After hearing Elijah McClain’s mother refer to the former Colorado police officer as a “bully with a badge” who will always have blood on his hands, a court sentenced the man to 14 months in prison for his involvement in the young Black man’s murder on Friday.
The only person found guilty was the officer, Randy Roedema, who was the most senior member of the police department to arrive at the scene. He was found guilty in October by a jury of third-degree assault, a misdemeanour, and criminally negligent homicide, a crime.
Little attention was paid to the 23-year-old’s death on August 24, 2019, but it attracted more notice the following year when widespread demonstrations over the Minneapolis police shooting of George Floyd rocked the country. McClain’s passing served as a catalyst for opponents of racial injustice in law enforcement.
Two paramedics were recently found guilty in a different trial of giving McClain an overdose of the anaesthetic ketamine after the police had placed a neck hold on him. March will see the paramedics’ sentencing.
Sheneen McClain, McClain’s mother, was furious with Roedema before Judge Mark Warner delivered the punishment because he showed regret but did not offer an apology.
“Randy Roedema stole my son’s life,” she said. “All the belated apologies in the world can’t remove my son’s blood from Randy Roedema’s hands.”
Protecting the community was “the furthest thing from his mind” the night her son was stopped walking home from the store, she said.
She hugged a supporter and wiped tears as she sat back down.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Jason Slothouber described how, in the last minutes of McClain’s life, he struggled to breathe through vomit yet still faced violence from Roedema who picked him up, slammed him down, and dug his knee into his back.
The lack of compassion was all the more startling, Slothouber said, after he read all 76 letters friends, relatives and associates wrote in Roedema’s support.
“I don’t know why that compassion and that care that his friends and his family, the people who served with him, talk about, was not there for Elijah McClain. But it clearly wasn’t,” Slothouber said.
Roedema also spoke at the hearing, as well as his sister and former military colleagues. Roedema was a U.S. Marine who was wounded in Iraq.
“I want the McClain family to know the sadness I feel about Elijah being gone. He was young,” Roedema said.
Roedema said he wished the initial 911 call that reported McClain looking suspicious that night had never been made. But he didn’t comment about anything he could have done differently.
“We all responded to that incident in a way that we were all trained to do. Needless to say, the situation had a horrible outcome that nobody intended or wanted to happen,” Roedema said.
Roedema’s sister, Kayleine Roedema, talked about how he helps her care for their mother “without hesitation” and continues to be a “big brother” who is relied upon by their whole family.
“It hurts me because I know him and I know better. He’s a loving husband and father, son and brother, cousin and friend. It’s so hard for me to imagine how it could be beneficial for him to serve time in jail,” Kayleine Roedema said.
Roedema’s lawyer Don Sisson declined to comment on the sentence as he left court with Roedema and his wife. A deputy escorted them to their cars.
McClain was stopped by police after a 911 caller reported that he looked suspicious. Another officer put his hands on McClain within seconds, beginning a struggle and restraint that lasted about 20 minutes before paramedics injected him with the ketamine.
Experts say the sedative ultimately killed McClain, who was already weakened from struggling to breathe while being pinned down after inhaling vomit into his lungs.
Roedema helped hold McClain down while paramedics administered the ketamine. He was often visible in the body camera footage shown over and over to jurors, and he could be heard directing others how to restrain him.
“I don’t think anybody who’s been involved in this case can unsee what was on the videos or what was depicted on those videos,” Warner said before sentencing Roedema.
Warner, who said he was shocked by what appeared to be indifference to McClain’s suffering after he was handcuffed, could have sentenced Roedema to up to three years in prison for his felony conviction but chose instead to give him four years of parole and for the felony and a jail sentence for the misdemeanor.
Warner said that would lead to Roedema being behind bars longer since he would likely be paroled after about a year if he was sent to state prison. He also could have been eligible to be sent to a halfway house before that too, under prison rules.
The sentencing includes the option of work release. He must report to jail by March 22.
Sheneen McClain called the sentence afterward “a slap on the wrist.” Roedema’s attorney has said he will appeal the conviction.
The same jury that convicted Roedema acquitted former officer Jason Rosenblatt, whose lawyers stressed that he wasn’t close to McClain when the ketamine was injected.
A different jury acquitted officer Nathan Woodyard a few weeks later, after he testified that he put McClain in a neck hold, briefly rendering him unconscious. Woodyard testified that he feared for his life after Roedema said McClain had grabbed for one of their guns. Prosecutors say the gun grab never happened.
Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec were convicted last month. Cichuniec, the senior officer, was found guilty of the most serious charge faced by any of the first responders: felony second-degree assault. It carries a prison sentence of between five and 16 years in prison.
Though tragic, Elijah McClain’s death has brought about positive changes in Colorado, including laws barring police from directing ketamine to be used, requiring first responders to intervene if they see someone put in danger by other first responders, and requiring police to wear body cameras, Slothouber said.
“Elijah McClain’s life mattered,” he said.