Paramedic convicted in Elijah McClain’s death set to be sentenced today
Originally Published: 01 MAR 24 08:51 ET By Emma Tucker and Eric Levenson, CNN
(CNN) — One of the two paramedics convicted of criminally negligent homicide in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, the 23-year-old Black man subdued by police and injected with ketamine, is set to be sentenced Friday in a Colorado courtroom.
Peter Cichuniec was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and second-degree assault in December and will be sentenced Friday. His co-defendant, Jeremy Cooper, also was convicted of criminally negligent homicide and is scheduled to be sentenced April 26.
Cichuniec faces up to 16 years in prison, according to CNN affiliate KUSA. The Attorney General’s Office declined to comment on the sentencing.
The criminal trial against the two paramedics was unparalleled, CNN previously reported. Paramedics are typically considered local government agents protected by statutory immunities where injury and death can occur even when they abide by their medical training.
The charges stemmed from the arrest of McClain in Aurora on August 24, 2019, when police officers responded to a call about a “suspicious person” wearing a ski mask, according to the indictment. The officers confronted McClain, a massage therapist, musician and animal lover, who was walking home from a convenience store carrying a plastic bag with iced tea.
In a disturbing interaction captured on body-camera footage, police wrestled McClain to the ground and placed him in a carotid hold. Paramedics were called to the scene and injected McClain with a dose of the powerful sedative ketamine appropriate for a 200-pound person, even though he weighed just 143 pounds. He suffered a heart attack on the way to a hospital and was pronounced dead three days later.
McClain’s death raised questions about “excited delirium,” a controversial diagnosis primarily used to describe violent agitation from people being subdued by police, as well as the use of ketamine as treatment.
Prosecutors initially declined to bring charges, but the case received renewed scrutiny following the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests in spring 2020. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis appointed a special prosecutor to reexamine the case, and in 2021 a grand jury indicted the two paramedics and three Aurora police officers who subdued McClain.
Ex-officer Randy Roedema was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and assault, and he was sentenced to 14 months in jail and four years of probation. Jason Rosenblatt and Nathan Woodyard were acquitted of all charges.
At the paramedics’ trial, prosecutors argued the two acted recklessly in administering a large dose of ketamine to McClain despite not speaking with him or checking his vital signs.
“This is reckless … It’s intending to cause pain – bodily injury and stupor,” Senior Assistant Attorney General Jason Slothouber said. “It’s not intending to kill, but it is wildly, insanely reckless. It’s the medical equivalent of putting on a blindfold, jumping in a car and hitting the gas as hard as you can.”
In response, both paramedics testified they believed McClain was experiencing excited delirium and said their treatment protocol was to administer a ketamine dose they believed was safe.
“During our training, we were told numerous times that this is a safe, effective drug,” Cichuniec told the court. “That is the only drug we can carry that can stop what is going on and calm him down so we can control his airway, we can control him and the safety of him, get him to the hospital as quick as we can.”
CNN’s Jeremy Harlan, Cheri Mossburg and Raja Razek contributed to this report.
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