'THE WILD, WILD WEST': LEAKED RECORDING, WHISTLE-BLOWER, EXPOSE SHOCKING NEW DETAILS IN ROBERT BROOKS AND MESSIAH NANTWI PRISON GUARD KILLINGS
GUARDS WERE ISSUED BODY-CAMERAS TO STOP EXCESSIVE FORCE, BUT SUPERVISORS LET THEM GET AWAY WITH NOT USING THEM BEFORE KILLINGS, SOURCES SAY
MALONE, NEW YORK Mar. 2, 2026 EXCLUSIVE
Messiah Nantwi was dying after being beaten by a squad of New York State prison guards when a sergeant responsible for supervising Nantwi's killers explained their prison's usual way of dealing with alleged troublemakers—like Nantwi—to a new co-worker.
"You fuck up, you fucking got beat. Period. Period," the Corrections Sergeant bragged to a National Guard soldier in a leaked body camera recording exclusively obtained by The Free Lance News. "It was the fucking wild, wild west here."
The soldier was one of thousands of National Guard troops deployed just days before to replace missing correction officers who were staging an illegal "wildcat" strike in 40 of the state’s 42 prisons at the time. The sergeant was speaking to the soldier inside the infirmary. They were waiting in the infirmary for Nantwi to be carried in for medical treatment after the beat-down.
Nantwi did not survive. Guards beat the 22-year-old New York City native so badly they left a boot print on his face.
A law enforcement source involved in the investigation of the killing confirmed the authenticity of the recording obtained by The Free Lance News, and the extent of Nantwi’s gruesome injuries.
It was also the "wild, wild west" at another state prison nearby, the one where Robert Brooks was killed 11 weeks before Nantwi.
There a high-ranking officer called a watch commander—who ran the prison when its highest-ranking officer was gone—"would get on the radio and say things like 'mount up' and the officers, my fellow officers, would make horse noises back to him and then go through the dorms as a group," a whistleblower from that prison told The Free Lance News.
This went on for years, from 2018 until 2022, until the officer was promoted and retired.
Brooks was murdered by guards at that prison, the Marcy Correctional Facility, Dec. 9, 2024. Nantwi was killed almost three months later, Mar. 1, 2025, at the Mid-State Correctional Facility. Both are medium-security prisons outside Utica directly across the road from each other.
The whistleblower has detailed knowledge of Marcy's internal operations, its leadership and decisions Marcy’s leaders made in the months before Brooks was killed—while body cameras were being first rolled out for guards to use there. They are speaking here for the first time.
The whistleblower was not authorized to speak with the press. Because state prison workers can be fired for speaking to the press without approval, The Free Lance News is withholding the whistleblower's identity. They explained why they were speaking out.
"After doing the right thing for many years, these clowns come into Marcy and ruin everything," they said. "Believe me, it goes deeper than a one time Robert Brooks killing."
At the time of Brooks’ murder at Marcy and Nantwi’s killing at Mid-State, guards at both prisons were supposed to be using body cameras.
The body cameras were part of a $600 million package of cameras taxpayers bought to stop the abuse of prisoners. An enduring mystery of the twin killings has been, "Why didn't all those cameras stop them?" The shocking leaked body camera recording and the well-placed whistleblower now reveal why.
It was because guards refused to use the body cameras—and were never disciplined for not using them.
They got away with it for months when the cameras were first rolled out—the same months leading up to both killings—because supervising officers at Marcy and Mid-State let them.
"Beat-up squads" of guards have operated largely with impunity in New York's prisons for decades.
State Attorney General Leitia James was warned about Marcy's beat-up squad in 2023—13 months before the squad killed Brooks. Instead of breaking up the squad, she defended it against a federal lawsuit brought by a prisoner alleging excessive force.
Prisoners aren't supposed to be punished, wild west-style, by beat-up squads of guards for alleged rule violations. They're supposed to be given fair due process hearings, according to the Supreme Court's landmark 1974 decision in Wolff v McDonnell. State regulations recognize and codify this constitutional right, which prison officials are supposed to follow.
But at Marcy and Mid-State, where Brooks and Nantwi were killed, guards exacted vigilante “justice.”
Systemic abuse by guards is made possible by a toothless and ineffective administrative disciplinary system that holds hearings in secret and leaves the punishment of crimes and misconduct by guards up to private arbitrators instead of public officials.
