Randy Roedema, the only Colorado officer convicted of the murder of Elijah McClain, has been sentenced to 14 months in prison.
Elijah McClain, 23, was stopped by police in August 2019 as he walked home from a grocery store in Aurora.
McClain, a massage therapist who volunteered to play the violin to calm animals at a local shelter, was placed in a neck hold by Officer Randy Roedema and given an overdose of ketamine by Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics.
The young man was taken to hospital, where he died shortly after the encounter.
Aurora police officer Randy Roedema was convicted of murder and assault and two other officers, Nathan Woodyard and Jason Rosenblatt, were acquitted.
Aurora police officer Randy Roedema was convicted of murder and assault
Elijah McClain was fatally injured when he was arrested in Aurora, Colorado in August 2019. He died days later from his injuries
Aurora Officer Randy Roedema (pictured) was convicted Thursday of negligent homicide for the 2019 death of 23-year-old Elijah McClain
Two Denver-area paramedics, Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec, were found guilty of negligent homicide.
On Friday, Colorado District Judge Mark Warner sentenced Roedema to 14 months in prison for the third-degree assault conviction, ordering that part of that time could be served as work release for five weeks of community service.
The judge also sentenced Roedema to four years' probation for the negligent homicide conviction.
McClain's case became a galvanizing force for racial justice protests that erupted around the world in the wake of the 2020 killing of George Floyd.
Local authorities decided not to pursue criminal charges in 2019 because the coroner's office could not determine exactly how McClain, a massage therapist, died.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis ordered Attorney General Phil Weiser's office to review the case in 2020 and a grand jury indicted the officers and paramedics in 2021.
The killings of McClain, Floyd and others sparked a wave of legislation in more than two dozen states imposing restrictions on the use of neck holds.
Police stopped McClain as he walked home from a supermarket on August 24, 2019, after a suspicious person complaint.
Elijah McClain took off and ended up in the hospital after being fatally injured during his arrest in Aurora, Colorado, in August 2019. He died from his injuries days later
Former officer Jason Rosenblatt (pictured left) was acquitted of all charges by the Colorado jury
Police Officer Nathan Woodyard became the second officer acquitted for his role in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain
McClain listened to music and wore a mask that covered most of his face because he had a circulatory disorder.
After an officer said McClain reached for an officer's gun — a claim disputed by prosecutors — Woodyard placed him in a neck hold that temporarily knocked him unconscious.
Officers also detained McClain before Cooper injected him with an overdose of ketamine.
McClain's pleading words, captured on police body camera footage — “I'm an introvert and I'm different” — struck a chord with protesters and people across the country.
Cichuniec was the senior officer and said it was his decision to use ketamine.
Prosecutors said the paramedics did not perform basic medical checks on McClain, such as taking his pulse, before giving him the ketamine.
The dose was too high for someone his size – 140 pounds, experts testified.
Prosecutors say they also did not immediately monitor McClain after giving him the sedative, but instead left him on the ground, making it harder to breathe.
Sheneen McClain (pictured), the mother of Elijah McClain, burst into tears and fled a Colorado courtroom in September after seeing videos of her son pinned to the ground
A year after his death, his mother, Shaneen McClain, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Aurora. A settlement has now been reached in that lawsuit
A protester carries an image of Elijah McClain during a rally and march in the summer of 2020
A makeshift memorial stands at a spot across the street from where Elijah McClain was stopped by Aurora, Colorado
McClain's death received widespread attention last year during protests against racial injustice and police brutality following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
McClain, 23, was described as a gentle and kind introvert who volunteered to play the violin to comfort cats at an animal shelter
In a statement released ahead of the paramedics' verdict, McClain's mother said everyone present during her son's police check showed a lack of humanity.
“They cannot blame their professional training for their indifference to evil or their participation in an evil action,” McClain wrote.
'That is entirely up to them. May all their souls rot in hell when their time comes.”
Defense attorneys argued that the paramedics had followed their training in administering ketamine to McClain for “excited delirium” — a controversial condition that some say is unscientific and has been used to justify excessive force.
The prosecutor said Cooper lied to investigators to cover up his actions, telling detectives that McClain actively resisted when he decided to inject McClain with ketamine, even though the body camera showed McClain lying unconscious on the ground.
It also disputed Cooper's claim that McClain tried to escape from police who were holding him — and that he took McClain's pulse as he bent down to give him the injection of ketamine, which others testified they did not see.