Nathan Woodyard, a Colorado police officer, was acquitted within the homicide of Elijah McClain. The 23-year-old Black man died after he was subdued by police and injected with ketamine by paramedics in 2019. McClain’s mom, Sheneen McClain, who was within the courtroom, wiped tears from her eyes after the decision was learn.

A second Denver-area police officer was acquitted Monday within the 2019 loss of life of Elijah McClain, who was put in a neck maintain and injected with ketamine after being stopped by police as he walked dwelling from a comfort retailer.

The jury discovered Aurora officer Nathan Woodyard not responsible of murder and manslaughter following a weekslong trial in state district court docket. He confronted years in jail if convicted.

McClain’s mom, Sheneen McClain, who was within the courtroom, wiped tears from her eyes after the decision was learn.

Defense lawyer Megan Downing mentioned, “We believe it was the right verdict, not an easy one.”

The case obtained little consideration till protests over the 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked renewed outrage over McClain’s loss of life. The 23-year-old Black man’s pleading phrases captured on police physique digital camera video, “I’m an introvert and I’m different,” struck a chord.

An earlier trial in opposition to two different officers resulted in cut up verdict, with one convicted of murder and third diploma assault and the opposite officer acquitted.

McClain died after being put in a neck maintain by Woodyard, then pinned to the bottom by Woodyard and several other different officers earlier than he was injected by paramedics with an overdose of ketamine.

Defense attorneys confused Woodyard was not there throughout essential minutes when McClain’s situation was deteriorating. Body digital camera footage seen by jurors confirmed Woodyard stepping away for a part of the confrontation.

Two paramedics are awaiting trial later this month.

An area prosecutor in 2019 determined in opposition to legal costs as a result of the coroner’s workplace couldn’t decide precisely how the therapeutic massage therapist died. But Colorado Gov. Jared Polis ordered state Attorney General Phil Weiser’s workplace to take one other have a look at the case in 2020 and a grand jury indicted the officers and paramedics in 2021.

The killings of McClain, Floyd and others triggered a wave of laws that put limits on the usage of neck holds in additional than two dozen states. Colorado now tells paramedics to not give ketamine to folks suspected of getting a controversial situation referred to as excited delirium, which has signs together with elevated energy and has been related to racial bias in opposition to Black males.

Unlike the primary two officers who have been prosecuted, Woodyard took the stand throughout his trial. He testified that he put McClain within the carotid management maintain as a result of he feared for his life after he heard McClain say, “I intend to take my power back” and one other officer say, “He just grabbed your gun, dude.”

McClain was stopped Aug. 24, 2019, whereas strolling dwelling from a comfort retailer on a summer time night time, listening to music and sporting a masks that lined most of his face. The police cease rapidly grew to become bodily after McClain, seemingly caught off guard, requested to be left alone. He had not been accused of committing any crime.

Woodyard and different officers instructed investigators they took McClain down after listening to Officer Randy Roedema say, “He grabbed your gun dude.” Roedema later mentioned Officer Jason Rosenblatt’s gun was the goal.

Paramedics injected McClain with ketamine as Roedema and one other officer who was not charged held him on the bottom. He went into cardiac arrest en path to the hospital and died three days later.

Roedema was convicted earlier this month of the least critical costs he confronted which may result in a sentence of wherever from probation to jail time.

Rosenblatt was acquitted of all costs. His lawyer mentioned probably the most junior officer on scene was a scapegoat in a prosecution pushed by politics.

In each trials, the protection sought to pin the blame for McClain’s loss of life on paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Lt. Peter Cichuniec. But whereas attorneys within the first trial steered McClain bore some duty for his medical decline by combating police, Woodyard’s legal professionals appeared extra sympathetic to McClain.

Woodyard mentioned he put his arm round McClain’s neck and utilized stress on its sides to cease the circulation of blood to McClain’s mind and render him briefly unconscious. The approach, referred to as a carotid management maintain, was allowed on the time however later banned in Colorado, one in all greater than two dozen states that took steps to restrict neck restraints after Floyd’s killing.

Prosecutors refuted that McClain ever tried to seize an officer’s gun and it might’t be seen in physique digital camera footage.

The metropolis of Aurora in 2021 agreed to pay $15 million to settle a lawsuit introduced by McClain’s mother and father.