Jurors heard testimony that painted a picture of Elijah McClain’s final minutes before and during his struggle with Aurora police officers the night of Aug. 24, 2019 during the first two days of the criminal trial against the first officer who stopped him.

Officer Nathan Woodyard faces charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in connection with McClain’s death.

A criminal investigator for the Colorado Attorney General’s office showed the jury Wednesday the clothing McClain wore that night, his black mask still caked with vomit. His jacket and shirt were cut up from the medical care he received after being loaded into an ambulance.

Prosecutors showed surveillance footage from the convenience store McClain had just left after buying iced tea. He waited in line, paid and bowed to other customers when he turned to leave. Footage from the store’s parking lot appeared to show him dancing to music through his earbuds as he walked away.

The 911 dispatcher who spoke to a caller reporting McClain looked “sketchy” as he walked home also took the stand. She testified the teenage caller didn’t report any crime or say McClain had a weapon. But she also said, under cross examination, that police officers can’t decide for themselves whether they think a call merits a response.

Assistant Attorney General Ann Joyce said in opening statements Tuesday a neck hold carotid hold used by Woodyard set off a cascade of medical complications for McClain when it resulted in him vomiting and he then inhaled the vomit into his lungs, struggling to clear his airway while pinned on the ground by officers.

She said Woodyard violated his training by not taking measures required after the use of a carotid hold, such as checking McClain’s vital signs and making sure he was in a good position to breathe and didn’t pay attention to McClain’s slowly deteriorating condition over the course of the struggle with police.

Woodyard’s defense attorney Megan Downing said the he had to react quickly since officers did not have the luxury of hindsight in judging whether McClain posed a threat.

As in the cases of two other officers who already faced trial, Downing lay blame instead on two paramedics who are scheduled for trial next month, because of the decision to inject McClain with the sedative ketamine after the 18-minute struggle with police. Paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec are scheduled to be prosecuted in the final trial in connection with McClain’s death next month.

Here’s what you need to know about McClain’s death and the people now facing charges:

Why did police stop McClain?

Woodyard was the first of three officers who approached McClain after a 17-year-old 911 caller said McClain, who was wearing earbuds and listening to music, seemed “sketchy” and was waving his arms as he walked home on the night of Aug. 24, 2019. McClain, a 23-year-old massage therapist, was often cold and wore a runner’s mask and jacket that night, prosecutors have said.

Prosecutors say Woodyard put his hands on McClain less than 10 seconds after getting out of his patrol car, without introducing himself or explaining why he wanted to talk to McClain. McClain, seemingly caught off guard, tried to keep walking.

Woodyard told him he had the right to stop McClain because he was “being suspicious.”

Officer Randy Roedema said several times during the struggle he saw McClain try to grab former officer Jason Rosenblatt’s gun. Woodyard put him in a neck hold that can induce brief unconsciousness, known as a carotid hold because it presses against a person’s carotid artery. Prosecutors have refuted claims that there’s any evidence McClain reached for Rosenblatt’s gun.

Paramedics later injected McClain with a 500-milligram dose of ketamine, a powerful sedative. A doctor pronounced him brain dead three days later.

What happened in the first trial?

A jury convicted Roedema on Oct. 12 of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault, the least serious charges he faced, but acquitted Rosenblatt on all counts.

During the trial, Rosenblatt’s attorneys pointed out that he wasn’t near McClain when he was injected with ketamine.

Prosecutors alleged that Rosenblatt held McClain’s legs when he was on the ground before Rosenblatt stepped away, while Roedema held McClain’s shoulder and back. Roedema and another officer who wasn’t charged restrained McClain while paramedics administered the ketamine.

Roedema was the most senior patrol officer at the scene between him, Rosenblatt and Woodyard, and body-worn camera footage shown to jurors shows him appearing to direct other officers during the struggle with McClain.

Rosenblatt had only been on the force about two years when McClain died. He was fired in 2020 for responding “ha ha” to a photo texted to him by other Aurora officers re-enacting the neck hold at the scene.

Roedema could get anywhere from probation to three years in prison when he’s sentenced Jan. 5.

Did the ketamine or neck hold kill McClain? 

McClain had been kept on the ground for about 15 minutes when paramedics gave him 500 milligrams of ketamine. He weighed 140 pounds but received a higher dose of ketamine than recommended for someone of his size, said Stephen Cina, a forensic pathologist who performed McClain’s autopsy.

Cina ultimately decided that McClain died of complications from the ketamine, noting that it occurred after the forcible restraint. However, he wasn’t able to say the manner of death, such as homicide or accidental. He testified at the first trial he couldn’t conclude whether the officers’ actions contributed to it.

Pulmonologist David Beuther testified that McClain threw up repeatedly and inhaled vomit, and his position on the ground made it difficult for him to breathe properly or clear his airway. Even before the ketamine was injected, McClain was at risk for permanent lung damage or death, he said.

Joyce told jurors that McClain began to vomit right after being put in the neck hold.

Although doctors managed to restart McClain’s heart at the hospital, Beuther said oxygen deprivation had already caused irreversible brain damage.

Why were the officers charged?

Dave Young, the district attorney for Adams County at the time, decided not to file charges for McClain’s death largely because the initial autopsy didn’t determine exactly how he died.

Following the protests over Floyd’s death, though, Democratic Gov. Jared Polis directed Attorney General Phil Weiser to re-investigate McClain’s death. A grand jury indicted the three officers and two paramedics in 2021.