'HE WASN'T DOING ANYTHING AT ALL'—GUARD SAYS ROBERT BROOKS SHOULD BE ALIVE
BOMBSHELL TESTIMONY SINKS GUARDS ACCUSED OF MURDER IN PRISONER SLAY TRIAL
Former guard Robert Kessler arrives to testify against his former colleagues at their murder trial on Oct. 10, 2025. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
Utica, New York Oct. 10, 2025
A former member of the beat-up squad of state prison guards that killed Robert Brooks testified against his former colleagues on Friday and said they never should have laid a hand on the slight, 43-year-old prisoner in the first place.
"He wasn't doing anything at all," Kessler said.
Kessler testified he and Christopher Walrath were walking Brooks into the Marcy Correctional Facility after he was transported there from the Mohawk Correctional Facility on Dec. 9, 2024.
While walking through Marcy's administration building, Kessler said he told Brooks "to place his hands deep in his pockets."
Brooks put his hands only partially in his pockets, Kessler testified.
Suddenly, he said, Walrath pushed past him, banged Brooks against a nearby concrete wall then put him in a headlock—a chokehold prohibited by DOCCS' policy, he said.
Kessler joined in the beat-down, punching Brooks in a thigh.
"Everyone had grabbed a hold or struck Mr. Brooks at that point," Kessler said.
The 7-year veteran state correction office said the beating he and his fellow officers gave Brooks was not justified because he was "not threatening at that point."
Walrath previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Guards stopped beating Brooks, Kessler testified, when he "heard someone yell 'That's enough!'"
Robert Kessler carrying a beaten, unconscious Robert Brooks into the infirmary at the Marcy Correctional Facility where he was killed on Dec. 9, 2024. Photo credit: DOCCS body-camera video via New York State Attorney General’s office.
But that was only the first time Brooks was beaten that night, Kessler testified.
The Mohawk guard who transported Brooks was present for the first beating, but Nicholas Kieffer, one of the other guards who beat or held Brooks down the first time and is on trial for murder and related crimes, told the Mohawk officer to leave and forget what he'd seen.
Kieffer "told him to 'Get out of there, you didn't see anything.’"
Then Kessler and Nicholas Anzalone picked Brooks up one on each arm and began to force walk him toward the infirmary. When they reached the interior of the prison Kieffer told Kessler and Anzalone to put Brooks down.
"Keiffer said 'I got to spray him,'" Kessler said. "‘Step back.’"
They put Brooks down face first on the concrete sidewalk, and Kieffer peppersprayed Brooks.
"He sprayed him in the head and face area," Kessler said.
Kessler added Brooks was no threat at all when Kieffer peppersprayed him.
After Keiffer peppersprayed Brooks, he used his radio to call a "Red Dot" emergency which brought more guards rushing to the scene.
When Kieffer called the Red Dot, that's when the beat-up squad led by Sgt. Glenn Trombly arrived. Anthony Farina with defendants Galliher and Kinglsey arrive at this time.
The aftermath of this moment is when the body-camera video that captured the killing begins. Everything before this point was largely a mystery before Kessler's testimony. Now we know how it started, and The Free Lance's prediction, made last January, is proved true: Walrath hit Brooks first.
Kessler testified Brooks was assaulted again before being carried unconscious by him and Anzalone into the infirmary's emergency room.
He did it, he said, "out of frustration and anger."
He never hit Brooks while Brooks was on the hospital bed being assaulted by the rest, he said. From the outside looking in, it was obvious Brooks needed help.
"He looked like he was in distress," Kessler said. "He was non responsive."
Kessler said Brooks shouldn't have been attacked.
"He wasn't doing anything at all," Kessler said.
Robert Kessler after testifying against three former state correction officers accused of murder for killing Robert Brooks, Oct. 10, 2025. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
After Brooks died, Kessler said "We had to create a narrative as to what happened."
He created that fake story with Anzalone and Kieffer, he testified.
Earlier in the day, the Onondaga County Medical Examiner, who autopsied Brooks, Dr. Katya Merkulova, testified.
She said his injuries were so severe he would have died even if he were in the emergency room of a hospital when he was attacked.
"Mr. Brooks' cause of death is compression of the neck and multiple blunt impact injuries," Merkulova concluded. "The manner of death is homicide."
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