(Updates with reaction from McClain's mother and the Aurora chief in paragraphs 5-6; details on charges in paragraph 3)

By Brad Brooks

Oct 12(Reuters) - A jury in Colorado on Thursday found police officer Randy Roedema guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the 2019 killing of Elijah McClain, a young Black man who died after being roughly restrained and injected with the sedative ketamine.

The same jury found Jason Rosenblatt, another officer jointly tried with Roedema, not guilty on manslaughter and assault charges.

Roedema, who was also found guilty of third-degree assault, will be sentenced on January 5. In making their findings on criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault, jurors chose the less serious of the charges he faced, which included reckless manslaughter and second-degree assault.

Aurora officers Roedema and Rosenblatt were defendants in the first of three trials in the death of McClain. In all, three police officers and two paramedics have been charged in McClain's death.

"This is the divided states of America, and that's what happens," McClain's mother, Sheneen McClain, told the Denver Post after the verdict was read. "I'm out. I'm too pissed to talk."

Aurora Police Chief Art Acevedo, who took over the department late last year, said in a written statement he knew "many have been waiting a long time for the involved parties to have their day in court" and that the department respects "the verdict handed down by the jury."

Prosecutors argued throughout the trial that the officers unnecessarily brutalized McClain when they stopped him and gave false information to paramedics which contributed to the medical workers administering a large dose of ketamine.

Defense attorneys argued during the trial it was the ketamine that killed McClain, and that paramedics were solely responsible.

A revised autopsy report in September 2022 concluded McClain died from "complications of ketamine administration following forcible restraint."

A bystander had called 911 to report that McClain was acting suspiciously as he walked home from a convenience store on Aug. 24, 2019, in the Denver suburb of Aurora. McClain, dressed in a winter coat and face mask on a warm night, was listening to music using ear buds and dancing slightly as he walked, security videos showed.

Rosenblatt, Roedema and a third Aurora police officer arrived and grabbed McClain nine seconds after confronting him, according to body camera footage showed by prosecutors. A struggle ensued.