May 5 (UPI) -- A New York prison guard pleaded guilty Monday as one of 10 corrections officers charged in the December killing of inmate Robert L. Brooks.
Christopher Walrath, 36, pleaded guilty to a first-degree manslaughter charge and will spend the next 15 years in a state prison after he and nine other co-workers allegedly beat, kicked and punched Brooks in his face, groin area and abdomen in the infirmary on December 9 at Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County. Brooks died hours later at a hospital in Utica.
He is the only one of the 10 indicted guards to plead guilty.
Walrath originally was indicted for second-degree murder but had the charge dropped to a lesser first-degree manslaughter charge as part of the guilty plea agreement.
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Onondaga County's District Attorney William Fitzpatrick called the guilty plea a "very important step."
In January, Fitzpatrick was appointed as special prosecutor after the New York attorney general's office recused itself and jurors in Oneida County viewed evidence by Fitzpatrick's office.
He said in court that the Brooks family, who were present Monday in court, accepted the plea offer.
Walrath reportedly left his post to participate in the beating, put Brooks in a chokehold and struck him in the groin, with body cam footage depicting a large part of the brutality.
Brooks, 43, was later seen bloodied and stripped to his underwear.
Brooks was originally from Greece in Monroe County and had a parole hearing next year. In 2017, he was sentenced to 12 years in jail on a first-degree assault charge after he was arrested for stabbing his girlfriend multiple times.
His death was ruled as a homicide, with the cause listed as a "compression of the neck and multiple blunt-impact injuries," according to the autopsy report, with preliminary findings showing extensive bruising, a broken nose and bleeding in the neck and genitals.
Meanwhile, the Brooks family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in a federal court, calling New York's prison system "dangerously broken." A group of more than 100 ex-Marcy prison inmates in 2022 claimed widespread abuse and a "pervasive culture of fear and retaliation" in a report.
The nine other co-workers of Walrath are due in court this month between May 13 through the 19th.
Walrath is scheduled to be officially sentenced August 4 in front of Oneida County Court Judge Robert Bauer. He faces five years of post-release supervision after his 15-year prison sentence.
