DENVER (AP) — A Colorado paramedic convicted in the death of Elijah McClain, a Black man whose name became part of the rallying cries for social justice that swept the U.S. in 2020, is being released from prison after a judge reduced his sentence to four years of probation Friday.
Judge Mark Warner ruled that “unusual and extenuating circumstances” in the case justified reducing the five-year prison sentence for Peter Cichuniec, The Denver Post reported.
McClain was walking down the street in a Denver suburb in 2019 when police responding to a suspicious person report forcibly restrained him and put him in a neck hold. His final words — “I can’t breathe” — foreshadowed those of George Floyd a year later in Minneapolis.
Cichuniec and a fellow paramedic were convicted in December of criminally negligent homicide for injecting McClain with ketamine, a powerful sedative blamed for killing the 23-year-old massage therapist. Cichuniec also was convicted on a more serious charge of second-degree assault for giving a drug without consent or a legitimate medical purpose.
McClain’s death and others have raised questions about the use of ketamine to subdue struggling suspects, and the prosecution sent shock waves through the ranks of paramedics across the U.S.
The case with “unique circumstances” already has achieved a “deterrence effect” to discourage similar crimes, Warner said in the hearing in Denver.
“Pete is coming home!” Cichuniec’s supporters cried out after Warner reduced the sentence at the hearing, according to the Post. They declined to comment to the newspaper.
In a statement, the office of Colorado Attorney General Philip Weiser said: “After considering the evidence, a statewide grand jury indicted Cichuniec and a jury of his peers found him guilty of his criminal acts that led to the death of Elijah McClain. We are disappointed the court reduced his sentence today, but we respect the court’s decision.”
The ruling by Warner, the same judge who handed down the prison sentence in March, will release Cichuniec from a prison on the northeastern Colorado plains, though exactly when was not immediately clear.
Colorado’s mandatory sentencing law allows a court to modify a sentence after a defendant has served least 119 days in prison if the judge finds the case is exceptional and involves “unusual and extenuating circumstances.”
McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, declined via email to comment Friday. In March she celebrated the original sentence handed down by the judge as she left the courtroom that day, raising her fist in the air.
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Gruver reported from Cheyenne, Wyoming. Amy Beth Hanson contributed from Helena, Montana.
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