Four prison guards charged in the beating death of inmate Robert Brooks appeared in Oneida County Court Wednesday morning to make arguments in the case.
Correction officers David Walters, Nicholas Anzalone, Michael Fisher and Michael Mashaw attended court dates with their attorneys after turning down plea deals and choosing instead to leave their fate in the hands of a jury.
The case involves a Dec. 9 violent altercation in the Marcy Correctional Facility that was caught on body-worn cameras, showing COs striking Brooks while restained. Brooks died from his wounds.
Anzalone, who faces 25 years to life if convicted of a second-degree murder charge, raised jurisdictional and constitutional arguments through his attorney Wednesday, saying there was no reason to disqualify Oneida County from appointing a special prosecutor in the case, rather than one from Onondaga County.
Prosecutors replied that it doesn’t matter if Oneida County was disqualified or not; it wasn’t the county's case anymore.
Mashaw, Fisher and Walters face second-degree manslaughter charges. They face 5-15 years in state prison if convicted at trial.
Fisher’s lawyer argued for dismissal on the grounds of insufficient evidence. He said there was no principle for a manslaughter charge in the indictment. The prosecutor alleged Fisher recklessly caused Brooks' death, and if someone stopped the beating, Brooks would have survived.
Mashaw’s attorney told the court that the people's argument states his client had a duty to intervene and failed to do so, but that is not a criminal act and there is no law for that.
The four defendants return to court in August.
Three other Marcy correctional officers who rejected pleas in the Brooks case appeared in court on Tuesday, arguing for charges to be dismissed.