AURORA, Colo. — The Colorado Court of Appeals reversed the homicide convictions of two former Aurora paramedics in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, and ruled Thursday that the case should be retried.
The court ruled that former Aurora paramedic Peter Cichuniec's 2023 conviction on the charge of criminally negligent homicide must be reversed and sent back to a lower court for a possible retrial. His conviction on a charge of second-degree assault by unlawful administration of drugs — for which he was sentenced to four years’ probation in September 2024 — remains in place.
The appeals court also reversed former Aurora paramedic Jeremy Cooper’s 2023 conviction of criminally negligent homicide, ruling his case should also sent back to a lower court for a possible retrial. He was acquitted on the second-degree assault charge in 2023.
Cichuniec and Cooper were convicted in late December 2023 of criminally negligent homicide in the killing of McClain. The 23-year-old unarmed Black man died after Aurora police put him in a neck hold and Cooper injected him with too much of the sedative ketamine. Cichuniec was supervising Cooper when he injected the drug.
Cichuniec and Cooper separately appealed their convictions.
The appeals court agreed Thursday with Cooper’s appeal that the district court erred by refusing to clarify the standard of care applicable to the charge of criminally negligent homicide after the jury told the court they didn't know what standard to apply and asked for a definition.
"By telling the jurors to apply the 'common and ordinary meanings' of the words in the instruction, the court failed to shine any light on the issue and in fact misled the jurors as to the applicable standard of care: The proper standard wasn’t that of a generic reasonable person but of a person in Cooper’s profession under the existing circumstances," the Cooper judgment reads.
Because the appeals court agreed with the Cooper analysis, Thursday’s judgement reads there wasn’t a basis for treating Cichuniec differently.
“The two were tried on identical theories of guilt and the evidence against them was, while not identical, sufficiently similar that we can’t conclude that the errors were harmless as to Cichuniec,” the Cichuniec judgment reads.
▶️WATCH: Both Aurora Fire paramedics on trial for the death of Elijah McClain took the stand in their defense in December 2023. Watch our report on their testimony from that day in the video below.
Cooper and Cichuniec – along with three Aurora police officers – were indicted by a grand jury in September 2021. This was more than two years after McClain died and about a year after his death garnered attention in the wake of 2020 protests nationwide following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Former Aurora police officer Randy Roedema was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault while former Aurora police officer Jason Rosenblatt was acquitted of all charges in a joint trial that lasted nearly a month. Nathan Woodyard, the third officer indicted in the case, was also acquitted of all charges following his trial.
▶️WATCH: Sheneen McClain, Elijah McClain's mother, delivered an emotional victim impact testimony ahead of an officers' conviction in January 2024.
In response to Thursday's ruling, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser sent Denver7 the following statement:
"A jury convicted two paramedics for the death of Elijah McClain, an innocent Black man who did nothing wrong that tragic night seven years ago. Bringing these cases to trial was the right thing to do for justice, for Elijah McClain, and for healing in the Aurora community. The attorney general’s office is committed to defending these convictions through the appeals process. Justice demands it."
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