Today's Digital Newspaper

The Gazette

Weather Block Here



Only police officer convicted in death of Elijah McClain appeals verdict, alleging errors

AURORA, Colo. — The only Aurora police officer found guilty of wrongdoing in the death of Elijah McClain has appealed his conviction.

Randy Roedema, 41, faces 14 months in jail and four years of probation after being convicted of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault for his actions in McClain’s death.

He is expected to start serving the jail term March 22.

Roedema was among five first responders indicted by a statewide grand jury and accused of wrongdoing in the Aug. 24, 2019, death of McClain, 23.

McClain was walking home after buying three cans of tea at a convenience store when a 911 caller reported that he was wearing a mask and seemed “sketchy.”

Aurora officers Nathan Woodyard, Jason Rosenblatt, and Roedema stopped and subdued McClain. After Roedema said that McClain had tried to grab Rosenblatt’s gun, the officers twice put him in a neck hold that briefly rendered him unconscious. He vomited and inhaled some of it, and his medical condition deteriorated before paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec injected him with the sedative ketamine.

Prosecutors said repeatedly during the trials no evidence supported the theory that McClain went for an officer’s gun.

McClain’s heart stopped. Although paramedics revived him, he died three days later without ever regaining consciousness.

In the filing, Roedema’s attorneys asked the Colorado Court of Appeals to consider a number of questions, including:

Whether Adams County District Judge Mark Warner erred in trying Roedema and Rosenblatt together, in allowing amendments to the indictment, and in overruling Roedema’s challenges to the dismissal of several jurors by prosecutors.

Whether the indictment should have been dismissed before trial for “defects and deficiencies” and for “errors in the instructions given to the grand jury?”

Whether sufficient evidence existed to convict Roedema of criminally negligent homicide?

The filing also suggested that the attorneys could raise other issues.

The same jury that found Roedema guilty acquitted Rosenblatt of all charges. A jury in a separate trial acquitted Woodyard of all charges. He later resigned from Aurora Police after being reinstated and receiving back pay. 

In another trial, a jury convicted both paramedics of criminally negligent homicide and also found Cichuniec, the supervisor on the scene, guilty of second-degree assault.

Cichuniec is scheduled to be sentenced March 1. Cooper’s sentencing is set for April 26.

For more on this story, and others, visit The Denver Gazette’s news partners 9NEWS.com.

fa3ddb76-d1db-11ee-b1f3-df05650e39f5

View Original Article | Split View

PREV

PREVIOUS

Douglas County arrest escapee has history of warrants across state

The man who fled a Douglas County Sheriff’s Office vehicle on Tuesday night has a history of theft, drug possession and evading police officers — starting with running from arrest in Kansas. Alexander Reighart, 29, was arrested on Tuesday by Douglas County Sheriff’s Office deputies on outstanding felony warrants for possession of drugs and identification documents, according […]

NEXT

NEXT UP

Dish announces third round of layoffs in 2024

Dish Network will sever more than 50 employees in the next two months, the company announced this week.  It’s the third round of layoffs in 2024 for the Centennial-based company.  Dish announced the upcoming layoffs in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) listing on Tuesday, claiming that layoffs will include employees at the […]