A former Aurora police officer convicted in the killing of 23-year-old Elijah McClain was sentenced Friday to 14 months in jail and four years probation.
A 12-person jury convicted Randy Roedema in October of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault, stemming from the deadly encounter in Aurora in August 2019.
“The court was shocked by what appeared to be really indifference to Elijah McClain’s suffering after he was clearly in custody and handcuffs,” Adams County District Court Judge Mark Warner said before imposing Roedema’s sentence at the end of a nearly two-hour hearing Friday afternoon.
Warner noted Roedema’s lack of criminal history, military service and positive relationships with his family and friends. He also pointed out Roedema’s use of “relatively significant use of force” when McClain did not pose a threat.
Rodema’s jail sentence will run concurrently with his probation and he will be eligible for work release, Warner said.
Under Colorado sentencing laws, he had faced up to three years in prison for criminally negligent homicide, a felony, and up to 18 months in jail for third-degree assault, a misdemeanor.
Addressing the court in a dark suit, Roedema requested the judge give him the minimum sentence and said he hoped police protocols and training were changed.
“I wish that bystander would not have made that call,” Roedema said in court Friday. “Unfortunately, that call was made and we all responded to the incident in a way that we were all trained to do. Needless to say the situation had a horrible outcome that no one wanted to happen.”
His defense attorneys asked the judge to consider probation for Roedema, noting his lack of prior criminal history and commendations during his eight-year service in the Marine Corps, during which he was wounded while deployed in Iraq.
Sheneen McClain, Elijah’s mother, asked the judge to issue the maximum prison sentence, saying Roedema “does not deserve” probation.
“If an individual is trained to view others based on their race or if an individual is trained to be a brutal machine of force, that individual becomes incapable of showing kindness to people of diversity and communities everywhere. At what point in time does that individual choose his own humanity instead of the inhumane protocols of his training?” Sheneen McClain said.
“Randy Roedema stole my son’s life away, and in the eyes of my God and human laws everywhere, death is a crime. … Our communities cannot know peace until we see the justice departments hold their own enforcers accountable.”
Prosecutors asked the judge to issue a sentence that would “recognize the heartbreaking loss of Elijah McClain and provide accountability and justice.”
In a statement, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said he believed Roedema’s sentence to be “appropriate” and “serious.”
“This sentence is necessary to demonstrate that officers who betray their training and their vow to protect members of the community are held accountable,” Weiser said.
Roedema must report to Adams County jail by no later than March 22, according to the statement.
Officers stopped McClain as he was walking home from a convenience store after receiving a report from a 17-year-old in the area that McClain looked suspicious. McClain was forcibly restrained by officers and then injected with ketamine, a powerful sedative, by Aurora paramedics. He suffered cardiac arrest and died in the hospital three days later.
The case didn’t receive widespread attention initially and no one was charged because the coroner’s office couldn’t determine how McClain died. But protests over the 2020 murder of George Floyd renewed attention to McClain’s case, leading to the 2021 grand jury indictment of the paramedics and three police officers.
McClain’s pleading words captured on body camera footage, “I’m an introvert and I’m different,” struck a chord with people in Colorado and around the world.
Another former officer, Jason Rosenblatt was acquitted by the same jury that convicted Roedema. Rosenblatt, who was fired by the Aurora Police Department in 2020, faced manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and assault.
Neither officer testified in their defense at trial. Their attorneys blamed McClain’s death on the paramedics for injecting them with ketamine, which doctors said is what ultimately killed him.
Prosecutors, however, argued that the officers’ restraint of McClain contributed to making the encounter deadly.
The trials for a third officer and two paramedics charged in McClain’s death were held late last year.
Nathan Woodyard, the officer who put McClain in the neck hold, was acquitted in November. A jury found him not guilty of homicide and manslaughter. He faced years in prison if convicted.
Last month, a jury found Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec guilty of criminally negligent homicide after a weekslong trial — the final trial against paramedics and officers charged in McClain’s death.
Cooper and Cichuniec’s convictions were significant as they were the first of several recent criminal prosecutions in the U.S. against medical first responders to reach trial and could potentially set the bar for prosecutors in future cases.
The dose of ketamine given to McClain was much larger than what was recommended for a person of his size. EMS staff estimated McClain weighed as much as 80 pounds more than he did, according to the report, which influenced the quantity of ketamine he was given.
Defense attorneys argued that the paramedics followed their training when giving ketamine to McClain after diagnosing him with “excited delirium,” a disputed condition some say is unscientific and has been used to justify excessive force.
Sentencing for the two paramedics is scheduled for March.
The city of Aurora in 2021 agreed to pay $15 million to settle a lawsuit brought by McClain’s family.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
This is a developing news story that will be updated.