LONGMONT, Colo., Sept 13 (Askume) – A Colorado judge on Friday reduced the sentence of a paramedic convicted in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, the young Black man who died after being shot and choked by police.
Judge Mark Warner, who is overseeing three prosecutions in McClain’s death, spoke to emergency medical officer Peter Sichuniak at a hearing before his sentence was commuted to probation, said Colorado Judiciary spokeswoman Suzanne Carr.
In March, Warner sentenced the paramedic to five years in prison, the longest sentence of any police officer and paramedic charged in McClain’s death. It is unclear when Chichuniak will be released.
“The court finds that there are truly unusual and extenuating circumstances that are truly extraordinary in this case,” Warner said during the brief hearing, according to the Denver Post.
Neither the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, which is prosecuting McClain’s case, nor Chichuniak’s attorney responded to after-hours requests for comment.
In December, a jury found Sichuniak, 51, guilty of criminally negligent homicide and second-degree assault on a caregiver.This is a rare case of its kind.
Siechuniak’s partner, Jeremy Cooper, 49, was also found guilty of manslaughter and given 14 months’ leave.
Their joint trial was the last of three cases related to the death of McClain, 23, who was not charged with any crime when police stopped him.
A police officer has been sentenced to 14 months in prison after being found guilty of manslaughter due to criminal negligence . Two other police officers were found not guilty.
The district attorney initially declined to file charges in the McClain case. That changed after the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by Minneapolis police in May 2020.
