Former New York prison guard sentenced to 15 years for beating death of inmate
Utica, ny – A former correctional service agent was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Monday for his role in the death of a black detainee whose beat by a group of guards in a New York prison was captured on Bodycam videos.
Christopher Walrath was one of the six guards accused of murder in the death of Robert Brooks, who was struck at the Marcy correctional center on December 9. Walrath pleaded guilty to an involuntary homicide in May in the first degree in May under the advocacy among the guards accused of murder.
“In this video, I see you and your colleagues officers, treating him as if his life has no value, as if you had the right to brutalize him for sport,” said Robert Brooks Jr., the victim’s son, in court.
The son declared in his declaration of impact on the victim: “I am not well and I will never be.”
Brooks was serving a 12 -year sentence for assault in the first degree since 2017 and had been transferred to Marcy with a locking nearby the night when he was beaten. The videos show that Brooks is struck in the chest with a shoe, raised by his neck and then fell.
Under the interrogations in May of the Onondaga County District Prosecutor, William Fitzpatrick, Walrath admitted that he and other guards had attacked Brooks, that he had put Brooks in a starter and that he struck the body and groin of the detainee.
In addition to the six guards accused in February of murder, three other prison workers were charged with manslaughter and another for falsified evidence. Prosecutors said three other prison employees had concluded agreements.
A goalkeeper pleaded guilty in May to attempted physical evidence to falsify physical evidence and was sentenced to a year -old conditional release.
Tests had to start in October for the guards who rejected the advocacy agreements.
Fitzpatrick also pursues the guards in the deadly blow of the Nantwi Messiah on March 1 in another locking of Marcy, the correctional establishment of the state of Mid-State. Ten guards were charged in April, including two accused of murder.
The two prisons are around 180 miles (290 kilometers) northwest of New York.
