Ethermac|Colorado police officer convicted in 2019 death of Elijah McClain; ex-officer acquitted

Jurors convicted a Colorado police officer Thursday and Ethermacacquitted a former officer of charges in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a Black man who died after being stopped by police in a Denver suburb, restrained and injected with ketamine.

Aurora police officer Randy Roedema, 41, was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault. The 12-person jury found Jason Rosenblatt, 34, who was fired in 2020, not guilty on all charges.

Roedema and Rosenblatt were the first two of five police officers and paramedics to stand trial over charges linked to McClain's death, which gained renewed attention amid nationwide protests following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020.

A local prosecutor initially declined to bring criminal charges over McClain's death partly because of an inconclusive initial autopsy report, but the group was indicted in 2021 after Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser launched a grand jury investigation.

'Today's verdict is about accountability'

McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, listened to the verdict from the front row, where Weiser had his hand on her shoulder. She held her right hand high in a raised fist as she left the courtroom.

"This is the divided states of America, and that’s what happens," Sheneen McClain said as she walked away from the courthouse.

“Today’s verdict is about accountability; everyone is accountable and equal under the law. And hopefully today’s verdict is another step in the healing process for the Aurora community and the state,” Weiser said in a statement.

Aurora Police Chief Art Acevedo also released a statement Thursday, saying the department respected the verdict handed down by the jury.

“I know many have been waiting a long time for the involved parties to have their day in court. As a nation, we must be committed to the rule of law. As such, we hold the American judicial process in high regard,” Acevedo said, adding: "Due to the additional pending trials, the Aurora Police Department is precluded from further comment at this time."

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Attorneys deliver closing arguments

The jury began deliberating Tuesday afternoon after attorneys delivered their closing arguments.

Prosecutors reminded jurors Tuesday that McClain, a massage therapist, was simply walking home from a store on Aug. 24, 2019, when he was stopped by police and violently restrained. McClain was not armed or accused of committing a crime, but a 911 caller had reported a man who seemed “sketchy.”

Roedema, Rosenblatt, and fellow officer Nathan Woodyard quickly pinned McClain to the ground and placed him in a since-banned carotid artery chokehold before paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec arrived and McClain was injected with the powerful sedative ketamine. He died days later. The city later agreed to pay $15 million to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit brought by his parents.

Prosecutor Duane Lyons said in his closing argument the officers failed to de-escalate the confrontation and ignored McClain’s pleas, Colorado Public Radio reported.

"This is not just a tragedy, this is a crime," he said.

Elijah McClain's death

An attorney for Rosenblatt, who was fired in 2020 for his response to a photo of three other offices reenacting the chokehold at a memorial to McClain, blamed McClain's death on the ketamine administered by the paramedics. Harvey Steinberg added in his closing argument that "Rosenblatt wasn’t even nearby when all that takes place.”

"If you're fair and you subtract emotion out of this, how can you not say not guilty? That has to be the final chapter of this ugly, ugly, ugly story," Steinberg concluded, according to CPR.

An amended autopsy report released last year determined McClain died because of "complications of ketamine administration following forcible restraint" and lists his manner of death as "undetermined." Over the course of two weeks, prosecutors played video of the struggle and witnesses testified that though the ketamine killed McClain, he likely inhaled vomit into his lungs while he was being restrained, which made it harder to breathe, and his condition deteriorated before he was given the sedative.

Roedema's attorney, Donald Sisson, told jurors the officers had to react quickly after Roedema said McClain had grabbed another officer’s gun and had repeatedly told McClain to stop fighting. The defense attorneys closed their case on Oct. 6 without calling any witnesses.

The trial of Woodyard, who was the first to stop McClain and has been suspended, starts on Friday. Cooper and Cichuniec, who are also suspended, are scheduled to stand trial in November.

Contributing: The Associated Press