A special prosecutor announced Monday that plea deals were offered to 10 New York prison guards facing charges in the fatal beating of a handcuffed inmate.
Last month, six correctional officers were charged with murder in connection with the December death of Robert Brooks, 43. Body-worn camera footage captured the brutal assault at Marcy Correctional Facility. Three additional prison staffers were charged with manslaughter, while another faced evidence tampering charges.
During a pretrial court conference, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick disclosed the plea offers but refrained from sharing specifics afterward. The defendants are scheduled to appear in court in April to either accept or reject the deals.
David Walters, charged with second-degree manslaughter, was offered a plea deal to plead guilty to the current charge, with a mid-range sentence recommendation, according to his attorney, Nick Passalacqua.
“We’ve not received what I’d call an offer. We’ve simply been asked to plead guilty to the charge,” Passalacqua stated, suggesting that similar offers were extended to other defendants.
Other defense attorneys declined to comment after the hearing. Walters is due back in court on April 30.
Fitzpatrick also informed defense attorneys that he had consulted with federal prosecutors investigating Brooks’ death regarding the plea offers.
“They are actively pursuing the case. I suggested that my proposed resolutions would be sufficient to close the matter,” Fitzpatrick said in court. “They haven’t agreed to that yet, but they responded positively and said they would consider it.”
The body camera footage from the night of December 9 shows officers striking Brooks in the chest with a shoe, lifting him by the neck, and dropping him while his hands were restrained behind his back. He succumbed to his injuries the following day.
Brooks had been serving a 12-year sentence for first-degree assault since 2017. He was transferred from a nearby facility to Marcy Correctional Facility—located about 200 miles (320 kilometers) northwest of New York City—shortly before the violent incident.
Fitzpatrick previously stated that three other prison employees had already reached plea agreements.
Additionally, the prosecutor is investigating the March 1 death of Messiah Nantwi at Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy. A court filing from the attorney general’s office suggests that up to nine correctional officers may have been involved or implicated in his death.
