Former Colorado police officer gets 14 months for death of Elijah McClain

Former Aurora, Colorado police officer Randy Roedema was sentenced on Friday for his involvement in the 2019 death of 23-year-old Elijah McClain, making him the first of five men — including two other Aurora Police Department officers and two Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics — who were prosecuted in relation to the tragic event to receive a sentence. 

According to The New York Times, McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, gave an impassioned address to the court before the sentence was delivered, asking where Roedema’s humanity was when her son’s life was stolen away, and expressed her opinion that the ex-cop deserved jail time for picking up her son and slamming him to the ground on the night in question. McClain was unarmed at the time and later died at the hospital from ketamine toxicity after being injected with enough of the drug by paramedics to sedate a much larger man, according to the results of an independent probe.

Convicted of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault, Roedema was sentenced by Adams County District Judge Mark Warner to 14 months of jail with work release and four years of probation. According to Warner, Roedema has “rehabilitative potential” and his sentencing decision factored in the former officer’s “good character.”

“I want the McClain family to know the sadness I feel about Elijah being gone,” Roedema said in court, via reporting by The Hill. “He was young.”

“I often think about what happened on that evening Elijah was taken to the hospital,” he said. “I cannot help but to contemplate all the different scenarios that could have taken place that evening that may have resulted in a different outcome.”

The other two officers prosecuted in McClain’s death, Jason Rosenblatt and Nathan Woodyard, were both acquitted. Two paramedics, Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec, will be sentenced in March.