three counts: second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
If convicted on the most serious count he could face up to 40 years in prison. If convicted on the lesser charge he could be free within as little as five years.
Prosecutors expect to take between two and two and a half weeks to mount their case against him and have so far rattled through numerous, often emotional, witnesses in their bid to see Chauvin convicted.
