The lone police officer convicted in Elijah McClain’s death will serve 14 months in jail, with work release, and four years probation for his role in the August 2019 death of the 23-year-old man.

Seventeenth Judicial District Judge Mark Warner sentenced former Aurora Police Officer Randy Roedema to 14 months in jail, with work release, on the third-degree assault conviction and four years probation on the more-serious criminally negligent homicide conviction — for which he could have been sentenced up to three years in prison.

Roedema was also ordered to perform 200 hours of community service. Warner allowed him to leave the courtroom on bail, and ordered him to report to jail. Roedema left from a side courthouse door escorted by a deputy, walking briskly, his wife trailing behind him, and drove away in his truck.

“The evidence was unequivocal that you used significant force against Mr. McClain after he was handcuffed and not a threat,” Warner said.

But he also took into consideration Roedema’s lack of criminal history, military service and that he appeared to be of “good character” and “highly rehabilitatable.”

Roedema’s attorney, Don Sisson, in asking for probation only, painted an all-American picture of Roedema as a father of three, soccer coach, decorated Marine and Iraq War veteran and church volunteer. Sisson admitted, though, that although his client “didn’t cause Elijah McClain’s death,” Roedema “fell short.”

Also arguing to keep Roedema out of prison because of the possibility that he would be a potential target, his attorney, Reid Elkus, reminded the court that George Floyd’s convicted killer, Derek Chauvin, was stabbed while behind bars. By coincidence, Roedema’s sentencing came on the same day Chauvin’s attacker, John Turscak, pleaded not guilty to the crime in federal court.

Seventy-six people sent the court letters about Roedema’s character in hopes of persuading the judge to lessen his sentence.

Supporters of Elijah McClain also sent the court letters asking for Roedema to receive the maximum sentence of three years in prison. Senior Assistant Attorney General Jason Slothouber quoted one of those letters, in which the person wrote “You just can’t forget Elijah McClain’s soul if you were touched by him.”

McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, standing outside the courthouse after the sentencing, was not impressed by Roedema’s past history.

“All the good things he did were for show. He is a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” she said. “This is not justice. This is not accountability. This is a slap on the wrist.”

She did not look at Roedema when he addressed the judge for his mitigation statement. He did not apologize, but started off by expressing his condolences to Sheneen McClain for the loss of Elijah.

“I hate that the McClain family has to go through this,” he told Warner.

He then blamed the 911 caller for the way things started that night.

“I wish the bystander would not have made that call,” he said. “We all responded in the way we were trained to do.”

When he finished his statement, he returned to his seat and shifted to look in the direction of the front row where Sheneen McClain was sitting with supporters. She did not look at him.

McClain died in 2019 several days after a struggle with police officers and an injection of ketamine by a paramedic. He was walking home from a convenience store where he bought bottles of tea when dispatch received a 911 call describing him as “sketchy.”

Roedema was the most senior of the three officers who stopped McClain. Body camera footage showed he kept McClain face down while pinned on the ground instead of making sure he was on his side to breathe and, at one point, yanking on his arm. Footage also shows him slamming McClain’s torso into the ground after McClain said “I can’t fix myself.”

A jury convicted Roedema in October of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault.

Roedema was tried alongside former Aurora Officer Jason Rosenblatt, who was acquitted of all charges in a split verdict. They both faced assault and reckless manslaughter charges, with criminally negligent homicide as a lesser included count.

Rosenblatt was fired by the Aurora Police Department in 2020 and Roedema was suspended, but was terminated after the conviction.

A third officer, Nathan Woodyard, was acquitted of all charges in a separate trial in November and has been reinstated with the department and received $212,546 in back pay.

Slothouber asked the judge for prison time, saying Roedema “deliberately hurt McClain” and repeatedly described his actions that night as “callous and cruel.”

He urged Warner to help “rebuild trust” with the public in police by handing down a prison sentence that showed “accountability and punishment for callous and cruel behavior, even while wearing a badge, has serious criminal consequences.”

Sheneen McClain, Elijah McClain’s mom, repeatedly called Roedema a “murderer” during her victim’s impact statement to Warner.

“Randy Roedema stole my son’s life,” McClain said, while urging Warner to hand down the maximum prison sentence possible.

“He brutalized my son to death,” she said, remaining calm and measured while speaking. When McClain returned to her front-row seat, she cried as friends comforted her.

Roedema’s attorneys argued at trial he used less force than actually would have been justified because he believed McClain was violently resisting. Roedema believed he saw McClain try to grab Rosenblatt’s gun, and the officers had to react to a rapidly evolving situation, they said.

Prosecutors said repeatedly there was no evidence McClain tried to go for the gun.

Paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec were convicted last month of negligent homicide in McClain’s death. They injected McClain with the sedative ketamine after police put him in a neckhold. He went into cardiac arrest and stopped breathing within a few minutes of receiving the injection, and he never regained consciousness. A doctor declared him brain-dead in the hospital three days later.

The jury deliberated for two days on the actions of Cooper and Cichuniec. They were accused of giving McClain, who weighed 140 pounds at the time, too large of a ketamine dose at 500 milligrams. Prosecutors also alleged that the two did not perform adequate medical checks on McClain immediately before or after administering the dose.

Jurors also found Cichuniec guilty of second-degree assault for unlawfully administering drugs. They decided it met the requirements of a crime-of-violence sentence enhancer for causing serious bodily injury or death. Cichuniec had decided on the dose of ketamine to administer to McClain.

But Cichuniec and Cooper were found not guilty of manslaughter, the most serious charge.

Their sentencing is scheduled for March 1.

Sheneen McClain, who said she is writing a book and may consider running for office, said that she would be present for the paramedics’ sentencing.

Former Denver Gazette reporter Julia Cardi contributed to this report.