Minneapolis -Judge Peter Cahill threatened to call a mistrial in Minnesota’s case against former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin Wednesday after prosecutors tried to introduce additional evidence last-minute. The Daily Wire reported that the prosecution called Dr. Martin Tobin to testify a second time in the trial as a rebuttal witness to Dr. David Fowler. Fowler served as a defense expert that claimed carbon monoxide from a nearby police vehicle potentially played a role in the death of George Floyd.
Tobin testified earlier in the week that Floyd’s blood was 98% saturated with oxygen, blowing up the prosecution’s argument that a lack of oxygen due to asphyxiation caused the death of Floyd.
Cahill shot down the prosecution’s attempt to introduce the test results as evidence last-minute after an objection from Chauvin’s defense attorney, Eric Nelson. Nelson said prosecutors have known for weeks that Fowler had intended to bring up potential complications concerning carbon monoxide and should have sought to include the tests, conducted during Floyd’s autopsy, earlier.
Cahill agreed with Nelson, saying that if Tobin “even hints at test results the jury has not heard about, it’s gonna be a mistrial, pure and simple.”
“This late disclosure is not the way we should be operating here,” Cahill said.
