MURDER CHARGES FOR THE PRISON GUARDS WHO KILLED ROBERT BROOKS
6 GUARDS CHARGED WITH SECOND DEGREE MURDER, 2 MORE CHARGED WITH MANSLAUGHTER.
Former New York State Correction Officers charged with murder for killing Robert Brooks on Thursday. Left to right, Nicholas J. Anzalone, Anthony Farina, Mathew J. Galliher, David J. Kingsley, II. Sgt. Michael Mashaw (r) was charged with manslaughter. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
Feb. 20, 2025
The Blue Wall of Silence that long allowed prison guards to beat and sometimes even kill prisoners with impunity crumbled Thursday afternoon.
Murder in the second degree is the top charge against six New York State Correction Officers who killed Robert Brooks at the Marcy Correctional Facility on Dec. 9, an indictment unsealed in State Supreme Court in Utica charges.
Brooks, 43, was tortured and murdered by a "beat-up squad" of state prison guards inside the infirmary at Marcy on Dec. 9, 2024. It was unintentionally captured on video by body cameras worn by four of the guards.
The guards charged with murder are Nicholas J. Anzalone, Mathew J. Galliher, Anthony Farina, David J. Kingsley, Christopher Walrath and a sixth whose name was redacted from the indictment because he was expected to surrender next week.
“This was a depraved situation that warranted a murder charge,” special prosecutor Onondaga County District Attorney William J. Fitzpatrick said at a news conference after the arraignments.
“There is no valid explanation,” Fitzpatrick explained. “No justification for what they did."
Correction Officers Anthony Farina, Nicholas J. Anzalone, Mathew J. Galliher, Christopher Walrath and David J. Kingsley were five of six guards charged with murder for killing Robert Brooks. Photo credits: JB Nicholas.
In addition to the six guards charged with murder, Sgt. Michael Mashaw and CO Michael Fisher were charged with second degree maslaughter.
CO Galliher was also charged with gang assault. Anzalone was also charged with filing a false report.
CO Nicholas Gentile, whose name has not previously been associated in published reports with Brooks’ killing, was charged with evidence tampering.
Three more guards pleaded guilty to unknown charges in exchange for specific sentences. Fitzpatrick said he would be disclose the charges and the sentences in the future.
In response to a question by The Free Lance at Thursday’s news conference, Fitzpatrick refused to disclose whether the sentences involved jail time.
Furthermore, Fitzpatrick added, “At least two current or former Marcy employees are still under investigation.”
Other guards and two nurses watched the fatal attack and did nothing to stop it. Nurses covered-up unjustified attacks on prisoners for years at Marcy.
After guards attacked Brooks, no one dialed 911. They called a private ambulance instead and Brooks was pronounced dead at a hospital in nearby Utica about 4 hours later. Fitzpatrick, the special prosecutor, confirmed Brooks was “clinically brain dead” within minutes of the attack.
Sgt. Michael Mashaw, CO David Walters and CO Nicholas Gentile also were charged in connection with killing Robert Brooks. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
Unlike most cases where law enforcement officers are charged with crimes committed on the job, other prison guards did not pack the courtroom in support of their colleagues. Instead, advocates for the incarcerated packed the court. They prayed for justice in the hallway outside the courtroom before the arraignment.
Brooks’ son, Robert Brooks jr., was one of Brooks’ family members inside the court room as State Supreme Justice Robert Bauer arraigned the guards.
“I saw New York Correctional Officers finally face criminal charges for killing my father,” he said afterwards. “Nothing can bring him back to us. Nothing can return to us what these men have taken away.”
“Still,” the younger Brooks added, “these indictments are a necessary and important step toward accountability.”
Jared Ricks, Brooks’ elder brother, said “No one is above the law.”
“Now, the perpetrators have been rightfully charged with murder and State Police are making arrests,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a news release Thursday afternoon. “This incident is a sobering reminder of the challenges facing our correctional system.”
As the guards were being arraigned in Utica, 40 of New York’s 42 prisons were descending into chaos as a wildcat strike started by guards at two facilities in western New York on Monday spread like wildfire through the system. Black Hawk helicopters landed National Guardsmen in a snow-covered airfield in northern New York for deployment to three state prisons in the area.
Fitzpatrick, the special prosecutor, said Brooks died as a result of a “massive beating to his body.” He said guards also choked him: “repeated restrictions to his airways” caused “severe brain damage.”
Ultimately, Fitzpatrick said, Brooks’ “choked on his own blood.”
"They murdered my son," Robert Ricks, Brooks’ father, told The Free Lance last Friday. "Murder should be the charge they fightin’ against."
Rev. Kevin McCall has been organization with the Justice for Robert Brooks Coalition since December and drove to Utica from New York City to attend the arraignments on Thursday.
“Its a step in the right direction,” he said, “but what real justice looks like is jail time.”
All were granted bail but Kingsley and Walrath did not make it; they were remanded to the Oneida County jail. Gentile’s offense was not bail eligible, so he was released on his own recognizance.
Three New Yorkers who attended the hearing protested the decision to allow Brooks’ alleged killers to be freed on bail. One of them yelled out in the courtroom during Mashaw’s arraignment: “Racist murderer! This is not justice! No bail!”
She and two others who shouted similiar sentiments were removed by Court Officers.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Mar. 31.
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