Former New York prison guard sentenced to 15 years for beating death of
inmate
[August 05, 2025]
UTICA, N.Y. (AP) — A former corrections officer was sentenced to
15 years in prison Monday for his role in the death of a Black inmate
whose beating by a group of guards at an upstate New York prison was
captured on bodycam videos.
Christopher Walrath was one of six guards charged with murder in the
death of Robert Brooks, who was pummeled at the Marcy Correctional
Facility on Dec. 9. Walrath pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter
in May under the first plea deal among the guards charged with murder. |
Correctional officer Christopher Walrath, center, appears in Oneida
County Court, Monday, May 5, 2025, in Utica, N.Y., to enter a guilty
plea for manslaughter in the December 2024 death of inmate Robert
Brooks. (AP Photo/Michael Hill, file) |
|
“In that video, I see you and your fellow officers treating him
as if his life holds no value at all, as if you're entitled to
brutalize him for sport,” Robert Brooks Jr., the victim's son,
told the court.
The son said in his victim impact statement that, “I am not OK
and I never will be.”
Brooks had been serving a 12-year sentence for first-degree
assault since 2017 and was transferred to Marcy from a nearby
lockup on the night he was beaten. The videos show Brooks being
struck in the chest with a shoe, lifted by his neck and then
dropped.
Under questioning in May from Onondaga County District Attorney
William Fitzpatrick, Walrath admitted that he and other guards
assaulted Brooks, that he put Brooks in a chokehold, and that he
struck the inmate’s body and groin.
In addition to the six guards charged in February with murder,
three more prison workers were indicted for manslaughter and
another for evidence tampering. Prosecutors have said three
other prison workers have reached agreements.
A guard pleaded guilty in May to attempted tampering with
physical evidence and was sentenced to a one-year conditional
discharge.
Trials were scheduled to begin in October for guards who have
rejected plea deals.
Fitzpatrick also is prosecuting guards in the fatal beating of
Messiah Nantwi on March 1 at another Marcy lockup, the Mid-State
Correctional Facility. Ten guards were indicted in April,
including two who are charged with murder.
Both prisons are about 180 miles (290 kilometers) northwest of
New York City.
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