The Free Lance News sued to open those hearings up to the press and public, but a state appeals court dismissed the lawsuit in January. The Free Lance is asking New York's highest court, the Court of Appeals, to hear the case. It has not yet decided whether it will
Meanwhile in Albany, New York's prison chief Daniel F. Martuscello III imagined and peddled a naive pipe-dream to policymakers as well as the public: that technology was a magical cure for the abuse of prisoners by guards.
Martuscello, 52, runs the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. DOCCS operates New York's prison system. Gov. Kathy Hochul gave Martuscello the top job at DOCCS in 2023. The State Senate confirmed him in 2024. He's part of a prison family dynasty. He knows exactly what a beat-up squad is. Before he was commissioner, one of his jobs during his almost three-decade long career was to investigate them.
Three-and-a-half months before Brooks was killed by guards at Marcy, Martuscello told a roomful of prisoners' rights advocates they no longer had to worry about the physical abuse of prisoners by guards.
"There's too many cameras inside the prisons for that to happen," Martuscello said during a face-to-face meeting with them at DOCCS' Albany headquarters Aug. 27, 2024.
Guards at Mid-State, where Nantwi was killed, were issued body cameras first, in early 2024. At Marcy, where Brooks was killed, they were issued months later, early Summer 2024. Many workers at the two prisons grew up in the same area—the Mohawk Valley from Little Falls to Syracuse. They train with each other. They transfer between the two. They know each other.
"Everyone knew that eventually, body cameras would make their way to Marcy," the whistleblower said. "I would hear comments from Mid-State Officers" about the new cameras. Some said they "would put the body cameras in a refrigerator instead of wearing them."
When Marcy got them, "the cameras were given out with no sufficient training on what the Department expected."
Though officers did receive some training, the training officers seemed to teach how to avoid being captured doing something they shouldn't.
"One of the trainers," the whistleblower explained, "would not speak to anyone that had a red light on."
Red light meant the camera was recording. Green light meant it was powered on, but not activated to record.
Not only was the training suspect, the rules for when guards were supposed to use the new body cameras were not consistent.
William J. Snyder was Marcy's Deputy Superintendent for Security at the time. He was responsible for making sure guards actually used the body cameras they'd been issued. But, according to the whistleblower, Snyder "did not give clear direction to the staff about when to use the body cameras."
Instead, they said, Snyder left it up to individual watch commanders to "make up their own rules."
Snyder had a special relationship with Sgt. Glenn Trombly, who lead the beat-up squad that killed Brooks. Snyder trusted Trombly.
“One fact that never came out was the fact that Glenn Trombly did construction on the side,” the whistleblower says. “Glenn Trombly did work at Snyder's home.”
At Marcy, they revealed, “Glenn was allowed to become the tool control Sergeant and created his own overtime in which most of that time was spent hanging out in the watch commanders office watching TV or chilling out in the administration wing flirting with the nice looking secretary.”
Nor was anyone ever disciplined for not turning their body camera on during a use of force at Marcy before Brooks was killed, the whistleblower says.
Michael D'Amore was Marcy's Superintendent—its highest-ranking officer—in the months leading up to Brooks' murder. Both D’Amore and Snyder were supposed to make sure Marcy's guards turned their body cameras on when they used force.
Snyder had to review each and every use of force report, sign off on it, then pass it up the chain-of-command to D'Amore. D'Amore had to sign off on the reports too, then send them further up the chain to his supervisors working out of Commissioner Martuscello’s office in Albany, according to DOCCS' rules.
The review was supposed to include body camera video.
D'Amore saw from the use of force reports Snyder passed up to him that no uses for force were being recorded. Guards used force against prisoners at least six times, and as many as 12, without recording body camera video between the time the cameras were introduced and Brooks' killing, the whistleblower revealed.
D'Amore covered up for everyone.
"He had to write some line on the uses of force that made it all OK," the whistleblower says, "but he knew that he couldn't keep writing that much longer."
By the end of the Summer 2024, D'Amore finally had enough. He summoned Marcy's supervising officers to a secret meeting.
"He was basically pleading for the supervisors to get the message across that the officers had to stop having uses of force with no body camera footage," the whistleblower said. D'Amore said "he cannot cover this up any longer."
"Nobody listened," they added. "The uses of force continued with no body camera footage and not one staff member was ever disciplined."
"Mike D'Amore never encouraged beat downs or excessive uses of force," the whistleblower cautioned. "But he is too nice of a guy to discipline people when he should have."
Then Brooks was killed.
D'Amore and Snyder were promoted about two months before that and transferred out of Marcy. By then, their botched—or intentionally sabotaged—rollout of the body cameras had hardened into systemic dysfunction.
