Two Colorado paramedics who injected massage therapist Elijah McClain with a powerful dose of ketamine have been found guilty of criminally negligent homicide.
Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec, Aurora Fire and Rescue paramedics, injected 23-year-old McClain with 500 milligrams of ketamine during the 2019 incident.
They pleaded not guilty to all counts: manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, second-degree assault and crimes of violence.
But both Cichuniec and Cooper were found guilty of criminally negligent homicide by a Colorado jury on Friday.
Cichuniec was also found guilty of assault in the second degree through the unlawful administration of drugs. Cooper was acquitted of two assault charges. Cichuniec was acquitted of one of the two assault charges.
The judge in the case ordered Cichuniec to be remanded in custody, while the bond for Cooper was continued.
According to an independent panel’s report, the paramedics “waited almost seven minutes after arriving to interact with Mr. McClain, and their first contact was to administer the sedative ketamine.” McClain suffered from cardiac arrest on his way to the hospital and died days later.
The amount of ketamine administered had been a repeated point of contention throughout the trial, seeing as the department’s protocol calls for paramedics to calculate a ketamine dose of 5 milligrams per kilogram of the patient’s weight.
Both paramedics testified, defending their decision to use ketamine and arguing their actions were consistent with protocols and training.
Paramedics Jeremy Cooper, far left, and Peter Cichuniec, far right, enter the Adams County Justice Center, Friday, 22 December in Brighton, Colorado— (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
“Under your estimate of Mr McClain’s weight, the appropriate dose would have only been 425?” the prosecutor asked.
Mr Cichuniec testified that they increased the dosage due to his state of “excited delirium.”
Mr Cooper also testified that he thought ketamine was the right drug to use on McClain after hearing officers saying he was being combative and seemed to be “on something.”
Medical experts offered different perspectives on the paramedics’ behaviour after watching the bodycam footage.
A forensic pathologist testified that McClain showed “no evidence of excited delirium;” but he instead demonstrated that he was deficient in oxygen. But a Memphis-based EMT specialist testified that both paramedics “acted appropriately” and that McClain received “great care.”
Prosecutors also emphasised that the paramedics made the judgement call to give McClain the powerful sedative, despite making “no assessment” of McClain and without exchanging a word with him.
Three Aurora police officers were also separately tried this year.
Police officer Randy Roedema was convicted of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault. The city terminated his employment.
Officer Jason Rosenblatt was acquitted of both counts he faced. He was fired from the force in 2020 for laughing over text in response to a picture of other officers giving each other chokeholds at the site of McClain’s death.
Officer Nathan Woodyard — who was accused of putting McClain in a carotid hold — was also acquitted. Unlike the other two officers, he was reinstated to the force.
