UTICA, N.Y. (AP) — Ten New York prison guards were charged Wednesday in connection with the fatal beating of a 22-year-old inmate last month — including two charged with murder. It’s the second time a group of correctional officers in the state was indicted for a death behind bars this year.
The indictment says several guards severely beat Messiah Nantwi, a prisoner at the Mid-State Correctional Facility, who was hospitalized and died on March 1 “due to massive head trauma and numerous other injuries to his body.” Three guards are accused of plotting to lie about Nantwi having a makeshift knife in his room.
In addition to the 10 guards, six other correctional officers agreed to cooperate with the investigation, a special prosecutor overseeing the probe said. Two will plead guilty to felonies and four will plead guilty to misdemeanors, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said.
Fitzpatrick is also the prosecutor in the death of Robert Brooks, who was fatally beaten late last year at the Marcy Correctional Facility just across the street from the Mid-State prison. Six guards have pleaded not guilty to murder charges in Brooks’ death and other prison employees have been charged.
The Utica-area facility was one of many state prisons struggling to function during a three-week wildcat strike by guards upset over working conditions, which forced the governor to send in National Guard troops to maintain operations. Incarcerated people and their advocates complained that services and conditions deteriorated during the walkout.
Lawyers for the two guards charged with second-degree murder, Jonah Levi and Caleb Blair, entered not guilty pleas at an indictment hearing Wednesday. The other eight guards also entered not guilty pleas.
Levi, Blair and three other guards — Thomas Eck, Craig Klemick and Daniel Burger — also are charged with first-degree manslaughter. Those five guards and another officer — Sgt. Francis Chandler — were further charged with gang assault.
The indictment said six of the 10 guards assaulted Nantwi, while the other four were accused of trying to cover it up including by filing false reports and cleaning up blood in Nantwi’s cell in an effort to destroy evidence.
The beatings and lack of urgency about getting him medical attention “demonstrated depraved indifference” for his life, the indictment said.
Gov. Kathy Hochul called it a “horrific crime” in announcing the indictments Tuesday.
“The tragic death of Mr. Nantwi at the hands of correction officers who are responsible for protecting the incarcerated population is deeply, deeply disturbing,” Hochul said in a brief video message.
Levi and Blair were part of an emergency response team called to Nantwi’s room to help National Guard members with an “unknown issue.” His hands were raised when the correctional officers first entered the room but he objected to being handcuffed for no apparent reason and grabbed another guard’s vest, the indictment says. Several guards immediately rained blows on his head and body using their boots, the document says. The attack intensified when Nantwi bit Blair and Eck on their hands.
Nantwi became unresponsive and guards transported him toward the infirmary. Nantwi was assaulted a second time in a stairwell and “dumped in a holding cell at the infirmary and further assaulted” by Blair, the indictment says.
The four guards not accused of beating Nantwi but charged with taking part in a cover-up are Sgt. David Ferrone, Nicholas Vitale, Sgt. Michael Iffert and Sgt. Donald Slawson. Chandler and Ferrone are also charged with second-degree manslaughter for allegedly not trying to stop the assaults.
According to an evidence tampering charge, Chandler ordered a corrections officer to retrieve a weapon confiscated earlier that day in an incident not involving Nantwi. At Chandler’s asking, Eck “volunteered” to lie to authorities about finding it on the floor in Nantwi’s room.
Fitzpatrick, the special prosecutor, was appointed because the attorney general’s office has recused itself in Nantwi’s case, citing its representation of several correctional officers in civil lawsuits.
Nantwi entered the state prison system last May and had been serving a five-year sentence for second-degree criminal possession of a weapon related to an exchange of gunfire with police officers in 2021. He was shot multiple times, while the officers were uninjured.
Prosecutors in Manhattan say Nantwi shot and killed Jaylen Duncan, 19, on a Harlem street in April 2023. The following evening, they say, he shot and killed Brandon Brunson, 36, at a Harlem smoke shop after an argument.
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Collins contributed from Hartford, Connecticut.
