Former New York prison guard sentenced to 15 years for beating death of inmate
Correctional officer Christopher Walrath, center, appears in Oneida County Court, Monday, May 5, 2025, in Utica, N.Y., to enter a guilty plea for manslaughter in the December 2024 death of inmate Robert Brooks. Credit: AP/Michael Hill
UTICA, N.Y. — A former corrections officer was sentenced to 15 years in prison Monday for his role in the death of a Black inmate whose beating by a group of guards at an upstate New York prison was captured on bodycam videos.
Christopher Walrath was one of six guards charged with murder in the death of Robert Brooks, who was pummeled at the Marcy Correctional Facility on Dec. 9. Walrath pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in May under the first plea deal among the guards charged with murder.
“In that video, I see you and your fellow officers treating him as if his life holds no value at all, as if you're entitled to brutalize him for sport,” Robert Brooks Jr., the victim's son, told the court.
The son said in his victim impact statement that, “I am not OK and I never will be.”
Brooks had been serving a 12-year sentence for first-degree assault since 2017 and was transferred to Marcy from a nearby lockup on the night he was beaten. The videos show Brooks being struck in the chest with a shoe, lifted by his neck and then dropped.
Under questioning in May from Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, Walrath admitted that he and other guards assaulted Brooks, that he put Brooks in a chokehold, and that he struck the inmate’s body and groin.
In addition to the six guards charged in February with murder, three more prison workers were indicted for manslaughter and another for evidence tampering. Prosecutors have said three other prison workers have reached agreements.
A guard pleaded guilty in May to attempted tampering with physical evidence and was sentenced to a one-year conditional discharge.
Trials were scheduled to begin in October for guards who have rejected plea deals.
Fitzpatrick also is prosecuting guards in the fatal beating of Messiah Nantwi on March 1 at another Marcy lockup, the Mid-State Correctional Facility. Ten guards were indicted in April, including two who are charged with murder.
Both prisons are about 180 miles (290 kilometers) northwest of New York City.
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