Colorado Court Reverses Paramedic Convictions After Elijah McClain Death
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – A Colorado appellate court on Thursday reversed homicide convictions against Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec following the death of 23‑year‑old Elijah McClain in 2019. The decision sends the case back to a lower court for a new trial on criminally negligent homicide.
McClain, a Black man, was forcibly restrained by police after a suspicious‑person complaint while he walked home from a local convenience store. He died after a ketamine overdose and forced restraint, the court ruled. His final words – I can’t breathe – eerily foreshadowed the death of George Floyd a year later.
In 2023, a state jury found Cooper and Cichuniec guilty of criminally negligent homicide. The jury also convicted Cichuniec of second‑degree felony assault. Cooper received 14 months in jail with work release and probation; Cichuniec was sentenced to five years in prison.
The appellate decision upheld Cichuniec’s assault conviction but faulted the jury instructions for the homicide case. The court said the instructions failed to instruct jurors properly before deliberation, thus violating procedural standards. The case is now set to return for a new trial on the homicide charge.
Cichuniec was released early from prison in 2024 after a judge reduced his sentence to four years of probation, citing unusual and extenuating circumstances under Colorado’s mandatory sentencing framework. The judge noted that Cichuniec had to make a rapid decision that night as the highest‑ranking paramedic present at the scene.
Elijah McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, received a voicemail from the Associated Press seeking comment. The AP also reached out to the paramedics’ lawyers and the union for statements.
Reporting: Gruver from Fort Collins; Brown from Billings, Montana.
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