Derek Chauvin can face longer sentence over aggravating factors in George Floyd murder, judge rules
Convicted killer Derek Chauvin could face a lengthier prison sentence after a Minnesota judge found that he abused his authority as a police officer and treated George Floyd with “particular cruelty,” according to a ruling published Wednesday.
The disgraced ex-cop, who’s set to be sentenced on June 25, would technically face up to four decades behind bars but was expected to get significantly less time because, among other things, he’s a first-time offender. But prosecutors asked for a boost from the state’s sentencing guidelines, citing five aggravated factors at the time of Floyd’s death in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020.
Judge Peter Cahill, who presided over the trial and will determine the sentence, agreed with four of those factors. He said the white officer abused a position of trust and authority by using force that a jury determined to be unreasonable, treated Floyd with cruelty when he killed the unarmed Black man “slowly by preventing his ability to breathe,” and committed the crime as a part of a group — with the help of three other cops.
Cahill also found that the presence of four children at the crime scene, including one who was only 9 years old, is another aggravating factor.
“The slow death of George Floyd occurring over approximately six minutes of his positional asphyxia was particularly cruel in that Mr. Floyd was begging for his life and obviously terrified by the knowledge that he was likely to die but during which the Defendant objectively remained indifferent to Mr. Floyd’s pleas,” the judge wrote in a ruling dated Tuesday.
Chauvin, 45, was caught on video kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes while two other cops helped pin the handcuffed man to the pavement in front of about a dozen horrified bystanders. He did that while Floyd repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe and called out for his late mother.
“Children were present on the sidewalk... standing only a few feet from where the Defendant and three other officers were restraining George Floyd prone in the street and observed Mr. Floyd being asphyxiated as he begged for his life,” Cahill said. “Although these four children did not observe all the events, they did observe a substantial portion of the Defendant’s use of force and witnessed the last moments of Mr. Floyd’s life.”
The only factor the judge did not find to aggravate the crime was Floyd’s vulnerability. Cahill said Floyd had been able to resist arrest before he was pinned to the ground and that his drug intoxication did not make him “particularly vulnerable compared to other victims of murder.”
Chauvin was found guilty of second- and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter following a three-week jury trial last month. He’s being held at a maximum-security facility outside Minneapolis.
Cahill’s ruling is a victory for prosecutors and essentially guarantees Chauvin will get significantly more prison time than the last Minneapolis police officer convicted of murder. Ex-cop Mohamed Noor, who was found guilty of third-degree murder and manslaughter, is serving a 12-year sentence for the 2017 shooting death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond.
Chauvin’s attorney, meanwhile, is asking for a new trial, citing jury and prosecutorial misconduct, abuse of discretion, legal errors and a verdict “contrary to law.” The convicted murderer also faces a series of new federal charges in the Floyd case.
A federal grand jury last week charged Chauvin and the other three ex-cops involved in the fatal arrest with violating Floyd’s civil rights. The three co-defendants — J. Alexander Kueng, Tou Thao and Thomas Lane — are expected to stand trial in the state charges starting in August.
