In Pierce County, state prosecutors brought another expert on the stand to say Manuel Ellis died by asphyxiation from a violent arrest.
Dr. Dan Wohlgelernter is a cardiologist in California.
He says being held down, with officers Christopher Burbank, Matthew Collins, and Timothy Rankine on top of him kept Ellis’s organs from getting oxygen.
He also said that meth in Ellis’s system and a minor heart condition did not cause his death.
On Tuesday, a paramedic testified and said he could tell Ellis wasn’t breathing after they arrived.
On October 17, a pathologist said oxygen deprivation was the official cause of death.
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