A Colorado court has dismissed the manslaughter charges against two paramedics in the death of a black man in police custody
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A Colorado jury on Thursday dismissed two paramedics’ murder charges in the ketamine-fueled death of Elijah McClain after the black man was arrested by police.
An appeals court ordered a new trial for Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec.
McClain, 23, was forcibly arrested and detained by police, who stopped him in response to a complaint from a suspicious person when the doctor was leaving a store in Denver in 2019.
McClain’s last words – “I can’t breathe” – mirror those of George Floyd who was killed by police the following year in Minneapolis.
A jury in 2023 found Cooper and Cichuniec guilty of negligent homicide following a week-long trial in district court.
Cooper avoided prison and was sentenced to 14 months in prison with work release and probation. Cichuniec received five years in prison.
The appeals court upheld Cichuniec’s conviction for assault, but ignored instructions given to the jury on the manslaughter charges before they deliberated.
Thursday’s ruling sends their cases back to the lower court for a new trial on that charge.
Cichuniec was released early in 2024 after a judge reduced his sentence to four years of probation.
That judge, Mark Warner, cited “extraordinary and extenuating circumstances,” part of Colorado’s mandatory sentencing law that allows a court to commute a sentence after a defendant has served at least 119 days in jail.
Warner said Cichuniec should have made a quick decision the night of his arrest as a first responder at the scene.
The Associated Press left a voice message seeking comment with McClain’s mother’s attorney, Sheneen McClain. Other requests for comment were left with paramedics and their union.
Paramedics’ defense attorneys said they followed their training in giving McClain ketamine after deciding he had “ecstatic delirium,” a controversial condition invoked to justify force majeure that some say is unscientific.
Freeman, an expert in forensic medicine and epidemiology, talks about what he learned from reviewing the literature on euphoric delirium.
They also said that the prosecutors did not present evidence that the sedation was what killed him.
Paramedics in Aurora were trained to use the drug in this situation in 2018. State officials have told paramedics to stop using excited delirium as a basis for prescribing ketamine.
