Info Magzine: George Floyd girlfriend Courteney Ross describes relationship in trial

George Floyd’s girlfriend broke down in tears on the witness stand Thursday as she gave jurors an intimate glimpse on the “mama’s boy,” novice athlete, restaurant lover and struggling drug person whose dying prompted nationwide protests towards police brutality final summer time.

Courteney Ross mentioned she had a relationship with Floyd for about three years after they met in Minneapolis in August 2017.

“It’s one of my favorite stories,” she mentioned, rising emotional and stifling tears as she recounted the romantic starting.

Ross was among the prosecution witnesses who testified Thursday in the trial of Derek Chauvin, a white, former Minneapolis police officer. He is charged with second-degree homicide, third-degree homicide and second-degree manslaughter in the dying of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man.

Ross was the thirteenth witness to testify, however the first to element Floyd’s life past the day he died.

Floyd was devastated by his mom’s dying

The day they met, Ross had gotten off work on the espresso store the place she has labored part-time for 22 years. She went to see her son’s father, who had fallen on onerous occasions and was staying on the Salvation Army Harbor Light Center shelter for the homeless, the place Floyd labored as a safety guard.

“Floyd came up to me. Floyd had this great, deep Southern voice, raspy. ‘You OK, Sis?’ he said. I wasn’t OK. He said, ‘Can I pray with you?'” mentioned Ross, 45. “We’d been through so much, my sons and I. And this kind person asks if he can pray with me. It was so sweet. … We had our first kiss in the lobby.”

In early 2020, the 2 separated for some time, Ross mentioned. But from March to early May, they have been collectively every single day. She described visits to a sculpture backyard, eating places and different locations with Floyd. She choked again tears, then chuckled after being proven a photograph that he’d apparently taken himself. She known as it a “dad selfie.”

Ross mentioned Floyd was “devastated” after his mom died in May 2018.

“Floyd is what I would call a mama’s boy. I could tell, from the minute I met him,” Ross mentioned. When he returned from his mom’s funeral in one other state, “he seemed like a shell of himself, like he was broken.”

Ross mentioned Floyd saved her quantity in his cellular phone as “mama.” Asked by prosecutor Matthew Frank whether or not Floyd additionally referred to his mom that means, Ross mentioned: “He called her mama, too,” however in a special means.

Floyd cried out “mama” greater than 20 occasions as law enforcement officials struggled to subdue him and as he lay on the bottom with Chauvin and three different officers holding him down, in accordance with recordings performed in the course of the trial.

One of the Black males on the jury appeared to develop into emotional behind a face masks throughout components of Ross’ testimony.

Both struggled with drug addition

Floyd was normally very lively, Ross mentioned, and labored out every single day.

“He lifted weights that were far beyond anything I could lift. He did sit-ups, push ups … he would do anything physical,” she mentioned. “Floyd loved playing sports with anyone who wanted to, including neighborhood kids. He’s that person who’d just run to the store.”

He by no means complained about shortness of breath, she mentioned.

Guilt, remorse, helplessness:Watching George Floyd die had a ‘profound’ impact on witnesses

Ross acknowledged that drug use was a part of their relationship. The couple generally break up up for a interval however at all times received again collectively, she mentioned.

“Floyd and I both suffered from opiate addiction,” she mentioned. “We both suffered from chronic pain. Mine was in my neck. His was in his back. We both had prescriptions. After prescriptions were filled, we got addicted, and we both tried, very hard, to break the addictions, many times.”

On cross-examination by lead protection legal professional Eric Nelson, Ross acknowledged that she and Floyd had ups and downs throughout which one among them generally used medication however the different did not.

Many of the medication have been opiates, extremely addictive medicines obtained via prescriptions of their very own or purchased from others who had gotten prescriptions, mentioned Ross.

“Addiction, in my opinion, is a lifelong struggle” that continues every single day, she mentioned. “It’s not something that comes and goes.”

Defense focuses on Floyd’s drug use

Nelson requested Ross a few time in March 2020 when Floyd required hospitalization. She mentioned she went to Floyd’s home to select him up, however “his stomach really hurt” and he was “doubled over in pain.”

She took Floyd to the hospital and later realized he had overdosed. Ross testified that she did not know at the moment that Floyd had taken heroin or any medication aside from opiates.

Nelson turned his questioning to Maurice Hall, who was in a automobile with Floyd when Minneapolis law enforcement officials first approached his automotive on Memorial Day. Ross mentioned she “didn’t like Maurice very much.” She acknowledged that she instructed FBI investigators that Floyd had purchased narcotics from Hall, however in courtroom she mentioned she “did not see it with my own eyes.”

“Do you recall telling the FBI (that Floyd’s hospital stay for an overdose) was from heroin?” Nelson requested. “I was speculating,” Ross replied.

However, Ross additionally testified that she and Floyd had taken different medication in addition to opiates. Those capsules regarded completely different from the others they took, made her really feel jittery, and stored her from sleeping properly.

Ross mentioned she was in a automotive at a lodge whereas Floyd purchased capsules per week earlier than his dying. She mentioned she was on the telephone with him and thought she heard Hall’s voice in the background. She testified that she solely realized afterward that Floyd was with Hall the day Floyd died.

During re-questioning, Frank tried to point out that Floyd had not been in quick hazard of dying from the medication he’d taken in the weeks earlier than his dying.

“He had a lot of energy,” Ross mentioned. “He was playing football, eating, hanging out.”

Her final phrases with Floyd got here throughout a telephone name the day earlier than he died. “He said he was going to be staying at Sylvia’s.” She was a mutual pal he knew from the Salvation Army shelter.

Contributing: Eric Ferkenhoff, Tami Abdollah, N’dea Yancey-Bragg