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Nov. 6 (UPI) -- A Colorado police officer was found not guilty Monday in the death of 23-year-old Elijah McClain following an altercation four years ago with Aurora police, who retrained McClain with a neck hold. Nathan Woodyard was acquitted by a jury on charges of reckless manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the second trial over McClain's death. Woodyard, who was the first police officer on the scene in August 2019, pleaded not guilty.
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"We are respectful of the process in what is a very difficult case," Woodyard's lawyers, Megan Downing and Andrew Ho, said in a statement Monday. "We have never disregarded the tragic circumstances, but are relieved for what we believe is the just outcome for our client."
Woodyard's employment by the Aurora Police Department will be determined by a city charter now that the trial is over.
"Today's verdict is not the one we hoped for, but we respect the jury system and accept this outcome," Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a statement. "We remain undeterred in our pursuit of accountability and justice for Elijah McClain and his family and friends."
McClain, a Black man, died Aug. 30, 2019, after he was taken off life support at a hospital following a violent confrontation with police a week earlier.
Officers had tried to stop McClain, who was unarmed and was walking down the street wearing a ski mask, before tackling him to the ground and pinning him with a carotid control hold. McClain vomited several times and pleaded with police, saying he could not breathe.
"I'm so sorry. I have no gun. I don't do that stuff. I don't do fighting. Why are you taking me?" McClain was heard saying in body camera footage.
Paramedics injected McClain with 500 milligrams of ketamine, a heavy sedative, when they arrived. McClain went into cardiac arrest as he was transported to the hospital and was declared brain dead on Aug. 27.
"This trial is about the defendant and his teammates doing nothing to help Elijah McClain. This trial is about their continued callousness and indifference to Mr. McClain's suffering," Assistant Attorney General Ann Joyce said during opening arguments.
The defense argued that the ketamine, administered by the EMTs, not the neck hold was responsible for McClain's death.
"The evidence cannot leave the real possibility that Nathan did not know that the paramedics would come in and overdose," defense attorney Ho said.
According to an autopsy, McClain's cause of death was listed as "undetermined," but in an amended report was listed as "complications of ketamine administration following forcible restraint."
The trial of the paramedics will begin later this month.
In the first trial last month, jurors acquitted former officer Jason Rosenblatt on all counts in McClain's death, but found officer Randy Roedema guilty of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault.
McClain's mother, Sheneen McClain was in the courtroom Monday to hear the verdict, after which she wiped away tears. In 2021, Aurora city officials agreed to pay $15 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit brought by McClain's parents.
