UPDATED: FOUR MORE PRISON GUARDS PLEAD GUILTY TO KILLING ROBERT BROOKS
22 YEAR SENTENCES FOR 2 OF THE KILLER GUARDS; TRIAL FOR REMAINING 4 GUARDS SET TO START OCT. 6
Utica, New York Sept. 22, 2025 Updated: 4:36 PM.
Four of the remaining eight state prison guards charged with killing prisoner Robert Brooks have pleaded guilty and the remaining four are set to start trial Oct. 6.
Nicholas Anzalone and Anthony Farina admitted guilt to first degree manslaughter for killing Brooks at New York State's Marcy Correctional Facility outside Utica on Dec. 9, 2024. Stone-faced and somber, they also admitted they "acted in concert" with the other guards. They agreed to 22 years in state prison when they are sentenced Nov. 21.
Former New York State Correction Officers (L-R) Nicholas Anzalone, Anthony Farina, David Walters and Sgt. Michael Mashaw pleaded guilty to their roles in killing Robert Brooks at the Marcy Correctional Facility on Dec. 9, 2025. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
Michael Mashaw, a former sergeant, and David Walters, pleaded guilty to second degree manslaughter for failing to stop the killing. Mashaw agreed to a 3-to-9 year sentence; Walters a 2 1/3-to-7 year sentence.
The guards were part of a "beat-up squad" of state prison guards that beat, choked and tortured Brooks, 43, on a treatment table inside Marcy's infirmary. It was unintentionally captured on video by body cameras worn by four of the guards.
Letitia James, New York's Attorney General, knew about Marcy's beat-up squad before it killed Brooks because her office was already defending its alleged leader, Sgt. Glenn Trombly, and another member of the squad, Farina, from a civil rights lawsuit filed by a prisoner alleging they beat and choked him in 2020, The Free Lance exclusively reported.
Anzalone, Farina, Mashaw and Walters join former guard Christopher Walrath in pleading guilty for taking part in Brooks' killing. Walrath admitted guilt to first degree manslaughter and was sentenced to 15 years in state prison Aug. 4.
Correction Officers Nicholas Kieffer, Mathew J. Galliher and David J. Kingsley also face murder charges for killing Brooks.
Kingsley was offered the same plea-bargain deal Anzalone and Farina accepted, but Kingsley rejected it.
In addition to the six guards charged with murder, Sgt. Mashaw, CO Michael Fisher and Walters were charged with second degree manslaughter for failing to stop the killing. Galliher was also charged with gang assault, and Anzalone was also charged with filing a false report.
Correction Officers David Kingsley, Michael Fisher, Mathew Galliher and Nicholas Kieffer rejected plea-bargains and will go to trial starting Oct. 6. Photo Credit: JB Nicholas
Sgt. Trombly, Robert T. Kessler and a third guard pleaded guilty to unknown charges in exchange for specific sentences. Special prosecutor Onondaga County District Attorney William J. Fitzpatrick said he would disclose the charges and the sentences in the future.
Another guard, Nicholas Gentile, was charged with evidence tampering. He 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.
When Walrath was sentenced, Fitzpatrick, the special prosecutor, said Brooks did "absolutely nothing" to provoke his killers.
Previously, the judge presiding over the case, Oneida County Court Judge Robert Bauer, denied the remaining four defendants' motions for separate trials. Their joint trial will begin Oct. 6.
Oneida County Judge Robert Bauer is presiding over the prosecution of the prison guards charged with killing Brooks. Photo Credit: JB Nicholas.
2 1/2 months after Brooks was kill at Marcy, another beat-up 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.
Defendants Farina, Anzalone, Mashaw and Walters were all allowed to remain free on bail pending their November sentencing.
The trial for the remaining four, Kingsley, Fisher, Galliher and Kieffer, is expected to last three weeks, according to their attorneys and judge Bauer. Some of the defendants told judge Bauer they would not be calling witnesses, meaning they will make arguments for acquittal based on the bodycam video recordings of Brooks’ murder alone.
A lawyer for one of the defendants said they anticipated calling Dr. James Terzian as an expert defense witness. Terzian is a forensic pathgologist perhaps best known for his TV appearances on the “Forensic Files” and “Secrets of the Morgue.”
Robert Brooks’ son, Robert Lee Brooks jr., responded to the four guards’ guilty pleas by saying in a social media post: “Today we got justice moving forward—4 guilty. This fight is far from over, but every step counts. Rest in power, Dad. We won’t stop until the truth is fully heard.”
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