Colorado police officer sentenced to prison in death of Elijah McClain

A Colorado police officer involved in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a young unarmed Black man whose case helped galvanize the police reform movement, was sentenced Friday to 14 months in prison.

Randy Roedema, 41, then an Aurora Police Department officer, was convicted in October of negligent homicide and third-degree assault for his role in Mr. McClain’s death. Mr Roedema was one of three police officers prosecuted for the death and the only one convicted.

In August 2019, Mr. McClain, 23, walked home from a grocery store in Aurora wearing a ski mask, which his mother said he wore because he was anemic and often cold. Someone called 911 and said he “looked faint.” Police arrived and subdued Mr. McClain with a carotid chokehold. Paramedics injected him with an overdose of the powerful sedative ketamine. He died days later in hospital.

A total of five men were charged in Mr McClain’s death. Mr Roedema and two paramedics were convicted. Mr. Roedema, who violently threw Mr. McClain to the ground, is the first to be convicted.

In an impassioned speech to the court before the sentence was handed down, Mr McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, said Mr Roedema had stolen her son’s life and deserved to go to prison for it.

‘Where was Randy Roedema’s humanity that night?’ she asked.

She called Mr Roedema a “bully with a badge” and said it was clear to her that he had “not been taught the valuable lessons of life’s purpose.”

In his own statement to the court, Mr. Roedema, a father of three who had served in the Marines, acknowledged that he could not imagine the “pain” that Mr. McClain’s family had endured. He said he wished the night had gone differently, but that he had acted in accordance with his training. His lawyers had demanded probation.

Adams County District Court Judge Mark Warner, who said he was “shocked” by Mr. McClain’s suffering while already in custody, sentenced Mr. Roedema to 14 months for assault, with the possibility of work release.

On the charge of negligent homicide, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison, the judge imposed four years’ probation and a 90-day prison sentence to be served concurrently with the longer sentence.

Mr. Roedema’s lawyers said they planned to appeal his conviction.

In total, three officers from the Aurora Police Department and two paramedics from Aurora Fire Rescue were charged with various counts of reckless manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and assault in a case that became a cornerstone of the police accountability movement and deeply divided Aurora.

The suspects were tried in three separate trials, which produced different outcomes. Jason Rosenblatt, an Aurora officer who was tried alongside Mr. Roedema, was acquitted of all charges. In November, Nathan Woodyard, the officer who first stopped Mr. McClain and held him in the carotid artery, was also acquitted. Prosecutors argued that the chokehold triggered a downward cascade of health events that ultimately resulted in McClain’s death.

The two paramedics, Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec, were found guilty of negligent homicide in December. Mr. Cichuniec was also convicted of second-degree assault. They will be sentenced in March.

Law enforcement agencies, medical providers, lawyers and activists across the country were closely watching Friday’s proceedings, believing it could reveal the judge’s leanings on the case, give a hint as to what the paramedics could be, and would reflect how far gone the justice system was. willing to punish misconduct by public safety officials.

Activists saw the conviction as a crucial part of the legal equation, and some were disappointed that the sentence was not harsher.

Outside court, Hashim Coates, a civil rights advocate, said Mr Roedema’s callous treatment of Mr McClain had been on display for all to see.

“It’s work-free, so he still gets to get Chick-fil-A five days a week, he still gets to go out five days a week, he still gets to see his family five days a week,” Mr. Coates said. . “That was not a privilege afforded to Elijah or his mother. She will never see Elijah again.”

Jim Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police, said Mr McClain’s death was a terrible and irreversible tragedy. But, he added, “it appears that Officer Roedema did not act with criminal intent, but made split-second decisions in the situation he was faced with.”

“To the extent that those decisions later turn out to be wrong, he will pay a heavy price for the rest of his life,” he said.

During the three trials, prosecutors argued that it was both the violent subduing of police and the ketamine injected by paramedics that killed Mr. McClain.

Body camera footage shown by prosecutors during the trial of Mr. Rosenblatt and Mr. Roedema showed Mr. Roedema violently throwing Mr. McClain to the ground and ignoring his pleas for help as he was drowning in his own vomit and struggling to to breathe.

Defense lawyers argued that the officers’ use of force was justified because Mr. McClain had reached for Mr. Rosenblatt’s gun. They also shifted the blame to the paramedics, who they said took medical control of the situation, failed to assess Mr McClain and injected him with ketamine.

Adeel Hassan reporting contributed.