Aurora Police Officer Nathan Woodyard Found Not Guilty in the 2019 Death of Elijah McClain
Woodyard was the third of five responders to go to trial in this case.
A Colorado jury has today found Aurora police officer Nathan Woodyard not guilty on charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain. Woodward was the third first responder to go to trial on charges in this case. Today’s acquittal continues split verdicts by juries in this matter. The jury deliberated for two days before reaching this decision.
Woodyard was the sole criminal defendant on trial over the last few weeks. Previously this year, Aurora police officer Randy Roedema and former Aurora police officer Jason Rosenblatt were tried together on similar charges. The jury in that case found Roedema guilty of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault of McClain. Like Woodyard, Rosenblatt was acquitted on all charges.
The case will next move to trial later this month against paramedics Peter Cichuniec and Jeremy Cooper. They have pleaded not guilty on all charges against them.
On August 24, 2019, the 23-year-old McClain was walking home from a convenience store listening to music and wearing a mask that covered most of his face. The Black young adult was confronted by three white Aurora police officers following reports of an unarmed person in a ski mask looking “sketchy.” A struggle occurred in which McClain was forcibly held to the ground while handcuffed with a choke hold being applied twice. The paramedics then arrived on the scene and administered an excess dose of ketamine to sedate him. He went into cardiac arrest on the scene and was declared brain dead at the hospital three days later. He was removed from life support on August 30, 2019.
McClain’s initial autopsy was inconclusive and the cause of death was listed as undetermined. A later lawsuit from several news agencies required an amended autopsy report be released after discovering that Aurora police officers met with the coroner before his announcement and were present during the autopsy. The amended autopsy listed the cause of death as “complications of ketamine administration following forcible restraint.”
In September 2021, a Colorado grand jury indicted Roedema, Rosenblatt, Woodyard, Cooper and Cichuniec. They each faced several counts of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and assault.
Over the three week trial, state prosecutors led by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser argued that the neck hold Woodyard applied to McClain contributed to his death. Notably, the move - known as a carotid choke hold - has since been banned in Colorado and many other states. Prosecutors also argued that Woodyard failed to render appropriate medical aid once McClain began choking on his vomit.
Woodyard’s defense attorneys blamed McClain’s death solely on the injection of ketamine by the paramedics. Moreover, they claimed that Woodyard followed protocol as detailed by his police training at the time of the event.