UTICA, NY (AP) — Four prison guards involved in the death of an incarcerated Black man whose brutal beating at a New York state prison last year was caught on body camera videos were each sentenced Friday to prison terms.
All four had pleaded guilty in September, just two weeks before the start of the trial for a group of guards accused in the death of Robert Brooks, who was assaulted while handcuffed at the Marcy Correctional Facility on December 9. The beating of the restrained 43-year-old sparked outrage and calls for reform.
Nicholas Anzalone and Anthony Farina, who both faced the highest charge of murder before pleading guilty to the lesser charge of first-degree manslaughter, each received terms of 22 years. Two other men charged with second-degree manslaughter also pleaded guilty. Michael Mashaw was sentenced to three to nine years in prison, while David Walters got two years, four months to seven years.
Brooks had been serving a 12-year sentence for first-degree assault since 2017 and was transferred to Marcy from a nearby lockup the night he was beaten. The footage shows Brooks being hit in the chest with a shoe, lifted by the neck and then falling.
During the hearing, prosecutors read statements from Brooks’ relatives, including his brother, Jared Ricks, who wrote that he hoped the “welcoming committee” would show the four defendants more grace when they arrive at state prison as inmates than they showed his brother, Syracuse.com reported.
The victim’s son, Robert Brooks Jr., wrote that watching the video of his father’s fatal beating was like watching a horror movie.
“I pray that this case teaches others that they cannot treat people in prison like animals,” he wrote.
Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, the special prosecutor in the case, said the two men were not allowed to read their own statements because of objections from the four defense attorneys after Fitzpatrick failed to file the required paperwork.
The first plea in the case arrived last May, when a guard accused of murder pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter under an agreement with prosecutors. Christopher Walrath, who resigned, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in August.
Another guard pleaded guilty later in May to attempting to tamper with physical evidence and was sentenced to a year’s conditional discharge.
The trial of three other guards accused of murder and first degree manslaughter ended last month with a jury convicting David Kingsley on both charges but acquitting the other two, Mathew Galliher and Nicholas Kieffer. Kingsley faces a potential life sentence when convicted, while the last guard, Michael Fisher, is scheduled to go on trial in January on a charge of second-degree manslaughter.
Fitzpatrick is also prosecuting guards in the March 1 fatal beating of Messiah Nantwi at another Marcy lockup, the Mid-State Correctional Facility. Eight guards have reached a plea deal in the case, while another five are scheduled to go on trial in March, including two who are charged with murder.
The two prisons are about 180 miles (290 kilometers) northwest of New York City.