Colorado ex-police officer Randy Roedema speaks on his behalf during sentencing at the Adams County Court, Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, in Brighton, Colorado. Roedema was convicted of killing Elijah McClain, a young Black man walking home from a store, is expected to learn Friday whether a judge will sentence him to prison or he will receive probation. (ABC News One/Pool via AP) 
Sheenen McClain speaks during the sentencing of ex-police officer Randy Roedema at the Adams County Court, Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, in Brighton, Colorado. Roedema was convicted of killing Elijah McClain, a young Black man walking home from a store, is expected to learn Friday whether a judge will sentence him to prison or he will receive probation. (ABC News One/Pool via AP) 
FILE – Former Aurora, Colo., Police Department officer Randy Roedema leaves the courtroom after being convicted of charges in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain during a trial in the Adams County, Colo., Courthouse, Oct. 12, 2023, in Brighton, Colo. The only police officer convicted of killing McClain faces anywhere from probation to several years behind bars when a judge decides his punishment Friday, Jan. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File) 
Former Aurora, Colo., Police Department officer Randy Roedema leaves the courtroom after he was convicted of charges in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain after a trial in the Adams County, Colo., courthouse Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023, in Brighton, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
AURORA | The only Aurora police officer convicted in the killing of Elijah McClain began his jail sentence Friday evening, even though he has appealed his guilty verdict.
Former Aurora Police officer Randy Roedema was booked into the Adams County Jail Friday at 5:30 p.m., according to jail records. The story was first reported by 9News.
A jury convicted Roedema last October of criminally negligent homicide, which is a felony, and misdemeanor third-degree assault. He was sentenced to 14 months in jail at a hearing last month in which McClain’s mother called him a “bully with a badge.”
Attorneys for Roedema filed an appeal to the conviction Feb. 23.
McClain’s death received little attention outside of Aurora in 2019 but gained renewed interest the following year as mass protests swept the nation over the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. It became a rallying cry for critics of racial injustice in policing.
McClain, 23, was stopped by police in Aurora as he walked home from a store while listening to music. At the time, he was wearing a face mask and a 911 caller reported he looked suspicious. Within seconds, another officer put his hands on McClain, beginning a struggle that lasted about 20 minutes before McClain was restrained and paramedics injected him with the powerful sedative ketamine.
The coroner’s office initially could not determine how McClain died, leading the local prosecutor to decide against bringing any criminal charges. But it updated the autopsy report in 2021, finding that McClain died of an overdose of ketamine after being forcibly restrained by police.
Roedema, who was fired from the Aurora Police Department after his conviction, was the only one of three police officers indicted in McClain’s death to be found guilty. The two others were acquitted. Two paramedics were convicted in December in the third trial and final trial of first responders in McClain’s death.
Roedema was tried with another officer, Jason Rosenblatt, and Roedema’s lawyers said the decision to join their trials together was among a list of issues they would be challenging. Another was whether his indictment should have been dismissed because of alleged errors in the instructions given to grand jurors. Other issues could still be raised when Roedema files an opening brief in the appeal, they said.
The state attorney general’s office, which prosecuted the case, had no comment on the appeal, spokesperson Lawrence Pacheco said.