zeroing in on george floyd's alleged drug use the attorney, erik nelson, had his toughest questioning yet on an expert witness. our jay gray has the major developments from minneapolis. >> reporter: a week and a half in, there are two clear elements both at the center of testimony. >> is that right >> yes >> reporter: a los angeles police officer telling the jury derek chauvin violated police policy and abused his power the day george floyd died. >> my opinion was that no force should have been used once he was in that position. >> thank you for being here. >> reporter: the defense arguing conditions on the ground, including a gathering hostile crowd and the demeanor of the suspect ultimately give an officer the ability to determine how much force is necessary. >> it may be caught on video and it looks bad. >> yes. >> but it's still lawful >> yes, based on that didn't's policies or based on that state's law. >> reporter: a corner stone of chauvin's defense is that heart disease and drug use led to floyd's death. using audio, chauvin's attorney says he acknowledges using drugs. >> did

her question but both eric nelson for the defense and steve sly her for the prosecution certainly erik nelson from the fence very much. focusing on the impact that the crowd that was around george floyd and the policemen who were restraining him the impact that that might have had on anyone who would have gone to assist george floyd. and really this was indicative of what we've seen throughout the day because the use of force and how police officers should try to deescalate crisis situations is really been the focus of this 7th day of evidence in the trial of former minneapolis police officer derek show than he is of course accused of the murder of george floyd a black man whose death last may start months of protests demanding racial equality and then end to police brutality so again today tuesday expert witnesses outlined to the forces procedures including the fact that all minneapolis police officers were trained in dealing with a crisis children's defense team has previously argued that the circumstances surrounding floyd's death were extraordinary and crucially especially when we think o

it is routinely trained in the use by the minneapolis police the park defense lawyer erik nelson blamed bystanders for chauvinist failure to administer life saving c.p.r. saying he felt unsafe and hoping to give jurors enough reasonable doubt for an acquittal he on. a broad array of alternative theories for floyd's death heart trouble drugs even car exhaust we have to analyze this case from the perspective of a reasonable police officer at the precise moment with the talent of the circumstances when it comes to the use of force. now lies in the hands of the jury which is in isolation until they can render a unanimous verdict one reason for sequestering them is to make sure they don't hear news of protesters demanding show vns conviction but with demonstrations across the country it's not clear they won't be able to hear protests from where they're deliberating. 'd deliberations can range dramatically in length in 1902 it took 7 days for jurors in the police beating of rodney king to find 4 officers not guilty 3 years later jurors took less than 4 hours to declare o.j. simpson not guilty

carted his lifeless body off it was powerful prosecution now we're going to hear the defense from erik nelson he is the defense attorney who was on the prosecutors have been switching off to one of the other he's been the one guy up there arguing for the defense after that we expect to have a redirect by yet another prosecutor that is jerry blackwell but this was a pretty long in the thought of cold and powerful recitation of the prosecution's case. they obviously have the road sort of experiences understanding of how the cold system works within the respective countries in the united states. we saw it's not just pull testimony you might say it's given in these instances but visual aids as well how you've covered many trials similar to this all of the same sort of see how unusual did you find the proceedings yourself. i thought they did a pretty effective job of just using enough information in order to help the jury summarize in their favor you had. some visual age tape a certain point in order to show things like. grinding his on george floyd neck and and forgive me so hell if you're hearin

this expert he was literally using his fingers to try to draw a breath and in cross-examination erik nelson has been very effective in taking apart some of these witnesses but he really didn't lay a glove on this witness in this case has really taken its toll on him as well this is the defense lawyer for derek chauvet he was losing his voice in a break he went out and bought lozenges to try to continue the case but what we are in right now is pretty much the end of the prosecution portion of the case he's still got some more expert witnesses to go but it was a banner day for them and all of their experts basically centered around this idea that george floyd was killed directly by the pressure on the airport on his air pipe by derek chauvet and john you mentioned today is day 9 of testimony how long will we expect in the trial to last and when we're not going to have that date. well if we keep to the judge's original schedule this will be a 4 week long trial ending before the end of april so he's essentially lauded 2 weeks for the prosecution 2 for the defense tomorrow friday would be the 10

