FORMER STATE PRISON GUARD GETS 15 YEARS FOR MURDERING ROBERT BROOKS
CHRISTOPHER WALRATH, 37, PLEADED GUILTY TO FIRST DEGREE MANSLAUGHTER.
Former New York State Correction Officer Christopher Walrath, 37, pleaded guilty to first degree manslaughter for his role in beating and choking inmate Robert Brooks, 43, to death at the Marcy Correctional Facility on Dec. 9, 2024. He faces 15 years in prison when he is sentenced today in State Supreme Court in Utica. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
UTICA, NEW YORK Aug. 4, 2025
One of six state prison guards charged with murdering inmate Robert Brooks will be sentenced in Utica Monday morning.
Christopher Walrath pleaded guilty in May to first degree manslaughter for his role in beating and choking Brooks to death at the Marcy Correctional Facility. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors promised the 37-year-old Walrath a 15-year sentence, plus five years of parole supervision after his release.
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.
In May, Walrath admitted beating and choking Brooks. He also admitted he attempted to cover-up the killing by failing to report it.
Walrath admitted he did not act alone. He said he assaulted Brooks with fellow Correction Officers Kieffer, Kessler and Anzalone outside Marcy’s arsenal—before Brooks was beaten and choked to death in the infirmary, where he later died.
Judge Robert Bauer set sentencing for Aug. 4. He allowed Walrath to remain free on bail in the meantime.
Brooks' son, Robert Lee Brooks, called Walrath's guilty plea "the start of justice."
Nicholas J. Anzalone, Mathew J. Galliher, Anthony Farina, David J. Kingsley and Nicholas Kieffer also face murder charges for killing Brooks. They have demanded a jury trial, as is their right under the U.S. Constitution.
“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 guards' arraignments in State Supreme Court on Feb. 20, 2025
“There is no valid explanation,” Fitzpatrick explained. “No justification for what they did."
In addition to the six guards charged with murder, Sgt. Michael Mashaw, CO Michael Fisher and David Walters were charged with second degree manslaughter. Galliher was also charged with gang assault, and Anzalone was also charged with filing a false report.
A tenth guard, Nicholas Gentile, 36, was charged with evidence tampering. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of attempted evidence tampering and sentenced to one year conditional discharge and a $250 fine, the Rome Sentinel reported.
Three more guards pleaded guilty to unknown charges in exchange for specific sentences. Fitzpatrick said he would disclose the charges and the sentences in the future.
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, said Brooks died as a result of a “massive beating to his body.” Guards also choked him. “Repeated restrictions to his airways” caused “severe brain damage,” Fitzpatrick revealed.
Ultimately Brooks’ “choked on his own blood.” He was “clinically brain dead” within minutes of the attack, Fitzpatrick said.
Brooks was murdered by guards at Marcy 2 1/2 months after New York State prison guards allegedly murdered Brooks at Marcy, another beat-squad of guards at the Mid-State Correctional Facility--across the road from Marcy--allegedly murdered Messiah Nantwi, 22.
Nantwi's alleged killers, like Brooks', have been charged with murder, manslaughter and related crimes by Fitzpatrick, who was also appointed special prosecutor in that case.
The week Brooks' killers were charged, state prison guards launched a state-wide wildcat strike.
Critics claimed the strike was timed to deflect attention from the charges. The guards say it was what they called the State's bungled response to an inmate disturbance at the Collins Correctional Facility the week before was the cause.
At what was once Walrath's home in a rural suburb of Utica, a man who answered the door said "his name should have been taken off" public records identifying him as the owner of the property.
"Don't come back here," the man threatened. "You don't want to know what I'm going to do."
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