Differing Judicial Outcomes for the New York Guards Who Killed Robert Brooks
by Jo Ellen Knott
According to WKTV in Utica, former New York state prison guard David Walters will remain free on bail while appealing his manslaughter conviction. Walters, 37, posted a $100,000 bond and was released from Elmira Correctional Facility in December 2025. Earlier that year, he had pleaded guilty to the killing of Robert Brooks, a prisoner at the Marcy Correctional Facility, and was sentenced to 2.3 to seven years in prison. PLN covered the federal civil rights complaint filed on January 15, 2025, which includes Walters as one of the over a dozen officials accused of violating the Eighth Amendment rights of prisoner Robert Brooks. The prison guards are accused of using excessive force and showing deliberate indifference to his resulting serious medical need, which left Brooks dead in December 2024. [See: PLN, Aug. 2025, p. 40.]
Despite the gravity of the homicide, a Jefferson County Supreme Court judge granted a stay of sentence, allowing Walters to avoid incarceration while his appeal is pending. A second judge upheld the decision on December 22, 2025. While prisoners often wait years behind bars for appeals, Walters remains at liberty.
In contrast, David J. Kingsley II, another former state prison guard responsible for the killing of Robert Brooks, was sentenced to 25 years-to-life on December 19, 2025. In a rare instance of maximum accountability for custodial murder, Kingsley, 45, was caught on video choking and restraining the handcuffed Brooks while a “beat-up squad” of white guards at Marcy Correctional Facility kicked and punched the victim to death in December 2024. Kingsley is the ninth guard convicted in the case, which exposed a long-standing culture of impunity and “sport” beatings ignored by state officials, as covered more extensively on page 56 of this issue.
A third former prison guard, Michael Fisher, 55, pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless endangerment on January 16, 2026. The misdemeanor plea came as a surprise following a deadlocked jury in his manslaughter trial. Prosecutors alleged Fisher stood by for seven minutes of a brutal 16-minute assault, failing to intervene as fellow guards inflicted fatal injuries. Fisher is the last of ten officers to resolve charges in the high-profile case, which featured graphic body camera footage. Fisher’s plea allowed him to avoid a 15-year sentence. He was slated for six months in county jail on January 30, 2026, pending an appeal regarding his liability for inaction.
Sources: ABC News, WKTV, WWNY
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