AURORA, Colo. — The jury will decide whether officers’ force weakened Elijah McClain, making him vulnerable to ketamine, or if the sedative injected by paramedics is solely to blame.
Jurors continued deliberations through Wednesday and were released by the court at the end of the day. They will continue deliberations at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, said the court.
During closing arguments Tuesday, prosecutors told the jury ketamine killed McClain because of his weakened condition from his 15-minute struggle with two Aurora police officers.
"Look at the videos, at certain sections prior to the ketamine, you will not be able to tell if Mr. McClain received the injection or not. That's how out of it he was. Yet no one helped him," Prosecutor Duane Lyons said.
The attorneys for suspended officer Randy Roedema and former officer Jason Rosenblatt placed the blame solely on the paramedics who made the decision to inject McClain with the sedative. They pointed out that three medical experts said ketamine was the primary cause of his death.
Opening statements in the trial were on Sept. 20. Both sides rested on Friday. No witnesses were called for the defense.
McClain, 23, was first contacted on Aug. 24, 2019, after a teenage boy called 911 and relayed that he saw McClain wearing a coat and mask and acting "suspicious." Less than a minute after police arrived, McClain was taken to the ground and engaged in a struggle with Roedema, Rosenblatt and a third officer. During that struggle, McClain was placed in a carotid hold, which can cut off the oxygen supply to the brain.
Later that night, paramedics injected McClain with ketamine. His heart stopped and he later died.
During the trial, jurors heard from various medical experts, including Dr. David Beuther, a pulmonologist at National Jewish Health. He testified about McClain's worsening condition and said he believed it was related to three conditions: acidosis, hypoxia, and aspiration.
Acidosis is a condition where acid builds up in the blood, and hypoxia is a condition where someone isn't getting enough oxygen. Beuther said the acidosis was brought on by McClain's exertion and inability to breathe properly.
Aspiration is when someone inhales some type of liquid into their lungs, which is in this case was vomit.
Prosecutors argued that McClain's condition worsened because the officers ignored his pleas for help as he was on the ground and handcuffed while struggling with officers. He said, "I can't breathe," seven times, according to body-worn camera footage.
"Mr. McClain said he respected all life. Sadly the defendants did not have respect for his. If they had they would have listened and treated him as someone not as a suspect. They would have treated him as a person, not a perpetrator," Lyons said.
"They would have helped him when he asked and begged that they help him instead of driving their knee into him – and inflicting more pain on a man who didn’t need any pain inflicted on him at all, who anyone would have looked at and knew was in desperate, dire straits."
Don Sisson, an attorney for Roedema, suggested in closings that it was McClain who escalated the situation in the first place and said he continued to do so while on the ground.
"This could have gone one of two ways. When they first contacted him he could have said let me explain myself. That's not the choice that Elijah McClain made that night. And because he made a different choice the officers were forced to make a different choice."
Sisson said McClain continued to resist while on the ground, and because the defense contends that McClain grabbed for Rosenblatt's gun the officers were justified to use force.
Prosecutors have questioned whether McClain actually grabbed for the gun, as Roedema is heard saying in body camera footage.
Harvey Steinberg, an attorney for Rosenblatt, suggested that his client was a "scapegoat" and said he should not be held responsible for the action or lack of actions by the paramedics.
He noted that paramedics were at the scene for 11 minutes before McClain was injected with the ketamine.
"Foolish Mr. Rosenblatt didn't realize down the road he was going to be a scapegoat. He thought foolishly, according to them, that the fact that he immediately called the paramedics and that they were shortly on scene, they were standing right there within inches, that that would be enough," Steinberg said. "But you see when you're a scapegoat it's not enough."
"To get around that fact they get up here and they say, gosh he should have checked the pulse and that's a crime and he committed a further crime because he didn't check the breathing," he said. "Because he didn't grab the paramedics by the shoulders and throw him down and say do something."
"You don’t get a free pass just because somebody shows up a the scene," prosecutor Jason Slothauber countered.
Throughout the trial, prosecutors have tried to show that it was the excessive force by officers that made McClain especially vulnerable to the ketamine.
"His last words are 10 minutes before he gets put on the gurney," Slothauber said. "This is not a split decision. This was an 18-minute and 2-second event where they had infinite chances to do what they were trained to do. They had infinite chances to choose to do the right thing to do."
The jury deliberated for about 30 minutes Tuesday afternoon before being sent home for the night. They returned on Wednesday to continue deliberations.
Roedema and Rosenblatt are among five people indicted in 2021 in connection with McClain's death. Both are charged with reckless manslaughter and second-degree assault.
Jury selection is expected to begin Friday for Nathan Woodyard, the first patrol officer to confront McClain. He faces a single charge of reckless manslaughter – and the judge, the prosecutors, at least some of the witnesses and much of the evidence from the first trial are going to be the same.
Jeremy Cooper and Peter Chichuniec, the paramedics who responded to the call, are set for trial in November. They are each charged with reckless manslaughter and numerous counts of assault.
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