New York Guards Plead Guilty to Fatally Beating Prisoner, Mopping Up His Blood
New York Department of Corrections and Community Services (DOCCS) guard Christopher Walrath, 36, pleaded guilty on May 5, 2025, to taking part in the fatal beating of prisoner Robert Brooks. On May 14, 2025, fellow guard Nicholas Gentle, 36, admitted to tampering with evidence when he mopped up the prisoner’s blood. In between, three other former guards declined plea deals on May 13, 2025.
As PLN reported, Brooks, 43, died at Marcy Correctional Facility in December 2024 after a brutal attack that was also frighteningly casual—it was captured on body-worn video cameras which guards didn’t bother to turn off. In February 2025, when charges were announced against 10 DOCCS employees, guards statewide staged a massive wildcat strike—during which another prisoner was killed at a neighboring lockup, resulting in charges against six more guards. [See: PLN, Mar. 2025, p.61; Apr.2025, p.9; and May 2025, p.43.]
Walrath was charged with manslaughter and second-degree murder, though he entered a plea only to the manslaughter charge. The guard admitted to beating Brooks, who was handcuffed, and putting him in a chokehold as he pummeled the prisoner’s head and body with punches. For Gentile’s plea to his misdemeanor charge, he was sentenced to a one-year conditional discharge, meaning the charge will be dropped if he remains crime free.
Their former fellow guards Anthony Farina, Nicholas Kieffer, and David Kingsley declined plea deals when they appeared in court. Under the terms they spurned, Farina and Kingsley would have faced no more than 18 years in prison each, and Kieffer no more than 12 years. Instead, all three are headed to trial in June 2025 on second-degree murder charges. Farina and Kieffer were also charged with gang assault. Kieffer faces additional charges of manslaughter and offering a false instrument for filing for an incident report he wrote that attempted to cover up the brutality. All three were reportedly fired from DOCCS after Brooks’ killing.
No pleas have yet been entered by any of the guards charged in the March 2025 death of the other prisoner, Messiah Nantwi, 22, who was reportedly undergoing a mental health crisis that may have been triggered by the presence of National Guard troops called up to provide security at Mid-State Correctional Correctional Facility while guards were staging their walkout.
Sources: NBC News, WHEC
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