Former Colorado officer sentenced to 14 months in jail for death of Elijah McClain

ADAMS COUNTY, Colo. — A former Aurora, Colorado, police officer convicted last year in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain was sentenced on Friday.

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Update 5:46 p.m. EST Jan. 5: Randy Roedema, a former officer with the Aurora Police Department in Colorado, was sentenced Friday to 14 months in prison for the third-degree assault charge, according to KUSA. He was given 90 days in jail and four years of probation for the criminally negligent homicide charge. He will only serve a total of 14 months.

Three officers were charged in McClain’s death but Roedema was the only one of the three to be found guilty, The Associated Press reported.

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Original story: In October, a jury found Randy Roedema guilty of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault for his part in McClain’s death. He could face a sentence ranging from probation to up to six years in prison, KUSA reported.

Authorities approached McClain on the night of Aug. 24, 2019, after a driver called 911 to report a “sketchy” person “acting weird” and “waving his arms around” in Aurora. The situation escalated when Roedema claimed that McClain tried to grab Rosenblatt’s gun. Records released by officials show an officer used a carotid control hold on McClain, briefly rendering him unconscious.

In court, prosecutors questioned whether McClain went for Rosenblatt’s gun, KUSA reported. Medical experts testified that he was in a vulnerable state after the struggle with police, with low levels of oxygen in his body. McClain repeatedly said that he could not breathe and at some point vomited and inhaled some of it, according to KUSA.

Authorities said they believed that McClain was showing signs of “excited delirium,” prompting paramedics to inject him with the sedative ketamine. The dose used was too high for McClain’s body weight, according to Colorado Public Radio. A short while after the drug was administered, he stopped breathing. Three days later, he was declared brain dead.

Two other officers who responded to the August 2019 call alongside Roedema, Officer Nathan Woodyard and Officer Jason Rosenblatt, were acquitted of charges last year.

Last month, fire medic Jeremy Cooper and Capt. Peter Cichuniec of the Aurora Fire Rescue were found guilty of criminally negligent homicide. Cichuniec was also convicted of second-degree assault.

In a statement released after last month’s verdicts, McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, said that having three of the five people charged in her son’s death convicted was not justice, The Associated Press reported. Instead, she said it was merely “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,” she said. “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.”

Cichuniec, who faces a maximum sentence of 16 years, and Cooper, who could be jailed for as many as six years, are set to be sentenced March 1, according to KUSA.

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