UTICA, New York (AP) -- A former New York state prison guard was found guilty of murder in the death of an inmate beaten while handcuffed, while two other guards were acquitted for their roles in the beating that was caught on body-camera footage.
A jury delivered the verdicts in a courtroom just miles from the Marcy Correctional Facility, where Robert Brooks was pummeled by correctional officers upon his arrival on the night of Dec. 9. Five guards indicted in February had previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Brooks’ death.
David Kingsley, Mathew Galliher and Nicholas Kieffer were charged with murder and first-degree manslaughter.
Kingsley was found guilty of murder and manslaughter, while Galliher and Kieffer were acquitted.
Kieffer and Galliher were also charged with second-degree gang assault, but found not guilty. Kieffer faced a fourth charge of filing a false instrument.
Brooks was beaten three separate times as soon as he arrived at the prison, the last being the fatal beating in the infirmary caught on the silent body-camera footage, according to Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick.
