See closing arguments in Robert Brooks murder trial; jury has the case (video)

Utica, N.Y. — Prosecutors and defense attorneys presented their closing statements Wednesday to a jury that will decide whether three guards murdered inmate Robert Brooks last year in a state prison.

The jury in the Utica courtroom started deliberations at 4 p.m. Wednesday. They are scheduled to resume this morning.

On Wednesday, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick told the jury the three prison guards were part of a “gang of murderers” who brutally attacked Brooks three times at Marcy Correctional Facility last December. He later died at a Utica hospital.

Defense attorneys for the three guards tried to separate the behavior of their clients from those of the other prison staff involved in the fatal beatings. Six guards have pleaded guilty and one more is set to go on trial in January.

The three guards on trial, Mathew Galliher, Nicholas Kieffer and David Kingsley, each face top charges of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter. Galliher and Kieffer face additional charges.

The three guards rejected plea deal offers that some other guards took.

If found guilty of murder, the officers face a maximum of 25 years to life in prison.

Some of the most important witnesses in the trial were the Axon body cameras that captured from multiple angles the third and final beating delivered to Brooks. Four guards caught in the video had turned off their cameras, but, unbeknownst to them, 30 minutes of video was passively recorded without audio.