Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
A prosecutor told a jury Tuesday that three former Upstate new york Prison guard on trial in fatal beating of a Black The handcuffed prisoner participated in an act of “sheer, unimaginable cruelty”.
Matthew Galliher, Nicholas Kiefer and David Kingsley have been charged with murder and first-degree manslaughter in the death of Robert Brooks, who was beaten by guards at Marcy Correctional Facility in December. Three out of 10 corrections officers were charged with murder or lesser crimes.
Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick told jurors in his opening statement that they would see sickening video of Brooks’ treatment by a group of guards, and that each of the defendants was involved.
“They were no longer corrections officers. They were a gang,” Fitzpatrick said in his opening statement. “They took turns – collectively and individually – punching him, kneeing him, pepper spraying him, choking him, pinning him down, cuffing his legs.”
Brooks, 43, had been serving a 12-year sentence for first-degree assault since 2017 and was transferred to Marcy from a nearby lockup that night. The videos, which triggered widespread outrage, show officers hitting him in the chest with a shoe, lifting him by the neck and leaving him.
Defense lawyers told jurors that prosecutors would not be able to prove their clients had acted unlawfully against human life, as the charges allege. Attorneys asked jurors to pay attention to their clients’ specific actions that night.
His attorney, David Longetta, said, “The prosecution has attempted to tie Nicholas Kiefer to the actions of others, suggesting to you that he is somehow responsible through association.”
Galliher’s attorney, Kevin Luibrand, said his client is charged with murder, in large part, for kicking Brooks to dislocate his legs.
“Matthew Galliher did not harm Robert Brooks. He did not hit him, he did not strike him, he did not encourage others to strike him, he did not deny him medical care,” Luibrand said. “He did nothing that contributed to the death of Robert Brooks.”
Fitzpatrick, the special prosecutor, says Brooks died from a massive beating that broke a bone in his neck, ruptured his thyroid cartilage and lacerated several internal organs. He also died as a result of repeated restrictions on his airway, causing brain damage, and choking on his own blood.
Fitzpatrick said Brooks was beaten three separate times once he arrived at the prison, the last being a fatal beating in the infirmary caught on silent body-camera footage.
A fourth corrections officer is scheduled to go on trial in January for second-degree murder.
Six guards charged in February pleaded guilty. Three more employees have agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges and are cooperating with the special prosecutor.
Fitzpatrick is also prosecuting the guard in the March 1 fatal beating of Messiah Nantwi at another Marcy lockup, Mid-State Correctional Facility. Ten guards were convicted in April, including two who are charged with murder, in Nentwi’s death.
The two prisons are about 180 miles (290 kilometers) northwest of each other. new york city,