11TH HOUR

Ex-Cop Pleads Guilty Over George Floyd’s Murder Just Before Trial Begins

J. Alexander Kueng had been set for a joint trial with fellow former officer Tou Thao.

A former Minneapolis police officer indicted over the murder of George Floyd agreed to a the terms of a plea deal that saw him admit to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter, his lawyer said Monday. The announcement of J. Alexander Kueng’s guilty plea came just before 9 a.m., moments before jury selection in his state trial had been set to begin. Kueng’s deal calls for a 3-and-a-half-year prison sentence, which he will be allowed to serve concurrently with a federal sentence of three years he was handed in July, after a jury convicted him or failing to provide aid or intervene as Floyd died. Kueng, who is Black, knelt on Floyd’s torso as fellow former officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck. For the state charges, Kueng was set to be tried alongside fellow former officer Tou Thao. Also on Monday morning, Thao waived his rights to a trial by jury and to testify, clearing the way for his fate to be determined by a judge in a trial by stipulated evidence. If convicted of aiding and abetting manslaughter, Thao would likely be sentenced to roughly four years in prison, according to the Associated Press.