A jury convicted a Denver-area police officer of manslaughter Thursday and acquitted another of all charges in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a black man who was held by the neck, pinned to the ground and given an overdose of the sedative ketamine by paramedics.
Aurora police officer Randy Roedema was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault by a 12-person jury.
They found officer Jason Rosenblatt innocent.
Roedema, who bowed her head after the verdict was read, faces three years in prison on the more serious charge of murder.
Rosenblatt hugged his supporters as he walked out of court.
McClain’s mother heard the verdict from the front row, where Attorney General Phil Weiser held her shoulder.
Randy Roedema leaves the courtroom after he was convicted of charges in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain after a hearing in the Adams County, Colo., court on Oct. 12, 2023, in Brighton, Colo.AP
Sheneen McClain raised her right hand high as she left the courtroom. He expressed disappointment at the decision.
“This is a divided American state, and that’s what happened,” he said as he walked from the courthouse.
McClain was stopped by police following a report of a suspicious person as he was walking home from a convenience store.
A temporary memorial stands at the site across the street from where Elijah McClain was stopped by police officers on his way home to Aurora, Colo.AP
His name became a rallying cry in protest against racial injustice in policing.
Roedema and Rosenblatt are charged with first degree murder, criminally negligent homicide and second-degree assault — all felonies.
However, the jury as it deliberated was asked to consider a lesser form of assault for Roedema, of which he was found guilty.
Elijah McClain, the unarmed black man who died days after he was subdued by three police officers and injected with a powerful sedative in August 2019, poses in this undated photo in Aurora, Colorado. via REUTERS
A third Aurora officer, who held the neck, and two paramedics have been indicted on similar charges, but the paramedics have more charges.
The officer’s trial began Friday with jury selection and paramedics scheduled for trial later this year.
Roedema and another officer who has not been charged restrained McClain while paramedics administered ketamine.
Police officer Nathan Woodyard (left) and fire paramedic Jeremy Cooper (right) are shown. AP
Rosenblatt’s attorney has indicated during the trial that he was not near McClain at that point in the confrontation.
Prosecutors allege Rosenblatt held McClain’s legs while he was on the ground but stepped away just before the sedative was administered while Roedema grabbed McClain’s shoulders and back.
Roedema, the most senior of the three officers, was often seen in body camera footage shown repeatedly to jurors.
Police officer Jason Rosenblatt (left) and Lt. Peter Cichuniec (right) is shown. AP
At times he seems to be telling others what to do.
Lawyers for both defendants pointed to ketamine as the cause of McClain’s death.
Roedema’s attorney said the officer was forced to respond when McClain resisted and allegedly reached for one of the officers’ guns, a claim disputed by prosecutors.
Sheneen McClain, third from left, mother of Elijah McClain, is flanked by supporters as she leaves the Adams County Courthouse, Colo., after the verdict was reached in the trial involving her son’s 2019 death on Oct. 12. 2023, in Brighton, Colo. AP
Don Sisson, an attorney for Roedema, said officers need to act now to protect themselves.
“They couldn’t watch the video over and over for three weeks before they acted,” he said on Tuesday in closing remarks.
As the split verdict was read, Roedema’s wife leaned forward in her seat with her head down as Rosenblatt’s wife patted her on the back.
Demonstrators carry banners as they march down Interstate 225 during a rally and march over the death of Elijah McClain on June 27, 2020, in Aurora, Colo. AP
Sisson declined to comment after the verdict was released.
Judge Mark Warner set sentencing for January 5, 2024.
The three officers charged were the first on the scene and were the ones who took McClain to the ground.
Sheneen McClain, mother of Elijah McClain, sits outside the courtroom at the Adams County Justice Center for the start of the trial of two of the police officers charged in the death of her son on September 20, 2023, in Brighton, Colo. AP
At least three officers who have not been charged were involved in restraining McClain at some point during the confrontation.
One of them, officer Alicia Ward, testified as a prosecution witness that she held her knuckles behind McClain’s head and prepared to apply pressure to him.
But he said he didn’t feel he had to because he didn’t consider McClain a threat at that point.
In this photo provided by the Colorado Judicial Branch, prosecutor Jonathan Bunge gives opening statements at the start of the trial of two of the police officers charged in the death of Elijah McClain on Sept. 20, 2023, in Brighton Colo.AP
The case initially did not receive widespread attention, but protests over the killing of George Floyd the following year sparked outrage over McClain’s death.
His words of appeal caught on body camera footage, “I’m an introvert and I’m different,” drew attention.
A local prosecutor in 2019 decided against criminal charges because the coroner’s office could not determine exactly how the 23-year-old massage therapist died.
But Colorado Governor Jared Polis ordered Attorney General Phil Weiser’s office to revisit the case in 2020, and the officers and paramedics were indicted in 2021 by a grand jury.
The killings of McClain, Floyd and others sparked a wave of laws limiting the use of neck restraints in more than two dozen states.
Colorado is now telling paramedics not to give ketamine to people suspected of having a controversial condition known as excited delirium, whose symptoms include increased strength that has been linked to racial bias against Black men.
Aurora Police Chief Art Acevedo said the department respects the jury’s decision, adding “we must be committed to the rule of law.”
Roedema and Rosenblatt did not testify in their defense at trial.
Their lawyers blamed McClain’s death on ketamine, which doctors said was what ultimately killed him.
However, prosecutors argued that the officers’ restraints on McClain contributed.
Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Jason Slothouber told jurors that Roedema and Rosenblatt also encouraged paramedics to give McClain ketamine by describing him as experiencing symptoms of excited delirium that they had learned about during training.
But he said officers told them nothing about McClain’s complaints that he couldn’t breathe, something prosecutors say happened six times.
Sheneen McClain sat with the state’s attorney in the front row of the courtroom during the trial, part of her effort to remind the mostly white jury that her son was a real person.
He watched the encounter play over and over again along with graphic images from his autopsy.
Sheneen McClain, left, mother of Elijah McClain, is hugged by supporters as she leaves the Adams County Courthouse on Oct. 12. 2023, in Brighton, Colo. AP
During the three-week long testimony, witnesses are limited to offering what they “think” someone is doing or saying in the video.
The video clips don’t always give a complete picture of what happened, but Judge Mark Warner said jurors are the only ones who can decide what they mean, just like other evidence.
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McClain was stopped on August 24, 2019, while listening to music and wearing a mask that covered most of his face. He asked to be left alone and never been accused of any crime.
The encounter escalated, with Officers Nathan Woodyard, Roedema and Rosenblatt taking McClain to the ground, and Woodyard placing him by the neck and compressing his carotid artery, rendering him temporarily unconscious.
The officers told investigators they took McClain down after hearing Roedema say to another officer, “He grabbed your gun.”
Initial statements were heard on body camera footage but what happened was hard to see.
McClain suffered a heart attack on the way to the hospital and was pronounced dead three days later.
The doctor who performed McClain’s autopsy, Stephen Cina, has said he died of complications from ketamine, saying it occurred after forcible detention. However, China could not say whether the death was a homicide or an accident or if the officer’s actions contributed to McClain’s death.
Dr. Roger Mitchell, another forensic pathologist who reviewed autopsies and body camera videos, found their actions did play a role. He labeled the death a homicide.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
