{"id":131872,"date":"2026-06-04T16:21:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T22:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/homicide-convictions-reversed-for-colorado-paramedics-who-injected-ketamine-into-elijah-mcclain\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T16:34:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T22:34:21","slug":"homicide-convictions-reversed-for-colorado-paramedics-who-injected-ketamine-into-elijah-mcclain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/homicide-convictions-reversed-for-colorado-paramedics-who-injected-ketamine-into-elijah-mcclain\/","title":{"rendered":"Homicide convictions reversed for Colorado paramedics who injected ketamine into Elijah McClain"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FILE
FILE – A demonstrator carries an image of Elijah McClain during a rally and march, June 27, 2020, in Aurora, Colo. Two paramedics were convicted Friday, Dec. 22, 2023, in the 2019 killing of McClain, who they injected with an overdose of the sedative ketamine after police put him in a neck hold. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski, File)<\/span>(AP Photo\/David Zalubowski, File)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) \u2014 A Colorado court reversed homicide convictions against two paramedics<\/a> on Thursday in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain<\/a>, a Black man who was pinned down by police and injected with a fatal dose of ketamine.<\/p>\n

McClain\u2019s final words<\/a> \u2014 \u201cI can\u2019t breathe\u201d \u2014 foreshadowed those of George Floyd<\/a> a year later in Minneapolis, and the Colorado man\u2019s name became part of the rallying cries for social justice that swept the U.S. in 2020.<\/p>\n

The appeals court ordered new trials for Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec. McClain, 23, had been forcibly restrained and put in a neck hold by police, who stopped him in response to a suspicious person complaint as the massage therapist walked home from a convenience store in the Denver suburb in 2019.<\/p>\n

Criminal charges against paramedics and emergency medical technicians involved in police custody cases are rare. As McClain\u2019s death and others<\/a> raised questions about the use of ketamine to subdue struggling suspects, this prosecution sent shock waves<\/a> through the ranks of first responders across the U.S.<\/p>\n

New trials in the case will return the issue to the spotlight, and that could make first responders think twice when responding to calls involving people in police custody, said University of Miami criminologist Alex Piquero.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt 11 o’clock tonight when they’re on a call, and the circumstances are the same, is this going to influence their behavior?” Piquero asked. \u201cIt may not be the first thing that comes into their heads, but it’s going to be there.”<\/p>\n

A jury in 2023 found Cooper and Cichuniec guilty of criminally negligent homicide following a weekslong trial in state district court. The jurors also found Cichuniec guilty of second-degree felony assault.<\/p>\n

Cichuniec received five years in prison. Cooper avoided prison and was sentenced to 14 months in jail with work release and probation.<\/p>\n

State attorney general says he will appeal<\/strong><\/p>\n

The appeals court upheld Cichuniec’s assault conviction, but faulted the instructions given to jurors with respect to the criminally negligent homicide charges before they deliberated. Thursday’s ruling sends their cases back to a lower court for a new trial on that charge.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said Weiser would appeal Thursday\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cBringing these cases to trial was the right thing to do for justice, for Elijah McClain, and for healing in the Aurora community,\u201d Weiser said in a statement. \u201cThe attorney general\u2019s office is committed to defending these convictions through the appeals process.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Aurora police officer was convicted of homicide<\/a> and third degree assault in McClain\u2019s death, while two other officers were acquitted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cichuniec was released early from prison in 2024 after a judge reduced his sentence to four years of probation. That judge, Mark Warner, cited \u201cunusual and extenuating circumstances,\u201d a part of Colorado\u2019s mandatory sentencing law that allows a court to modify a sentence after a defendant has served least 119 days in prison. Warner said that Cichuniec had to make a quick decision the night of the arrest as the highest-ranking paramedic at the scene.<\/p>\n

Local prosecutors initially declined to bring charges in McClain’s death<\/strong><\/p>\n

Local prosecutors initially decided not to bring charges in McClain\u2019s death largely because an initial autopsy was inconclusive on how how he died.<\/p>\n

Following the nationwide protests over Floyd\u2019s death, Democratic Gov. Jared Polis directed Weiser to re-investigate the McClain case. A grand jury indicted the two paramedics and three police officers when Dr. Stephen Cina, a forensic pathologist who performed McClain\u2019s autopsy, changed his findings to pin the blame on the sedative ketamine after reviewing body camera footage from the scene.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press left a voice mail seeking comment with the attorney for McClain\u2019s mother, Sheneen McClain. Other requests for comment were left with the paramedics’ lawyers and their union.<\/p>\n

The paramedics\u2019 defense attorneys argued they followed their training in giving ketamine to McClain after deciding he had<\/a> \u201cexcited delirium,\u201d a disputed condition<\/a> invoked to justify excessive force that some say is unscientific. They also said prosecutors did not prove the sedative is what killed him.<\/p>\n

Paramedics in Aurora had been trained to use the drug for the condition in 2018. State officials have since told paramedics to stop using excited delirium as a basis for administering ketamine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An activist who befriended Sheneen McClain after they met at a protest said the appellate ruling was disappointing, and \u201cone of the most divisive judicial decisions our state has experienced in recent memory.\u201d<\/p>\n

“It strikes at the heart of a question that Colorado continues to struggle to answer: When a Black life is taken under circumstances that shock the conscience of the public, what does accountability truly mean?\u201dsaid MiDian Shofner, CEO of the Epitome of Black Excellence and Partnership.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Gruver reported from Fort Collins and Brown from Billings, Montana. Thomas Peipert contributed reporting from Denver.<\/p>\n

\"FILE
FILE – Lawyers console paramedic Peter Cichuniec after his sentence is read, March 1, 2024, in Brighton, Colo. (Colorado State Court via AP, Pool, File)<\/span>(Colorado State Court via AP, Pool, File)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"FILE
FILE – Former paramedic Jeremy Cooper, who injected Elijah McClain with ketamine before his death, sits in court for sentencing, Friday, April 26, 2024, in the Brighton, Colo. (ABC News One\/Pool via AP, File)<\/span>(ABC News One\/Pool via AP, File)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

– A demonstrator carries an image of Elijah McClain during a rally and march, June 27, 2020, in Aurora, Colo. Two paramedics were convicted Friday, Dec. 22, 2023, in the 2019 killing of McClain, who they injected with an overdose of the sedative ketamine after police put him in a neck hold. (AP Photo\/David […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":131873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5734],"tags":[],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-131872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-associated-press"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131872"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131894,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131872\/revisions\/131894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131872"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=131872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}