An Aurora firefighter-paramedic who was convicted of assault and negligent murder within the demise Elijah McClain, has been freed after the trial decide agreed to cut back his sentence. Peter Cichuniec, 51, had been incarcerated within the Sterling Correctional Facility, serving a five-year jail sentence.
In March, 2024 Choose Mark Warner sentenced Cichuniec to five-years in jail for second diploma assault and one-year for criminally negligent murder, with each sentences to run concurrently. That was the mandatory-minimum sentence for the convictions, which may have run so long as 16 years.
Cichuniec was punished essentially the most harshly of the three first-responders convicted within the case. Firefighter-paramedic Jeremy Cooper was sentenced to four-years of probation for criminally negligent murder, whereas former police officer Randy Roedema was sentenced to 14 months within the county jail for criminally negligent murder and assault within the third diploma.
Cichuniec and Cooper have been referred to as to help law enforcement officials who have been struggling to subdue McClain on August 30, 2019. Cichuniec injected McClain with 500mg. of ketamine in an try and subdue him. McClain coded and regardless of efforts to resuscitate him, he died three days later. The firefighters and three law enforcement officials have been indicted on manslaughter, criminally negligent murder, and assault fees.
Final Friday, Choose Warner ordered Cichuniec launched, and altered his sentence to 4 years of probation. The method was defined by the Denver Put up as follows:
- State legislation allowed Warner to cut back the necessary minimal jail sentence after Cichuniec spent no less than 119 days in jail and after the Colorado Division of Corrections assessed Cichuniec’s danger stage and reported again to the decide, which each occurred.
- As he issued his ruling, Warner commented on Cichuniec’s lack of prior prison historical past, rehabilitative potential, good character and his prior “pro-social” historical past, in addition to his general function within the occasions that led to McClain’s demise — Cichuniec was the highest-ranking paramedic on the scene, however was most straight answerable for “the logistics of the decision and security of others concerned,” Warner stated.
- Cichuniec admitted on the stand throughout his trial that he and former paramedic Jeremy Cooper overestimated McClain’s weight and that the paramedics gave McClain a too-high dose of ketamine. Cichuniec testified that he was involved about giving McClain too little ketamine and didn’t assume he had sufficient time to offer a smaller dose, wait to see its results, then name a physician for permission to offer extra, as his coaching required.
- Warner famous as he dominated Friday that Cichuniec wanted to make fast choices that night time.
- “The court docket should additionally, and does right now as nicely, have a look at the deterrence impact of the sentence,” Warner stated. “…For essentially the most half, the court docket believes primarily based on the problems that arose on this case, a deterrence impact has been actually achieved and there are distinctive circumstances to this case.”
Whereas the prosecution complained that decreasing Cichuniec’s sentence would “undermine the jury’s verdict,” IAFF President Ed Kelly was quoted by ABC Information as saying he was relieved by the ruling:
- Peter Cichuniec didn’t belong behind bars.
- The IAFF will all the time prioritize and advocate for the general public’s security and our members’ potential to do their jobs with out worry of ill-conceived prison prosecution.
A replica of the choice is just not out there on Lexis or the court docket’s website online. A replica will probably be posted if/when one turns into out there.