By Michael Hill
Associated Press
UTICA, N.Y. — Three former New York state corrections officers charged in the fatal beating of an inmate that was captured on bodycam video were trying to do their jobs in difficult circumstances and should not be judged for the violent acts of other officers involved in the beating, defense lawyers told a jury Wednesday.
The lawyers delivered their closing arguments in a Utica court in the trial of Mathew Galliher, Nicholas Kieffer and David Kingsley, who face charges of murder and first-degree manslaughter in the death of Robert Brooks. The 43-year-old man was beaten by multiple corrections officers upon his arrival at the Marcy Correctional Facility on Dec. 9. Five officers indicted in February have previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Brooks’ death under plea deals.
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Defense lawyers told the jury their clients were not among the guards who struck Brooks and that they made quick decisions in a chaotic situation that night.
“Just because corrections officers wear the same uniform, doesn’t mean they’re part of the same gang. It doesn’t mean they have the same motivations, the same knowledge or the same intent,” said Kingsley’s attorney, Luke Nebush. “The acts of some, even those that look violent on video, do not make everyone in that room equally culpable.”
Kingsley lifted Brooks by the neck on the night he was beaten.
Brooks 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 show officers striking him in the chest with a shoe, lifting him by the neck and dropping him.
William Fitzpatrick, the special prosecutor, told the jury that all the guards were in it together, part of what he called a “welcoming committee.”
“They killed him - the whole rotten, stinking, disgusting group of them,” Fitzpatrick said. “They all participated in it, and they all killed that man.”
Fitzpatrick has said Brooks was beaten three separate times when he arrived at the prison, the last a fatal beating in the infirmary caught on the silent body-camera footage.
Fitzpatrick played a long clip of the bodycam video as part of his closing, showing the defendants’ actions that night and making critical comments about their failure to intervene.
Brooks suffered a broken nose, a black eye and injuries to the spleen, liver and groin. Blood leaked into his lungs and stomach, officials said.
The publicly released footage of the brutal pummeling stirred outrage and calls for prison reform.
Galliher’s attorney also showed portions of those bodycam videos Wednesday to demonstrate that Galliher showed up partway through the incidents started to bring leg shackles, as requested by a supervisor. Kevin Luibrand said Galliher orchestrated nothing and tried to do his job despite minimal training and lack of guidance from his sergeants.
“These were circumstances that Mathew Galliher did not create,” Luibrand said.
Luibrand blamed Brooks’ death on other officers who worked out plea deals.
Kieffer’s attorney, David Longeretta, said his client administered a “minimum” amount of pepper spray, but it “had no effect” on Brooks.
“The prosecution’s strategy in this case seems to have been, ‘charge them all and let the jury figure it out,’’" Longeretta said.
The jury will begin deliberations after instructions from the judge.
A grand jury indicted 10 guards on murder and lesser charges. In addition to the five men who pleaded guilty to either first- or second-degree manslaughter, another pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of attempted tampering with physical evidence.
Another corrections officer is scheduled to go on trial for second-degree manslaughter in January.
Three more employees have agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges and are cooperating with prosecutors, including two former guards who testified at the trial.
Kieffer and Galliher also were charged with second-degree gang assault. Kieffer faces a fourth charge of filing a false instrument.
The prison is about 180 miles (290 kilometers) northwest of New York City.
Fitzpatrick, the Onondaga County district attorney, also is prosecuting corrections officers in the fatal assault of Messiah Nantwi on March 1 at a nearby prison, the Mid-State Correctional Facility. Ten guards were indicted in April, including two who are charged with murder, in Nantwi’s death.
