Tuesday ended without a jury chosen in the trial of two Aurora police officers facing charges in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain.

Adams County District Court Judge Mark Warner said he hopes opening statements will begin around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday after the selection process for jurors finishes.

The attorneys will choose 14 jurors total: Twelve who will decide the case and two alternates. The alternates will listen to the entire case but will be excused before the jury deliberates, unless they are called on to replace a regular juror.

Randy Roedema and Jason Rosenblatt each face charges of criminally negligent homicide, manslaughter and second-degree assault in connection with McClain’s death. McClain, a 23-year-old Black man, died in August 2019 after the officers subdued him and an Aurora Fire Rescue paramedic injected him with the sedative ketamine.

The officers put McClain in a type of neck hold that can induce temporary unconsciousness and is intended to gain control of a person.

The forensic pathologist who performed McClain’s autopsy, Dr. Stephen Cina, originally prepared a report finding the cause and manner of his death undetermined. He later amended his report to say he believed an overdose of ketamine caused McClain’s death.

A statewide grand jury also indicted former Officer Nathan Woodyard, who was the first officer to contact McClain on the night of Aug. 24, 2019, along with paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec. All of the men charged are White.

The Colorado attorney general’s office is prosecuting the cases.

The attorneys on Tuesday scrutinized potential jurors’ ability to make a fair and impartial decision, asking questions about their views of law enforcement officers, whether they had ever had negative experiences with police and whether they could set aside any portrayals of McClain’s death they may have seen in the news to consider only the evidence presented to them in the case.

“We’re not asking you to pretend that you don’t have opinions. But we are asking you if those opinions are so closely held to you they would color how you view the evidence as it comes to the stand,” said prosecutor Jason Slothouber.

Harvey Steinberg, one of Rosenblatt’s attorneys, told potential jurors he does not want them to see the case as something that will reshape policing or address racism in society. He reminded them to pay attention only to the evidence brought in front of them.

“The issues are simple, and that is, can they prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt?”

Woodyard has a trial set for October, and Cooper and Cichuniec have a trial scheduled for November.

Elijah McClain

the associated press file