By Greta Stuckey, Jon Moss
syracuse.com
UTICA, N.Y. — A 10th New York state prison guard was arraigned Monday on murder and other charges in the fatal beating of an inmate two months ago in a Central New York prison.
The officer, Nicholas Kieffer, surrendered himself to the State Police and was in handcuffs in Oneida County Court in Utica. He pleaded not guilty in a brief appearance before Judge Robert Bauer.
Kieffer, 33, was indicted on multiple charges, including second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, second-degree gang assault and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing.
Eight other corrections officers and a prison sergeant also face charges related to the fatal beating of the inmate, Robert L. Brooks. Three prison system employees have reached plea agreements and at least three others remain under criminal investigation, prosecutors have said.
On Dec. 9, multiple corrections officers repeatedly punched and kicked Brooks in the groin, abdomen and face in the infirmary at Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County. He died hours later at a Utica hospital.
The savage beating — which prosecutors said last week was the final of three beatings to Brooks — was recorded on video by body cameras worn by four of the prison guards. None had turned on their camera, but 30 minutes of video was passively recorded without audio.
Oneida County grand jurors voted to indict the guards after viewing evidence presented by the office of Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick. He was appointed as a special prosecutor in early January after the state Attorney General’s Office recused itself.
Fitzpatrick previously said Kieffer did not appear with his fellow co-defendants last week due to a “misunderstanding” with his attorney. Kieffer was confused about when he was supposed to turn himself in, prosecutor Jarrett Woodfork said.
The nine prison guards charged Thursday were:
- Nicholas Anazalone: second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing
- Anthony Farina: second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter
- Mathew Galliher: second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter and second-degree gang assault
- Christopher Walrath: second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter
- David Kingsley II: second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter
- Michael Fisher: second-degree manslaughter
- David Walters: second-degree manslaughter
- Nicholas Gentile: tampering with physical evidence
- Sgt. Michael Mashaw: second-degree manslaughter
All of the defendants have pleaded not guilty. They have been told to return to court March 31 for a hearing.
Multiple federal and state agencies are investigating Brooks’ death.
Brooks’ death was ruled a homicide by the Onondaga County Medical Examiner’s Office, according to a family lawyer, Elizabeth Mazur. His cause of death was “compression of the neck and multiple blunt-impact injuries,” according to the autopsy report.
Preliminary findings from Brooks’ autopsy showed he suffered extensive bruising, a broken nose bone and bleeding in his genitals and neck.
Brooks arrived at the Marcy prison at about 9 p.m. Dec. 9 . Three guards carried him facedown by his hands and feet to an exam table in the prison infirmary.
Guards soon begin punching and hitting Brooks, at one point shoving him up against a window. One guard can be seen in body camera footage putting both hands around Brooks’ neck and yanking him off the exam table.
After the beating, Brooks is seen bloodied and stripped to his underwear.
The Brooks family filed a wrongful death lawsuit last month in federal court claiming state officials oversee a “dangerously broken” prison system that brutalizes inmates.
Gov. Kathy Hochul visited the Marcy prison in the weeks after the beating and named a new, permanent superintendent for the facility. She also announced a variety of initiatives to improve the larger state prison system.
Hochul has ordered all state employees involved in the beating to be fired. State officials initially identified 14 employees, followed later by another four. Two of the employees have resigned.
Several of the corrections officers are defendants in lawsuits alleging other cases of abuse against inmates, including one contending the Marcy prison has a “beat-up squad.”
The union representing corrections officers, the state Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, has denounced the actions of the officers involved in the beating.
“This incident not only endangers our entire membership but undermines the integrity of our profession,” the union said in a statement. “We cannot and will not condone this behavior.”
Brooks, 43, originally of Greece in Monroe County, was sentenced in 2017 to 12 years in prison on a first-degree assault charge. He was arrested after stabbing his girlfriend multiple times.
Brooks had been held in the Mohawk Correctional Facility, records show, but was moved the day of the beating to the Marcy prison. He had been transferred for his “safety,” a state prison system investigator testified, since he had been involved in altercations with other inmates.
The Marcy prison is a medium-security facility located in Oneida County, about seven miles west of Utica. It had 829 inmates as of Feb. 1 , records show.
An independent monitoring group, the Correctional Association of New York, has identified issues in the past at the prison.
The group interviewed more than 100 inmates in fall 2022 and said inmates reported rampant abuse by employees. A “pervasive culture of fear and retaliation” was observed, the group wrote in its report.
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