Danielle Medbury was Marcy's Acting Superintendent when guards killed Brooks. She was "left holding the bag," according to the whistleblower. "I doubt that she knew any of this."
"Her background is mental health, not security," they explained. "She basically inherited a train that was already rolling off the tracks."
"The real lack of supervision and lack of accountability," they stressed, "lies on Mike D'Amore and William Snyder."
Neither man was ever charged with a crime.
What nobody knew was that DOCCS' officials in the Commissioner's Albany office did at least one thing right: they set the body cameras to record soundless back-up video as long as they were powered on, testimony by DOCCS' officials at the trials of Brooks' killers showed.
That's the only reason silent video of Brooks' murder exists. It was unwittingly recorded by his killers themselves. They didn't know about their cameras' recall capabilities. They believed they weren't being recorded.
That's also one of the reasons why the cameras didn't stop them from killing Brooks.
Nantwi’s killing was not captured on camera, not even accidentally.
By that point, more than two months after the State Attorney General released the recalled body camera video capturing Brooks' killing to the public at a Dec. 27, 2024 news conference, guards knew video from their body cameras could be seen even if they were not activated to record as long as they were powered on.
"There's plenty of evidence in Nantwi that officers did not wear them or they covered them up," William F. Fitzpatrick, the Onondaga County District Attorney appointed Special Prosecutor in the Brooks and Nantwi cases, told The Free Lance News.
Most of Brooks' killers pleaded guilty and received lengthy prison sentences. One was convicted of murder and sentenced to 25-years-to-life. Two were acquitted.
Some of Nantwi's killers have pleaded guilty, but several are scheduled to go on trial this Spring 2026.
Thomas Mailey, DOCCS’ Director of Public Information, said:
“The horrific actions of the rogue COs in the death of Robert Brooks were well outside the bounds of both acceptable policy and procedure or their scope of employment,“ Mailey added. “Those individuals were referred for prosecution based on Body-Worn Camera (BWC) video provided by Commissioner Martuscello to the state police and attorney general. These former officers have been held accountable for their crimes. DOCCS will continue to work with our law enforcement partners and make referrals for criminal prosecution.”
“Following the murder of Mr. Brooks,” Mailey added, “immediate changes to the policy were made and the law was enacted as part of the budget, along with several other steps to ensure that all correction officers must have their BWC on.”
With respect to Nantwi, Mailey said “we decline to comment due to the ongoing criminal prosecutions.”
When Snyder, Marcy's Deputy Superintendent for Security, was promoted Sept. 19, he was sent across the road to Mid-State and made its First Deputy Superintendent. Five months is how long Snyder was Mid-State’s First Deputy when Nantwi was killed. Enough time for him to own it.
Mid-State has the odious distinction of being one of only a handful of New York State prisons where a judge or jury found male prisoners were forcibly sexually assaulted by male guards.
Under Snyder, Mid-State had the same inconsistent body camera practices Marcy did.
The prison version of a police SWAT team killed Nantwi. DOCCS' calls it a Correctional Emergency Response Team. CERT for short. After Nantwi's killing, one Mid-State CERT officer told investigators that they didn't have to wear body cameras at all.
"One of the CERT officers claimed they did not have to wear body-worn cameras," Fitzpatrick, the Special Prosecutor, disclosed.
While a whistleblower has yet to speak out about the dysfunction within Mid-State before Nantwi's killing, The Free Lance News asked DOCCS to state whether any uses of force were documented by body-worn camera video between the time the cameras were introduced at Mid-State and Nantwi's killing.
We also asked DOCCS whether any Mid-State guards were disciplined for failing to activate their body cameras during uses of force before Nantwi was killed.
Finally, we asked DOCCS the same questions about Marcy and Brooks.
DOCCS did not answer our questions.
Mailey, DOCCS’chief spokesman, did say: “In 2024, the BWC program”—body worn camera—”was transitioning from a pilot program at Marcy to a statewide program. At the same time, the Commissioner and his staff were improving and tightening the BWC policy.”
“Since the death of Mr. Brooks,” DOCCS chief spokesman added, “DOCCS has recommitted to improving BWC policy and practice by updating policies to ensure that all officers are explicitly required to power on their BWC and activate the BWC during any interaction with the incarcerated population. DOCCS is fully compliant with the enacted Budget requirement that all Correction Officers must wear a BWC while on duty.”
“It is also important to note,” Mailey revealed, “that all the BWC have recall video and sound, meaning all interactions are fully recorded even if the BWC is not activated.”
