George Floyd’s girlfriend Courteney Ross delivers heartbreaking testimony at Chauvin’s trial

During an emotional testimony at the Derek Chauvin trial, George Floyd’s girlfriend, Courteney Ross, opened up about her romance with George Floyd and both his and her own opioid addictions. 

During her direct examination, she was asked to tell her story about first meeting Floyd. She was waiting for her children’s father in the lobby of a Salvation Army in Minneapolis, but was “fussing” and Floyd, who was the security guard at the time, approached her.

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“Floyd had this great deep southern voice. Raspy. And he’s like, ‘Sis, you OK, sis? And I wasn’t OK. I said, ‘No, I’m just waiting for my son’s father. Sorry,’ He said. ‘Well, can I pray with you?’ 

I was so tired. We had been through so much, my sons and I. And this kind person, just to come up to me and say can I pray with you, when I felt alone in this lobby. It was so sweet,” Ross said. 

She later explained that this was the day they shared their first kiss. 

Through her teary testimony, she went on to explain Floyd’s struggle with opioid addiction. “It’s a classic story of how many people get addicted to opioids,” Ross said. “We both suffered from chronic pain: mine was in my neck, his was in his back.” 

She explained that Floyd was often able to quit, but would sometimes go into relapse. Primarily, the addiction started from his own opioid prescription, but when that ran out, he would purchase someone else’s prescription. If those two options were not available, Ms. Ross speculated that Floyd would purchase questionable pills from Morries Lester Hall, who was in Floyd’s car the day he died.

Chauvin’s defense attorney, Eric Nelson, acknowledged the sensitivity of the subject as he cross examined Ross, but tried to link Hall’s unsafe drugs with a possible overdose that could have occured during the interaction between Chauvin and Floyd. Ross admitted that Floyd was hospitalized in March for an overdose and that he was using again in May.