A federal jury in Denver has awarded $6 million to a 36-year-old convicted murderer confined to a wheelchair from a prison beating he said he suffered at the hands of a guard — the largest verdict rendered for a prison or jail inmate in Colorado.

As part of its decision, the U.S. District Court jury said the prison guard, Mitchell Mullen, beat Jayson Oslund “maliciously and sadistically” with the intent of hurting him, even though the inmate at the time was suffering a seizure associated with his epilepsy, according to court records.

Mullen denied the allegations, maintaining that he was trying to help Oslund get medical help. Mullen is no longer a DOC employee.

A spokeswoman for Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, whose office handled the defense, said the state was “reviewing its options,” including whether to appeal.

After a two-day trial, the jury on Wednesday awarded Oslund – serving a life term at the Sterling Correctional Facility since 2010 for a murder that happened a year earlier — $5 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages.

“It’s huge,” Mark Silverstein, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, said in describing the size of the verdict.

But Oslund might not be able to collect, according to defense attorney David Lane, who called the verdict “a record” for a prison-related case.

“The 11th Amendment makes the state immune for money damages,” Lane said. “So what we have is a $6 million verdict against the Department of Corrections that doesn’t pay a penny, and it’s unlikely the guard has $6 million in his pocket.”

Lane said the state has often indemnified prison guards because “they don’t want the staff to feel unprotected.”

Mullen, in this case, was not disciplined over the incidents Oslund alleges.

Oslund filed the lawsuit in 2015, two years after the incident occurred and after unsuccessful efforts to remedy his concerns via a complaint process that inmates are supposed to use. During that process, Oslund said he merely wanted “all (corrections) officers to go through and be able to receive extensive sensitivity training and property medical training, especially with epileptic people,” according to copies of his complaints included in the federal court case.

He asserted, as he did in his lawsuit, that Mullen had slammed Oslund’s already bleeding head into the concrete floor of his prison cell March 7, 2013, during the seizure — the second one Oslund suffered that day. The injuries left Oslund, who suffers from epilepsy, confined to a wheelchair.

During the first seizure that day, Oslund suffered a head gash that required stitches after falling to the floor, records show.

Unlike the federal jury, a grievance officer for the Colorado Department of Corrections in 2013 determined Oslund didn’t have a viable complaint.

“I can find no documentation to support your claim that this specific officer, in any way performed in an unprofessional manner during the seizure you experienced,” Anthony DeCesaro wrote in his opinion in May 2013. “I contacted (Sterling Correctional Facility) and was informed that attempts were made to assist you during a seizure.”

The case came at a time of heightened awareness to allegations of police and jailhouse brutality, and is among a string of high-profile cases brought by prisoners and inmates that ended in huge payments.

Oslund filed his federal lawsuit, claiming his Eighth Amendment right to equal protection had been violated, not long after another high-profile federal lawsuit was settled. In that case, homeless street preacher Marvin Booker’s family agreed to a $6 million settlement with the city of Denver in November 2014, ending their excessive-force case against five sheriff’s deputies. Booker died in the Denver Detention Center in 2010.

Also in 2014, Denver settled another case — that one for $3.25 million to former inmate Jamal Hunter, who said the city failed to protect him when other inmates scalded his genitals and prison guards attacked him.

Oslund represented himself in the lawsuit for more than two years until attorney Zach Warren in Denver joined him last July. Warren did not immediately return messages Friday seeking comment.

That Oslund’s case even made it this far is unprecedented, largely because inmates who represent themselves — called “pro se” — rarely reach a jury.

“How many other pro-se prisoner cases are ones that could get substantial jury verdicts if they had adequate representation,” Silverstein said. “It is so easy for them to be ignored, overlooked or dismissed.”

Lane agreed: “Pro-se cases sort of die quiet deaths in federal court. They view pro-se inmates as easy pickings and dismiss them frequently.”

That Warren was able to persuade a jury to side with Oslund was significant, Lane said.

“That a guy serving life without parole gets $6 million in a jury verdict is unprecedented,” Lane said. “He hit it out of the park.”

Oslund is serving a life term for felony murder from a September 2009 incident in Pueblo in which Matt Maez, 18, was beaten and later died of his injuries. The two had scuffled after a party. Maez was accused of stealing items from a car.

Oslund, who had a history of run-ins with police, and his brother Kelly were captured in Nebraska a month after Maez’s death and returned to Colorado for trial.

Kelly Oslund, now 35, was sentenced to 28 years in prison for reckless manslaughter and aggravated robbery in connection with the incident, records show. He has since been paroled.