When Mid-State's CERT team killed Nantwi on Mar. 1, 2025, it was the 15th Day of an illegal, 22-day "wildcat" strike by guards that started Feb. 17. National Guard troops were first deployed Feb. 20 to replace the thousands of striking guards.
The sergeant captured in the body camera recording boasting about Mid-State's merciless beat-down "policy," while standing in the prison infirmary, as Nantwi was dying, appears to have been preparing the National Guard soldier he was speaking to for what he would see at Mid-State. Like any worker would welcome a new hire, he was giving him an informal orientation. A friendly "how things run around here" chat.
The sergeant started with a lament.
"We can't do what we used to do," he said. "And run the fucking place."
He blamed the body cameras.
"Make us wear these fucking things," the sergeant explained. "You can't do what you got to do."
Not only that, but the cameras meant they were constantly surveilled.
"They watch these things all the time," he said.
Mimicking questions nit-picking nellies might ask because of something they saw a guard do on a camera, the sergeant posed hypotheticals: "'Why this?' 'What that?'"
His answer? "Fuck off. Fucking unbelieveable."
Referring to whatever Nantwi allegedly did to warrant a beat-down, the sergeant continued: "Before body cameras, we didn't have these problems. We didn't have them before."
That's when it was the "fucking wild, wild west here" and if "you fucked up ... you fucking got beat."
Guards didn't just beat people, the sergeant admitted.
They covered-up excessive or unjustified violence against prisoners by filing false administrative misbehavior charges against them. The bogus charges got victims wrongly sent to solitary confinement for weeks and sometimes months.
"And you stayed in the Box for a fucking month or two," the sergeant added, using prison slang for a housing unit of disciplinary segregation cells.
"It’s fucking insane," he concluded. "It’s fucking insane."
The Free Lance News asked DOCCS if this sergeant was still working for the Department and whether he’d been disciplined. Again, DOCCS did not answer.
Instead, Mailey, DOCCS spokesman, said: “since you indicated that Mr. Nantwi’s murder may be part of the discussion, we decline to comment due to the ongoing criminal prosecutions.”
“DOCCS has taken great steps towards assessing and improving the culture at Marcy and Mid-State, engaging independent experts to provide recommendations,” Mailey added. “This is ongoing and reflects our commitment to a culture of safety, transparency, and positive long-term change.”
Today, one year later, DOCCS is still short several thousand correction officers, a slow-burning crisis continues to engulf New York's prison system and soldiers remain deployed.
It will cost taxpayers $1.2 billion through March 2027 to keep the National Guard in New York's prisons—and likely more beyond that.
At least two Marcy workers alleged to be involved in Brooks’ killing have yet to be fired by DOCCS, according to a court filing by Attorney General James submitted in February. The filing did not name the workers.
They were still on DOCCS’ payroll despite the promise Gov. Hochul made last year that all the workers involved in his killing would be fired.
Snyder, Mid-State’s FIrst Deputy, retired shortly after Nantwi's killing on May 18. Attempts to reach him by telephone calls were not successful. Text messages were not returned.
Gov. Hochul named Bennie Thorpe Marcy's superintendent after Brooks' murder. Medbury kept her First Deputy job there.
D'Amore was promoted from Marcy's superintendent to Deputy Commissioner in DOCCS’ Central Office—where he remains.
If D’Amore, when he was still Marcy’s superintendent, learned from the use of force reports Marcy’s guards were submitting before Brook’s murder that no one was using their body cameras to record uses of force, and D’Amore was passing those same reports up the chain-of-command to his supervisors in Albany, as he was supposed to do, then Commissioner Martuscello should have also known no one at Marcy was using the body cameras to record uses of force. And he knew it before Brooks was killed.
At a minimum, at least one person in Commissioner Martuscello’s office knew: whoever read the reports D’Amore was sending. Assuming someone actually read them.
A scathing Sunday Albany Times Union editorial called for Gov. Hochul to fire Commissioner Martuscello because he “is not the person who is going to clean up a brutal, corrupt system.”
Last week, a federal judge ruled enough allegations exist to allow a civil rights lawsuit filed by Brooks' sons to proceed against Commissioner Martuscello. The suit says the DOCCS' chief is responsible for their father’s murder because he was deliberately indifferent to the threat beat-up squads posed to prisoners' safety.
The same suit also names Medbury and D'Amore. It does not name Snyder.
The Times Union editorial cited the judge’s decision and said “For Ms. Hochul to keep him on any longer would be another act of deliberate indifference—this time, by the governor herself.”
Send tips or corrections to jasonbnicholas@gmail.com or, if you prefer, thefreelancenews@proton.me