Prosecutors expect to call one final witness Thursday in their case against two police officers on trial in connection with Elijah McClain’s 2019 death, a forensic pathologist who told a grand jury he believes McClain’s struggle with the officers was part of causing his death.

Roger Mitchell testified to the grand jury that ultimately indicted the officers in McClain’s struggle “at the hands of others … created the environment for his death.”

Mitchell previously served as the chief medical examiner for Washington, D.C., and the National Medical Association’s website shows he has served as an expert witness in cases of deaths in police custody.

“Both the law enforcement altercation that decreased oxygen to his brain during the chokehold and his restrained subdual and the activity of being in that altercation creating an acidotic environment in him, also setting him up for respiratory issues or pulmonary arrest, and then, the administration of ketamine were all on the same continuum of restraint,” Mitchell told the grand jury, according to records from a third charged officer’s criminal case obtained by The Denver Gazette.

Medical experts told grand jury ketamine caused Elijah McClain’s death, records show

Aurora Police Officer Randy Roedema and former officer Jason Rosenblatt each face charges of assault, manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in McClain’s death. The case accuses them of stopping him the night of Aug. 24, 2019 as McClain, 23, walked home from a convenience store and grabbing him within seconds.

Roedema and Rosenblatt are accused of ignoring McClain’s cries that he could not breathe and calls for help after they took him to the ground and handcuffed him. The first officer to grab McClain, Nathan Woodyard, will face trial in a separate case. The three officers had responded to a 911 call by someone who saw McClain wearing a black mask and waving his arms, believing he was acting suspiciously. However, McClain was not suspected of a crime.

A paramedic who came to the scene injected McClain with the sedative ketamine. He went into cardiac arrest and stopped breathing, and died in a hospital a few days later. McClain never regained consciousness.

Roedema and Rosenblatt’s attorneys have sought to direct fault for McClain’s death to the paramedics for injecting him with ketamine without speaking to McClain or examining him. Two Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics, Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec, face criminal charges in a third case. Cooper administered the ketamine, according to the indictment.

The doctor who performed McClain’s autopsy, Stephen Cina, testified this week he could not say for sure if McClain’s struggle with officers contributed to his death, but he believes he would more than likely be alive if not for the ketamine injection.

Elijah McClain autopsy: Not certain if struggle with officers contributed to death

Senior Assistant Attorney General Jason Slothouber told District Judge Mark Warner prosecutors plan to wrap up their case following Mitchell’s testimony, which could take most of Thursday.

The defense attorneys have whittled down their list of witnesses they plan to call, Roedema’s defense attorney Reid Elkus told Warner.

“The mammoth has escaped,” Warner replied, a reference to last week when he called the pace of the trial “a mammoth caught in La Brea.” Proceedings plodded along to that point, slowed by the attorneys arguing over evidence and frequent objections from both sides to testimony.

‘A mammoth caught in La Brea’: Judge asks for more efficiency in Elijah McClain trial

Roedema and Rosenblatt’s trial is scheduled through Oct. 13, bumping up against the scheduled start of jury selection for the trial of Woodyard, the third police officer. The defense filed a motion asking Warner to find the attorney general’s office has not met its burden of proof and acquit Roedema and Rosenblatt, without the defense presenting their case. If Warner denies their motion, the defense attorneys have indicated they would have a use-of-force expert testify Friday.

The jury on Wednesday heard from Madison Freeman, who worked at the front desk of the Massage Envy where McClain was a massage therapist. Prosecutors called her to briefly testify about McClain’s slight, 140-pound stature, and she described him as a “skinny guy” just a few inches taller than her own 5-foot-2-inch frame. Freeman grew emotional when prosecutors showed a photo of McClain she took a few weeks before he died.

Roedema and Rosenblatt’s attorneys have said the officers struggled to restrain McClain as he violently resisted them. Body-worn camera footage captured them telling their sergeant McClain had showed extreme strength, and Roedema said he nearly did a “push up” with officers on top of him.

Opening statements given in trial over Elijah McClain’s death

Prosecutors also showed the jury McClain’s clothing from the night of the encounter. The red T-shirt and brown jacket he wore still bore red stains from his vomit, and were cut up from McClain receiving medical care. Prosecutors introduced the clothing through Ron Ryan, a criminal investigator in the attorney general’s office, who received McClain’s clothes and personal items as evidence.