{"id":2873,"date":"2026-06-04T21:37:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T21:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=2873"},"modified":"2026-06-04T21:37:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T21:37:17","slug":"colorado-appeals-court-overturns-homicide-convictions-for-2-paramedics-in-elijah-mcclains-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=2873","title":{"rendered":"Colorado appeals court overturns homicide convictions for 2 paramedics in Elijah McClain\u2019s death"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Two former paramedics will get new trials after the Colorado Court of Appeals reversed their homicide convictions in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, according to .<\/p>\n

Read more Ex-national security adviser John Bolton will plead guilty in classified information case: AP source<\/a><\/p>\n

McClain, a 23-year-old Black man who was unarmed and not suspected of committing any crime, died after police put him in a neck hold and a paramedic injected him with an overdose of ketamine, a sedative.<\/p>\n

Peter Cichuniec was supervising Jeremy Cooper, the paramedic who injected the drug, and both were convicted in 2023 of criminally negligent homicide in McClain\u2019s death. Cichuniec was also convicted on one count of second-degree assault for unlawful administration of drugs.<\/p>\n

Now, the Colorado Court of Appeals has ruled that the case should be retried.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe conclude that the district court erred by failing to properly instruct the jury on the standard of care applicable to the criminally negligent homicide charge and that the error wasn\u2019t harmless,\u201d Judge Jerry Jones wrote in the . Jones also that reversed Cichuniec\u2019s\u00a0homicide conviction, but upheld his second-degree assault by drugging conviction.<\/p>\n

The jury was told that \u201ca person acts \u2018with criminal negligence\u2019 when, through a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would exercise, he fails to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk that a result will occur or that a circumstance exists,\u201d the document stated.<\/p>\n

But, when jurors asked for a definition or description of the \u201cstandard of care,\u201d the court did not provide one, Jones wrote. When the jury doesn\u2019t understand an element of the charged offense, \u201cthe court must clarify the matter concretely and unambiguously,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe relevant circumstances in this case were that a medical professional provided medical treatment to a person needing medical attention while under law enforcement\u2019s physical restraint,\u201d Jones wrote. \u201cThe standard of care was therefore that which would apply in a civil case involving such a situation \u2014 one applicable to a reasonable paramedic in Aurora, Colorado, in 2019 treating a person in Mr. McClain\u2019s condition.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cIndeed, it wouldn\u2019t make any sense to apply an ordinary reasonable person standard in this context,\u201d Jones continued.<\/p>\n

Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a statement that bringing the cases to trial in 2023 was the right thing to do for justice and for Elijah McClain and the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cA jury convicted two paramedics for the death of Elijah McClain, an innocent Black man who did nothing wrong that tragic night seven years ago,\u201d Weiser stated. \u201cThe attorney general\u2019s office is committed to defending these convictions through the appeals process. Justice demands it.\u201d<\/p>\n

McClain walked into a convenience store on Aug. 24, 2019, and bought a few cans of iced tea. The store security cameras showed him wearing a black ski mask and headphones, paying for his tea and dancing with his arms raised in the parking lot.\u00a0 Family members said that McClain often wore masks when outside because his anemia made him cold easily.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Soon after he left the store, a 911 caller reported a \u201csketchy\u201d Black man walking fast down the street while wearing a black ski mask and waving his arms.<\/p>\n

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Aurora police officers confronted McClain shortly after 10 p.m. that night and tried to physically restrain him when he continued walking. One officer put McClain in a carotid control hold \u2014 applying pressure to the neck with the biceps and forearm \u2014 and McClain temporarily lost consciousness. When he regained consciousness, he told the officers he couldn\u2019t breathe and vomited, prompting them to call for paramedics.<\/p>\n

Based on the officers\u2019 descriptions of McClain and his actions, Cooper and Cichuniec decided that McClain showed symptoms of \u201cexcited delirium\u201d and agreed to inject him with ketamine, a sedative. Critics say that the condition is unscientific and rooted in racism.<\/p>\n

McClain went into cardiac arrest while in the ambulance and stopped breathing. Paramedics restored his pulse with CPR, but McClain was declared brain-dead at the hospital a few days later.<\/p>\n

Cichuniec testified during his trial that he and Cooper overestimated McClain\u2019s weight and gave McClain a too-high dose of ketamine. Cooper estimated McClain weighed 220 pounds, and Cichuniec estimated he weighed 187 pounds. McClain\u2019s actual weight was only 143 pounds.<\/p>\n

The 17th Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office initially declined to file charges against Cooper, Cichuniec or any of the police officers, but Gov. Jared Polis issued an executive order directing the Colorado Attorney General to investigate and prosecute on the state\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n

Cichuniec\u2019s 5-year prison sentence was previously wiped away in September 2024 by Adams County District Court Judge Mark Warner, who converted the prison time into four years of probation. Warner sentenced Cichuniec to five years in prison in March 2024, which is the mandatory minimum prison time required under Colorado law for an assault conviction, but reduced the sentence after Cichuniec argued that his case involved \u201cunusual and exceptional\u201d circumstances.<\/p>\n

The judge was allowed to reduce the mandatory minimum prison sentence under Colorado law after Cichuniec spent at least 119 days in prison, which he did, and the Colorado Department of Corrections assessed Cichuniec\u2019s risk level and reported back to the judge, which it did.<\/p>\n

Cooper and former Aurora police officer Randy Roedema, who was also convicted of criminally negligent homicide in McClain\u2019s death, were sentenced to 14 months of work-release. Two other Aurora police officers were indicted in McClain\u2019s death, Jason Rosenblatt and Nathan Woodyard, but both were acquitted.<\/p>\n

McClain\u2019s death sparked statewide protests during the summer of 2020. Thousands joined the Colorado marches amid a national wave of protest movements and calls for police reform triggered by the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.<\/p>\n

The city of Aurora also agreed to pay $15 million to McClain\u2019s parents to settle a lawsuit over his death and entered into a consent decree to reform the police and fire departments.<\/p>\n

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This is a developing story and may be updated.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Colorado Court of Appeals reversed the homicide convictions and ordered new trials for the two former Aurora paramedics charged in the death of Elijah McClain, according to court documents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nColorado appeals court overturns homicide convictions for 2 paramedics in Elijah McClain\u2019s death - Orlando Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=2873\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Colorado appeals court overturns homicide convictions for 2 paramedics in Elijah McClain\u2019s death - 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