Judge frees Colorado paramedic convicted in death of Elijah McClain from prison

DENVER — 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 said during his ruling that Peter Cichuniec had to make quick decision the night of the arrest as the highest-ranking paramedic at the scene, the Denver Post reported. He also noted a background of no previous criminal history and good character for Cichuniec, who had an 18-year-career as a firefighter and paramedic before he was convicted.

Warner held that the case had “unusual and extenuating circumstances,” in reference to a part of Colorado’s mandatory sentencing law, which allows a court to modify a sentence after a defendant has served least 119 days in prison if the judge finds such circumstances.

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. The other paramedic avoided prison time, sentenced instead to 14 months in jail with work release and probation.

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 has already achieved a “deterrence effect” to discourage similar crimes, Warner said in the hearing in Denver.

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.

“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.

Colorado Attorney General Philip Weiser said in a statement that he was disappointed in the reduced sentence but respected the court's decision.

Candice Bailey, a police reform advocate in the Denver suburb of Aurora who helped raise awareness about McClain’s death and pushed for charges to be brought, called Cichuniec’s sentence reduction “disturbing.”

“When you’re talking about a life being taken and that this individual was found guilty of that, and then we see something like a sentence being vacated and a person being put on probation — put on probation — it is absolutely mind boggling to me,” she said.

The president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, which had warned that Cichuniec’s conviction would set a chilling precedent for paramedics and firefighters, said it was relieved by the ruling.

“Pete Cichuniec did not belong behind bars,” Edward Kelly said in a statement. “We will always prioritize and advocate for the public’s safety and our members’ ability to do their jobs without fear of ill-conceived criminal prosecutions.”

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.