Former Colorado police officer gets 14 months in jail for Elijah McClain's death

A former Colorado police officer was sentenced to 14 months in jail after being convicted of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain.

Randy Roedema, who was fired from the Aurora Police Department in October after he was convicted, helped hold down McClain while paramedics injected him with the powerful sedative ketamine. McClain, a 23-year-old massage therapist, died days later.

Criminally negligent homicide is a felony, with a presumptive sentencing range of 1 to 3 years in prison and the assault count is a misdemeanor, which carries a presumptive sentencing range of 6 to 18 months in jail, according to Jon Sarché, a spokesperson for the Colorado Judicial Department. Roedema will likely serve both sentences concurrently because they involve the same actions, the Associated Press reported.

Colorado District Judge Mark Warner sentenced Roedema to the jail time for a third-degree assault conviction, ordering that some of that time may be served as work release toward 200 hours — or five weeks — of community service.

The judge also sentenced Roedema to four years of probation for negligent homicide.

A local prosecutor initially declined to bring criminal charges over McClain's death. But after McClain's death gained renewed attention amid national protests following the 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Roedema was indicted along with two other police officers and two paramedics involved in the stop, a rarity for both police and paramedics. The paramedics were convicted last month and the other officers were acquitted last year.

What happened to Elijah McClain?

McClain was stopped by police and violently restrained while he was walking home from a store on Aug. 24, 2019. He was not armed or accused of committing a crime, but a 911 caller reported a man who seemed “sketchy.”

Three officers quickly pinned McClain to the ground and placed him in a since-banned carotid artery chokehold. Roedema, the most senior of the three officers, helped hold McClain down while the paramedics injected him with 500 milligrams of ketamine, which is more than the amount recommended for his weight, according to the indictment.

McClain later died due to "complications of ketamine administration following forcible restraint," according to an amended autopsy report released last year. During the trial, Roedema's attorney blamed McClain's death on the ketamine and told jurors the officers had to react quickly after Roedema claimed McClain had grabbed another officer’s gun.

In 2021, the city agreed to pay $15 million to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit brought by McClain's parents.

Officers acquitted, paramedics to be sentenced in March

After a weekslong trial, paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Lt. Peter Cichuniec with the Aurora Fire Department were found guilty of criminally negligent homicide in December. Cichuniec was also convicted on one of two second-degree assault charges while Cooper was found not guilty on the assault charges.

The city of Aurora announced the paramedics were fired following their convictions. They are set to be sentenced in March, according to court records.

The other officers, Jason Rosenblatt and Nathan Woodyard were found not guilty on all charges. Rosenblatt was fired from the police department in 2020 over a photo reenacting McClain's death. Woodyard, however, returned to the Aurora Police Department on "restricted duty" following his acquittal and will receive more than $212,000 in back pay, Aurora spokesperson Ryan Luby said in a statement.

McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, said having three out of the five defendants convicted was not justice, but a “a very small acknowledgment of accountability in the justice system.”

“There were at least 20 individuals there the night my son was alive and talking before he was brutally murdered. Aurora Colorado Police Department and Fire Department kept everyone else on their payroll because both of those departments lack humanity, refusing to admit their inhumane protocols,” she said in a statement.

Contributing: Minnah Arshad, USA TODAY; The Associated Press