out of george floyd so the testimony was really devastating for the defense of the defense lawyer erik nelson has been very effective at cross examinations of each of the prosecution witnesses but in this case he could not out expert the expert and then you had another couple of experts there was dr william smock who testified that fentanyl did not play a role that's important because the defense theory of the case is that the drugs found in george floyd system fentanyl and opioid and methamphetamine contributed to his death that he possibly had an overdose well this expert was having none of that he went down like 15 items he said which demonstrated that in no case was george floyd showing any evidence of having an overdose and then we had dr daniel eyes in charlotte who went through the drugs that were found in george floyd system and he said the amount of methamphetamine was about the equivalent of one prescribe dose he said that was very little the amount of fentanyl he said was it was less than the average amount found in someone who had it in their system during driving under the influe

being cross-examined by the defense lawyer erik nelson there as you heard the judge saying that proceedings are going to pause while there is a quick 20 minute break obviously that will resume very shortly but really the important points we heard earlier on were made in the examination by the prosecuting attorney who questioned the police chief madonna. who of course fired derrick chauvin after the death of george foid he was being questioned and asked for his assessment on the use of force specifically by a police officer and he referred to the minneapolis police department's our own manual their own instructions on this matter which is very important he focused at one point on. on the use of restraints and chief confirmed that it shouldn't be used against someone who is passively resisting he said that the treatment of george floyd specifically the neck restraint was a violation of the department's own policy. important he said this while looking at an image of the facial expression on george floyd's face as he was being held down on the street by show than he was pressing his knee into h

he just didn't do better after nearly two hours, the defense took the floor lawyer erik nelson reminded the jury they must first consider the defendant innocents and then determine if he is proven guilty. but take the time. to carefully read the entire instructions. nelson urged the jury to consider what a reasonable police officer would do. the standard is not what should the officer have done in these circumstances? it's not. what could the officer have done differently in these sites? circumstances the standard is. what were the facts that were known to this officer at the precise moment he used force, he says, in this case show, vin relied on his training to make decisions arguing, considering floyd size and resistance to arrest. shoven did what any officer wood distraction techniques controlled takedowns conscious neck restraints. these air options available to mr show vin at this point. he has per his training. these techniques at his disposal. i'm james torres, ktvu, fox two news and the prosecution is expected to have a rebuttal this afternoon. the jury should be handed the case

year old man from concord was convicted today of killing his pregnant girlfriend back in 2016 erik lamar nelson is facing the possibility of life in prison after a jury convicted him of beating point set a gap parks to death with a rock. the 25 year old woman's body was found in a duck pond in newhall park in concord, nelson was. arrested after fleeing torino. still ahead, the sonoma county district attorney is calling pg any reckless and is now hitting the utility with criminal charges stemming from the 2019 kincaid fire lost more than 20 years after the navy left the concord naval weapons station is finally going to be developed, will tell you what the city plans to do with a chunk of that land coming up lots of sunshine. today, temperatures did warm up just a little bit, but by tomorrow they're gonna drop down a few degrees and then a warm up we'll go looking for rain is well. the the sea. oa sewage leak into the bay. the mercury news reports that the spill happened last july. ah pipeline broke spilling more than 292,000 of partially treated sewage near moffett field. the city says that pipe

. >> erik nelson told the jury that derek chauvin did exactly what his training had taught him to dobut bringing in the police chief to rebut that argument. >> that is not part of our policy. that is not what we teach. once mr. floyd had stopped resisting, and certainly once he was in distress and trying to verbalize that, that should have stopped. it is not part of our training and it is certainly not part of our ethics or our values. >> we don't often see chiefs of police testifying against their own. we don't often see a police chief getting up there and saying, my officer in high stress situation didn't do the right thing. that is huge for the prosecution. >> so, the prosecution says, believe your eyes. the defense says, consider this other scientific evidence. and at the end of the day, the defense doesn't have to convince everybody. >> if even one juror thinks, well, maybe there's a reasonable doubt about that, they've won. >> as the defense is preparing to present its case, just 10 miles away, there is another incident, again with a white police officer, unarmed african-americ