DENVER (news agencies) — A judge sentenced an ex-Colorado police officer to 14 months in jail for his role in the death of Elijah McClain after hearing the young Black man’s mother on Friday call the officer a “bully with a badge” who will always have blood on his hands.
The officer, Randy Roedema, was the most senior law enforcement member to initially respond to the scene and the only one found guilty. A jury convicted him in October of criminally negligent homicide, which is a felony, and third-degree assault, which is a misdemeanor.
The 23-year-old’s killing on Aug. 24, 2019, received little attention at the time but gained renewed interest the following year as mass protests swept the nation over the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. McClain’s death became a rallying cry for critics of racial injustice in policing.
In a separate trial, two paramedics were recently convicted for injecting McClain with an overdose of the sedative ketamine after police put him in a neck hold. Sentencing for the paramedics will come in March.
Before Judge Mark Warner handed down the sentence, McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, raged against Roedema after he expressed remorse but stopped short of apologizing.
“Randy Roedema stole my son’s life,” she said. “All the belated apologies in the world can’t remove my son’s blood from Randy Roedema’s hands.”
Protecting the community was “the furthest thing from his mind” the night her son was stopped walking home from the store, she said.
She hugged a supporter and wiped tears as she sat back down.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Jason Slothouber described how, in the last minutes of McClain’s life, he struggled to breathe through vomit yet still faced violence from Roedema who picked him up, slammed him down, and dug his knee into his back.
The lack of compassion was all the more startling, Slothouber said, after he read all 76 letters friends, relatives and associates wrote in Roedema’s support.
“I don’t know why that compassion and that care that his friends and his family, the people who served with him, talk about, was not there for Elijah McClain. But it clearly wasn’t,” Slothouber said.
Roedema also spoke at the hearing, as well as his sister and former military colleagues. Roedema was a U.S. Marine who was wounded in Iraq.
“I want the McClain family to know the sadness I feel about Elijah being gone. He was young,” Roedema said.
Roedema said he wished the initial 911 call that reported McClain looking suspicious that night had never been made. But he didn’t comment about anything he could have done differently.
“We all responded to that incident in a way that we were all trained to do. Needless to say, the situation had a horrible outcome that nobody intended or wanted to happen,” Roedema said.
Roedema’s sister, Kayleine Roedema, talked about how he helps her care for their mother “without hesitation” and continues to be a “big brother” who is relied upon by their whole family.
“It hurts me because I know him and I know better. He’s a loving husband and father, son and brother, cousin and friend. It’s so hard for me to imagine how it could be beneficial for him to serve time in jail,” Kayleine Roedema said.
Roedema’s lawyer Don Sisson declined to comment on the sentence as he left court with Roedema and his wife. A deputy escorted them to their cars.
McClain was stopped by police after a 911 caller reported that he looked suspicious. Another officer put his hands on McClain within seconds, beginning a struggle and restraint that lasted about 20 minutes before paramedics injected him with the ketamine.
Experts say the sedative ultimately killed McClain, who was already weakened from struggling to breathe while being pinned down after inhaling vomit into his lungs.
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