DOPEY or DROWSY? There's a difference!
Shawanda Hill gave the Prosecution a fabulous, yet missed, opportunity this morning. She said she was in GF's car with him and on her phone when GF fell asleep. This was AFTER he'd told her that he'd worked all night and, as a result, was very tired.
Ever sit in a car when you're tired? If you're not driving, you can fall asleep rather quickly during the drive. Same effect occurs on public buses and trains as they move along. The movement is a lulling sensation (to some) that helps one fall asleep more easily. Parents know that a drive around the block can easily calm a cranky, sleepless baby, causing them to fall asleep rather quickly, and knowing this, parents will load their infant into a car and drive them around until s/he falls asleep (the baby, not the parent!).
Now, the chair one is in doesn't have to be in a moving vehicle. As we all know, a person can fall asleep just sitting in a stationary room chair. Jurors do it all the time! So here's a guy who's finished a night shift, maybe played some basketball afterward (the sun was out by then), stopped on the way home to get some smokes, and he runs into an ex-girlfriend who testifies that GF was "happy, normal, talking, alert". Then they get into his car and she takes a phone call soon afterward. GF has nothing to do but wait... wait until she's done with her call, wait until they decide if they're going to grab lunch or do something, or do nothing. Shawanda said they'd been talking about what they were going to do and during this conversation, her phone rang and she took the call. So what does a tired, seated GF do? He nods off. Big deal!
Ever see a tired person nod off before? They go deep! If a person is extremely tired, they can nod off quickly - and by quickly, I do not mean that some hypnotist snaps their fingers and the person is out, but that; because they have nothing holding their attention at the moment, their eyes will close, their body will relax, and then... zzzzz. The body NEEDS sleep and it will take it when opportunity presents itself. A Sleep Specialist can discuss natural sleep cycles and the various Sleep Phases we experience, as well as explain factors that can affect a person's biological sleep (circadian) rhythms. Some factors can dramatically change both the duration and the experience of the Sleep Phases. One factor that can interfere with deep restorative sleep is: working nights.
So there's GF nodding off while Shawanda's yapping on her phone and her impression is that he fell asleep quickly. Is she a Sleep Expert? Exactly how long did it take GF to nod off, and exactly how long is it considered normal for someone who's tired to nod off when just sitting around doing nothing?
Check her phone records. How long was she on that call? Time seems to go faster when you're involved in something and not paying attention to time itself. Was she chatting for more than three minutes, because that's about all it takes for me to nod off when I'm exhausted/sleep-deprived and sitting in front of a TV. Less if I'm listening to Nelson, who asked Shawanda Hill if she continued "to try to awaken Mr. Floyd?" to which she replied: "Yes. I tried a couple times. Then, you know, I just let it go for a minute because I was back on the phone." Okay...
1) Regarding trying, twice, to wake GF, she should have been asked what she did specifically in an effort to do this. Did she yell and scream at him? Did she shake him vigorously or just nudge him, if she touched him at all? Did she pour water on his face?
2) She obviously wasn't that concerned that her second attempt, whatever that may have been (Stating his name a second time?) was ineffective. She didn't tell whomever she was talking with that she had to excuse herself from their conversation and call 911 because GF fell asleep so quickly that she thinks he may need medical attention, as he is now unresponsive. Nope! She shrugged it off and went back to yapping on the phone. Also, she was his ex-girlfriend. Perhaps she’d seen him nod off on other occasions and knew he could be a deep sleeper when very tired.
When asked by the Prosecution if she was able to wake him, Hill confirmed so with one word ("Yes.") that she WAS able to wake him, and also confirmed that she was able to talk to him, then added that he "wasn't that coherent" to which she was reminded by the Prosecution: "He was just waking." That's called grogginess. She should try talking to me after I wake up from a nap. I'm marble-mouthed, groggy, my eyes haven't focused yet. I'm not coherent, either. Kids fall asleep all the time, only to wake wide-eyed and staring into space with little to say and acting as if they were under some trance -- and we don't suspect that they're using or being given drugs! Being overly-tired may APPEAR as if someone is under the influence of something, but that 'something' may simply be sleep deprivation.
Now add this what I said in a previous post about GF's startled surprise when police rapped on his window. He'd either just opened his eyes from nodding off or was awakened by the sound of the knocking itself. He sees the officers, one of which is aiming a gun at him. What a thing to get woken up to! In later body-cam footage, Shawanda Hill mentions to Officer Cheng that GF had been shot before. And today, what does she testify GF does when he sees police just outside the car he's fallen asleep in, a gun aimed at his head?
“He grabbed the wheel and started saying 'Don’t shoot me! Don’t shoot me!' "
His fear response makes even more sense with Ms. Hill's testimony.
And her apparent anger makes a bit of sense too, from this perspective. Nelson wants to blame GF's death on GF and his use of drugs. I can't speak for Ms. Hill, but I can guess that she's not thrilled with Nelson using her this way. And I'm not thrilled with Nelson either because I have no clue what his point is. He keeps changing his focus, moving the Blame around like it's a chess piece.
Did anyone here learn anything new from any of his witnesses today, something compellingly significant that might possibly create doubt about Chauvin's knee/calf cutting off GF's oxygen intake as it pressed on his airway for over 9 minutes, causing all skin from GF's neck up to turn an oxygen-deprived blue-black and causing him to die?
