'THE HAMMER' PLEADS GUILTY: ANOTHER NEW YORK STATE PRISON GUARD GOES DOWN FOR KILLING ROBERT BROOKS
FORMER GUARDS SHEA E. SCHOFF PLEADED GUILTY TO OFFICIAL MISCONDUCT
Former New York State prison guard Shea E. Schoff earned the nickname “The Hammer” for packing a powerful knockout punch. He pleaded guilty to official misconduct for his role in the murder of Robert Brooks. Photo credit: body-camera video via New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.
MALONE, NEW YORK Mar. 18, 2026 EXCLUSIVE
A ninth New York State prison guard has pleaded guilty in connection with the murder of Robert Brooks at the Marcy Correctional Facility.
Shea E. Schoff was charged with one count of official misconduct for failing "to stop the assault or to seek medical assistance for Mr. Brooks," according to the criminal complaint filed against him by Special Prosecutor Onondaga County District Attorney William J. Fitzpatrick.
Schoff pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge in Marcy Town Court last Wednesday, Mar. 11, 2026, court officials confirmed to The Free Lance News. The 43-year-old was sentenced to a one year conditional discharge. He also had to pay a $205 court surcharge.
Counting David J. Kingsley III, who was convicted of murder after a trial, Schoff's guilty plea brings to 10 the number of guards convicted in connection with Brooks' Dec. 9, 2024 killing.
Body camera video captured the gang of all-white guards beating, choking and stomping Brooks to death. Schoff was captured in that video doing nothing but watching while the gang killed Brooks is killed in front of him in a treatment room inside Marcy's infirmary.
Schoff also laughed and joked with another guard in the hallway outside.
When the handcuffs that had been placed on Brooks before the lethal beating were finally removed, Schoff washed them off in a sink in the infirmary, video showed.
Schoff washes the handcuffs used to restrain Robert Brooks while he was killed, inside the room where he was killed.. He pleaded guilty to official misconduct for his role in the murder of Robert Brooks. Photo credit: body-camera video via New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.
Schoff was a 20-plus year veteran with the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, or DOCCS. He worked at Marcy since 2007, according to State Police investigation reports obtained by The Free Lance News.
During his time at Marcy Schoff developed a reputation for packing a punch so powerful other guards called him "the Hammer," according to the reports.
Schoff explained his nickname to State Police investigators in a Jan. 27, 2025 interview.
"Schoff spoke about his nickname at the facility, 'The Hammer,'" the report detailing the interview says. "He stated that in the past, he would get called to a situation where force may be necessary because he could strike a guy once and end things."
Schoff added "that once the facility got body-worn cameras, he advised everyone that he was done with that type of behavior."
The night Brooks was killed, Schoff told Troopers he was chilling in Marcy's break room with Sgt. Glenn J. Trombly and guard Anthony R. Farina when another guard, Nicholas J. Kieffer, broadcast over the handheld radios they all carried, "Wait til you get a look at this guy."
Brooks had just been transferred to Marcy from the nearby Mohawk Correctional Facility for his own protection because he'd been beaten twice in three days there. He would be brain dead 31 minutes after his arrival at Marcy.
Schoff said Sgt. Trombly and Farina responded to Kieffer's broadcast by leaving the break room, getting in a van and driving to the front of the prison where new prisoners are received.
Moments later, a "Red Dot” alarm was triggered and he along with another guard who pleaded guilty to killing Brooks, Michael D. Fisher, rushed to the front of the facility. The alarm was called off, but Schoff and Fisher went to the infirmary anyway when they learned that's where Brooks had been taken.
After he washed the handcuffs that had been restraining Brooks, he asked who they belonged to. Guard Nicholas J. Anzalone said they were his and Schoff gave him the handcuffs. He heard Kingsley say “he’s dead” while they were taking the handcuffs off Brooks.
Farina and Anzalone pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were sentenced to 22 years for killing Brooks. Fisher pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment and will have to serve six months in the Oneida County jail if a state appeals court affirms his guilty plea.
After giving Anzalone his handcuffs back, he left the room and walked to the lobby of the infirmary where he ran into guard Nicholas Gentile. Gentile pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of attempted evidence tampering and was sentenced to one year conditional discharge and a $250 fine, the Rome Sentinel reported.
Schoff said Gentile had just come from the entrance to the prison where Brooks was first attacked and cleaned up a puddle of his blood.
“The sally port is clean," Gentile said, Schoff told Troopers.
"The paperwork is key. Let’s hope Mohawk doesn’t talk," Gentile said, Schoff also reported, referring to the guards from Mohawk who had transported Brooks to Marcy and witnessed the first beating Marcy's guards gave Brooks that night.
According to the investigation report they filed, Schoff explained to the Troopers questioning him that whenever guards beat prisoners, "the paperwork will always be 'curved' to favor staff."
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