The sole Aurora police officer convicted in Elijah McClain’s death filed an appeal to the Colorado Court of Appeals on Wednesday, asking the higher court to review nine different aspects of the case.
Randy Roedema, 37, was sentenced to 14 months in jail with the option for work release in January, after he was convicted of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault in McClain’s 2019 death.
The 23-year-old unarmed Black man was violently arrested by Aurora police officers and then injected with an overdose of a powerful sedative, leading to his death. McClain had committed no crime, investigators later found.
Roedema was the only one of three Aurora police officers charged in McClain’s death to be convicted — the two other officers were acquitted at trial. The two Aurora paramedics who injected McClain with the sedative were found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and are scheduled to be sentenced in March and April.
Roedema’s 10-page appeal lists nine separate issues that he would like the Court of Appeals to review, including whether he should have been separated from his co-defendant during trial, whether the original grand jury indictment was flawed, whether the jury verdict was properly supported by evidence and whether the district court judge made mistakes during the case.
The notice of appeal filed Wednesday notes that the listed issues “are not necessarily the final or complete list.”
An attorney for Roedema did not return a request for comment Thursday.
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