A jury on Friday found two Colorado paramedics guilty of criminally negligent homicide for their role in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a black man who died after police detained him, put him in a choke hold and the medics injected him with a powerful sedative.
The trial of paramedics Jeremy Cooper, 49, and Peter Cichuniec, 51, was the last of three involving the death of McClain, 23, who was stopped by police after a bystander reported he looked suspicious. He was not alleged to have committed any crime.
In addition to finding both men guilty of criminally negligent homicide — punishable by up to three years in prison — the jury also found Cichuniec guilty of assault in the second degree for administering the sedative.
Photo: AP
Judge Mark Warner ordered that Cichuniec be taken into custody immediately, while Cooper remained free on bond pending a March 1 sentencing.
McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, wept outside the courthouse as a supporter of the McClain family, MiDian Holmes, spoke with reporters on her behalf.
“We do not know justice until we see sentencing,” Holmes said. “So Judge Warner you now have a responsibility. We are still seeking justice.”
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said much more work needs to be done to prevent the deaths of innocents at the hands of police and other first responders.
“Elijah did nothing wrong. His life mattered. He should be with us here today,” Weiser said.
The first trial ended with one police officer being found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and another acquitted. The second ended with a third officer being acquitted.
Cooper and Cichuniec both took the stand during their trial in Adams County District Court near Denver.
They told the jury they believed the sedative ketamine was required to calm Elijah McClain, and that police officers who were roughly detaining him interfered in their ability to quickly treat him.
However, prosecutors said throughout the trial that the paramedics contravened their training protocols by failing to examine Elijah McClain before injecting him with the maximum allowed dose of ketamine.
Prosecutors said the paramedics incorrectly decided that Elijah McClain was in a state of “excited delirium,” a condition said to consist of agitation, aggression, acute distress and sudden death.
Many medical experts, including the American Medical Association, say the condition does not exist and have opposed using the diagnosis for law enforcement purposes.
The paramedics injected him with 500mg of the sedative, wrongly estimating his weight to be 91kg, prosecutors said.
Elijah McClain weighed 65kg.
“These defendants didn’t even try. When Elijah McClain pleaded ‘Please help me,’ they left him there, they overdosed him on ketamine ... they killed him,” prosecutor Jason Slothouber said during closing arguments on Wednesday.
The defense rejected that, saying that, based on the training available in 2019, the paramedics acted appropriately.
Colorado’s Peace Officers Standards and Training board ruled on Dec. 1 that “excited delirium” could no longer be taught as a diagnosis to new officers in training.
A bill is pending before Colorado lawmakers that would ban excited delirium from all police and emergency medical service training, and would not allow coroners to list it as a cause of death.
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