ROBERT BROOKS KILLING BY PRISON GUARDS 'HOMICIDE,' MEDICAL EXAMINER RULES, GRAND JURY TO GET CASE
GRAND JURY TO BEGIN HEARING EVIDENCE FEB. 10
EXCLUSIVE
Feb. 4, 2025
Almost 2 months after Robert Brooks was killed by state prison guards, the medical examiner has determined it was a homicide.
"The autopsy report is completed," Melanie Drotar, Director of Public Health Communications for the Onondaga County Health Department, confirmed to The Free Lance exclusively Tuesday afternoon.
Brooks' death was a homicide, the Onondaga County Medical Examiner’s report concludes. The report says he was killed by “compression of the neck and multiple blunt force injuries,” Stephen G. Schwarz of Faraci Lange in Rochester, one of the lawyers representing Brooks’ family, told The Free Lance.
“The autopsy report confirmed what we all saw. There were no surprises,” Schwarz said. Referring to the guards who killed Brooks. “We want to see these people prosecuted.”
“The murder of Robert Brooks was horrific, shocking all New Yorkers to our very core,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a news release on Tuesday. “This reprehensible act of violence demands the full force of our justice system—the family of Mr. Brooks deserves no further delays.”
An Oneida County Grand Jury will begin hearing evidence against the guards on Feb. 10, Special Prosecutor William J. Fitzpatrick said on Thursday.
The developments come after The Free Lance published a report examining the almost two-month long delay in arresting anyone for Brooks’ killing. Multiple invitations to comment sent to Fitzpatrick were not responded to.
Brooks was beaten, kicked and choked to death by a "beat-up squad" of state prison guards inside the infirmary at the Marcy Correctional Facility on Dec. 9, 2024. It was unintentionally captured on video by body cameras worn by four of the guards.
Sgt. Glenn Trombly was the alleged leader of the beat-up squad , The Free Lance exclusively reported. CO Anthony Farina was another alleged member of the squad, and was beside Trombly the night the squad killed Brooks, the video shows.
The autopsy report says Brooks was declared dead at 3:52 AM on Dec. 10, about six hours after he was attacked by the guards in the Marcy infirmary.
After the attack, the video shows a nurse attaching an automated defibrillator to Brooks about 9:45 PM. Defibrillators are used to restart the hearts of patients, so it appears Brooks was close to death at that time. But, as The Free Lance exclusively reported, no one called 9-1-1 for Brooks.
He was transported to a hospital in Utica via private ambulance.
A total of 17 employees of the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, or DOCCS, have been suspended without pay and Gov. Kathy Hochul has said DOCCS would fire those responsible. The 17 include four sergeants, 11 Correction Officers and two nurses. Another DOCCS’ employee, CO Farina, resigned.
Because DOCCS has kept its employee disciplinary hearings secret for decades, its not possible to know if DOCCS has succeeded in firing anyone or even how far along in the process DOCCS is. The question is made more clouded by the latest labor contract between DOCCS and the guards’ union, which gives officers the right to demand expedited hearings.
For these reasons, The Free Lance filed a lawsuit in State Supreme Court on Monday seeking a court order granting the public, including reporters, the right to witness the hearings.
Jarrod A. Woodfork, the chief assistant district attorney in Fitzpatrick's office, is leading the investigation into Brooks’ killing, Fitzpatrick said in a statement.
"We will not delay the case,” Fitzpatrick added. “My only goal in this case is to get justice for Robert.”
Schwarz, one of the lawyers representing Brooks’ family in twin federal and state lawsuits against the guards and the state of New York, said Fitzpatrick “has made every attempt to provide information to the family and has done that in a diligent manner.”
The grand jury that will weigh the evidence and decide which of the guards and nurses to charge, if any, will meet in the Oneida County office building, two blocks away from the hospital where Brooks was declared dead.
Grand Jury hearings are also conducted in secret. Fitzpatrick, the Special Prosecutor, said he won’t hold a news conference on the case until after the Grand Jury has decided whether to indict anyone.
“Robert Brooks’s violent death was a homicide,” Elizabeth Mazur, of Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym in Chicago, also representing the Brooks’ family, said. “We look forward to the prosecution of those responsible.”
Formerly-incarcerated activists have been leading the charge for criminal accountability for Brooks’ killing. They organized Robert Brooks Advocacy Day at the State Capital on Jan. 26 during which Sen. Julia Salazar introduced a bill designed to make it easier to fire bad guards.
On Thursday, the activists plan to protest outside the Special Prosecutor’s office in Syracuse at noon.
Flyer for protest Thursday at noon at the Syracuse office of special prosecutor William J. Fitzpatrick
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