Death of Elijah McClain: 3rd Aurora officer on trial

BRIGHTON, Colo. — During opening statements Tuesday in the case of a suspended Aurora police officer accused of wrongdoing in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a prosecutor and a defense attorney agreed on several points.

Neither disputed that the officer on trial, Nathan Woodyard, put McClain in a neck hold that rendered him unconscious for a time – a hold that can have life-threatening consequences.

Neither disputed that his death was a tragedy – or that he should still be alive.

Neither disputed that a dose of the sedative ketamine killed him.

But prosecutor Ann Joyce said Woodyard – and other first responders – set off a cascading series of medical issues when they confronted, subdued and restrained McClain as he walked along an Aurora street on Aug. 24, 2019, wearing a ski mask that covered his face. Their actions cut oxygen to his brain, caused him to vomit and then inhale some of it, and left him struggling to breathe before a paramedic injected a sedative, she said.

“They didn’t listen to him when he said, ‘I can’t breathe,’” Joyce told the jurors. “They did not listen when he was drowning in his own vomit. And they certainly didn’t pay attention as he got quieter and quieter and quieter.”

Instead, they repeatedly violated their own training, treated McClain with “callousness and indifference,” and failed to act as he begged for help, Joyce said.

It was that failure, she said, “that caused Mr. McClain to die.”

“The tragedy is incomprehensible,” said defense attorney Megan Downing. “The evidence will take a toll on you. It will make you angry. It should make you angry.”

But Woodyard, she said, interacted with McClain for only about five minutes and had no role in the decision by paramedics to administer a “lethal” dose of ketamine.

“Nothing that Officer Woodyard did caused Mr. McClain to die,” she said. “None of the actions he took. None of the force he used. He’s not guilty.”

Woodyard, the first to respond after a 911 caller reported that McClain was wearing a mask and acting “sketchy,” faces a single count of reckless manslaughter.

He and fellow officers encountered McClain as McClain walked home with three cans of ice tea he had purchased at a nearby convenience store. Body camera footage showed that Woodyard ordered him to stop, put his hands on McClain within eight seconds, and then, with two fellow officers, struggled to subdue him.

In the midst of that, one of the other officers said McClain tried to grab a gun – an act that the prosecution has argued isn’t supported by the evidence. At that point, one officer tried and failed to put McClain in a carotid hold, which is designed to cut oxygen to the brain and render a person unconscious. Woodyard then used a carotid hold that was successful.

McClain was not breaking any laws when he stopped and was not armed.

Then-Adams County District Attorney Dave Young cleared the officers of any criminal wrongdoing. Later, Gov. Jared Polis appointed state Attorney General Phil Weiser as special prosecutor in the case, and he took evidence to a grand jury, which indicted three police officers and two paramedics.

Woodyard’s trial is the second of three for first responders accused of wrongdoing in McClain’s death.

Last week, after more than two weeks of testimony and nearly two full days of deliberations, a different jury issued a split verdict against two of the Aurora police officers involved in the incident – finding Randy Roedema guilty of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault, and acquitting Jason Rosenblatt of all charges.

Two paramedics, Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec, are scheduled to go on trial in late November.

Sentencing for Roedema is scheduled Jan. 5. He had been suspended without pay since being indicted in the case but was fired after being convicted.

Rosenblatt was fired earlier for responding “ha ha” to a photo other officers took appearing to administer a carotid hold on one another at the scene of McClain’s death.

Woodyard remains suspended without pay pending the outcome of this case. If convicted, he could face up to six years in prison.

The paramedics also are suspended without pay while they await trial.

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