1 officer convicted, 1 acquitted in death of Elijah McClain — Aurora, state comments

BRIGHTON | Aurora police officer Randy Roedema was found guilty of criminally-negligent homicide and third-degree assault, and former officer Jason Rosenblatt was found not guilty of all charges by an Adams County jury on Thursday for their roles in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain.

While Roedema had been charged with second-degree assault, jurors found him guilty of the lesser crime of third-degree assault. Rosenblatt had also been charged with criminally-negligent homicide and second-degree assault.

Roedema, who kept his head bowed after the verdict was read, faces up to three years in prison on the more serious homicide charge. Rosenblatt hugged his supporters as he walked out of court.

As the split verdict was read, Roedema’s wife leaned forward in her seat with her head down as Rosenblatt’s wife patted her back. Sisson declined comment after the verdict was issued.

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

She expressed disappointment in the verdict.

“This is the divided states of America, and that’s what happens,” she said as she walked away from the court house.

The trial was the first of three that will determine the legal culpability of the first responders who confronted McClain as the 23-year-old Black man was walking home from a store, pinning him on the ground, choking him and injecting him with an overdose of the sedative drug ketamine.

Police were responding to a call about a suspicious person when they made contact with McClain, who was not suspected of committing a crime.

McClain’s death ignited a firestorm of scrutiny focusing on the treatment of Black people by law enforcement and the Aurora Police Department in particular, coinciding with protests of the 2020 murder of George Floyd.

Colorado’s Attorney General’s Office — which indicted Roedema and Rosenblatt, as well as officer Nathan Woodyard and Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Peter Cichuniec and Jeremy Cooper in connection with McClain’s death — subsequently investigated APD and found the agency engaged in a pattern of racist policing and excessive force, compelling the department to agree to a list of reforms that are still being implemented.

Jurors delivered their verdict after deliberating for part of the day Tuesday, all day Wednesday and most of the day Thursday.

“When I first spoke with you during the jury selection process, I tried to communicate that, other than military service, voting and a few other forms of public service, there’s nothing that our citizens do that is as important to one of the pillars of our democracy as being at a jury trial,” Judge Mark Warner told jurors after the verdict was read.

Aurora Police Department interim chief Art Acevedo issued a statement shortly afterward that did not address the details of the case but acknowledged the lengthy legal process that led up to Roedema and Rosenblatt’s trial.

“I know many have been waiting a long time for the involved parties to have their day in court,” Acevedo said. “As a nation, we must be committed to the rule of law. As such, we hold the American judicial process in high regard. We respect the verdict handed down by the jury, and thank the members of the jury for their thoughtful deliberation and service. Due to the additional pending trials, the Aurora Police Department is precluded from further comment at this time.”

The trial for Woodyard is scheduled to begin Friday, while the trial for Cichuniec and Jeremy Cooper will begin in November.

Judge Mark Warner set Roedema’s sentencing for Jan. 5, 2024. Ryan Luby, a spokesman for the city of Aurora, said Roedema was fired immediately after he was convicted of the felony charge of criminally-negligent homicide.

Roedema and Rosenblatt did not testify in their defense at trial. Their attorneys blamed McClain’s death on the paramedics for injecting him with ketamine, which doctors said is what ultimately killed him.

However, prosecutors argued that the officers’ restraint of McClain contributed. Senior Assistant Attorney General Jason Slothouber told jurors that Roedema and Rosenblatt also encouraged the paramedics to give McClain ketamine by describing him as having symptoms of excited delirium that they had learned about in training. But he said the officers did not tell them anything about McClain’s complaints that he could not breathe, something prosecutors said happened six times.

McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, sat with attorneys for the state in the front row of the courtroom during the trial, part of her quest to remind the mostly white jury that her son was a real person. She watched the encounter being played over and over again along with graphic photos from his autopsy.

During testimony that stretched over three weeks, witnesses were limited to offering what they “perceived” someone to be doing or saying in the video. The video clips did not always provide a complete picture of what was happening, but Judge Mark Warner said the jurors were the only ones who could decide what they meant, just like any other piece of evidence.

Despite the emotional weight of McClain’s last words captured on body camera and a story about him playing the violin in an animal shelter, the trial did not include much testimony about him or his life.

A co-worker at a massage studio testified briefly about how he used to bike or run miles to work in an affluent suburb and then also run on lunch breaks. A photograph of a smiling McClain she took shortly before his death was shown to jurors during closing arguments.

McClain was stopped Aug. 24, 2019, while walking home from a convenience store on a summer night, listening to music and wearing a mask that covered most of his face. A 911 caller reported him as suspicious, and the police stop quickly became physical after McClain, seemingly caught off guard, asked to be left alone. He had not been accused of committing any crime.

The encounter quickly escalated, with Officers Nathan Woodyard, Roedema and Rosenblatt taking McClain to the ground, and Woodyard putting him in a neck hold and pressing against his carotid artery, temporarily rendering him unconscious. The officers told investigators they took McClain down after hearing Roedema say, “He grabbed your gun dude.” He later said Rosenblatt’s gun was the target.

The initial statement was heard on the body camera footage but exactly what happened is difficult to see. The prosecution urged jurors to be skeptical, saying Rosenblatt said he could not feel anyone reaching for his gun.

But one of Roedema’s defense lawyers, Don Sisson, pointed out that McClain said “I intend to take my power back,” which he argued showed intent. The officers had to act in the moment to protect themselves, according to Sisson.

“They didn’t get to watch the video over and over and over for three weeks before they get to act,” he said.

Paramedics injected McClain with ketamine as Roedema and another officer who was not charged held him on the ground. He went into cardiac arrest en route to the hospital and died three days later.

Rosenblatt’s lawyer, Harvey Steinberg, said his client, the most junior officer on scene, was a scapegoat in a prosecution driven by politics. He pointed out that Rosenblatt was not restraining McClain when the ketamine was given.

After the grand jury was convened to re-investigate the case, the doctor who performed McClain’s autopsy, Stephen Cina, revised his opinion and concluded that he died of complications from the ketamine while also noting that that occurred after the forcible restraint. However, Cina still was not able to say if the death was a homicide or an accident or if the officers’ actions contributed to McClain’s death.

Dr. Roger Mitchell, another forensic pathologist who reviewed the autopsy and searched for clues about what happened in the body camera video, found their actions did play a role. He labeled the death a homicide.

The neck hold lowered the oxygen level in McClain’s brain while his exertions during the altercation increased the amount of acid in his body, Mitchell, a Howard University medical school professor and former chief medical officer for Washington, D.C., said during testimony.

The lack of oxygen and increased acid created a “vicious cycle,” he added, causing McClain to vomit and then inhale the vomit into his lungs so it became hard for him to breathe.