ANOTHER NYS PRISONER MURDERED BY GUARDS, POLICE SAY, 16 CHARGED
7 NEW YORK STATE PRISON GAURDS CHARGED WITH MURDER OR MANSLAUGHTER FOR KILLING OF MESSIAH NANTWI ON MARCH 1
Defendants appearing handcuffed in court during their arraignments. Photo credits: JB Nicholas.
Apr. 16, 2025 Last updated: 9:22 PM, Apr. 17, 2025
For the second time in two months, a squad of New York State prison guards were arraigned on murder and manslaughter charges in a Utica courtroom for killing an inmate.
Messiah Nantwi's killing was "a murder so depraved and so wanton and disregarding of human life that New York law allows it to rise to the level of intentional murder," Special Prosecutor Onondaga County District Attorney William J. Fitzpatrick said at a news conference following the arraignments Wednesday afternoon.
The 22-year-old was "beaten with fists, batons and boots" for at least five minutes in three different locations within the prison, according to the indictment issued against the guards by an Oneida County Grand Jury. During the attack, guards were ”kicking him and stomping on his head.”
The Medical Examiner recorded "at least 69 other blows about his body," Fitzpatrick revealed.
Nantwi suffered "massive head injuries," the Medical Examiner found, according to Fitzpatrick. The cause of his death was "traumatic brain injury."
Jonah Levy (l) and Caleb Blair (r) were both charged with murder for allegedly killing Messiah Nantwi at the Mid-State Correctional Facility on Mar. 1. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
Caleb Blair and Jonah Levy were charged with murder for killing Nantwi at the Mid-State Correctional Facility outside Utica on Mar. 1. Blair and Levy were also charged with manslaughter along with David Ferrone, Francis Chandler, Thomas Eck, Craig Klemick and Daniel Burger.
In addition, Levy, Blair, Eck, Klemick, Chandler and Burger were charged with gang assault. Also charged for taking part in an alleged cover up were Nicholas Vitale, Donald Slawson and Michael Iffert.
Six more guards "agreed to cooperate," Fitzpatrick revealed. He did not name them. Two will be allowed to plead guilty to felonies, the remaining four misdemeanors.
A few of the men arraigned on Wednesday appeared near tears as they stood before Oneida County Court Judge Michael Nolan. A woman in the spectator’s gallery wept when one of the defendants was arraigned.
A woman believed to be a family member of one of the defendants crying in the gallery of the courtroom during the arraignments. Photo credits: JB Nicholas.
The jury box was filled with reporters and cameramen. They recorded notes, video and photographs as the defendants tried to hide their handcuffs, waist chains and leg shackles from the phalanx of cameras and mobile telephones.
All the accused were released on bail by the end of the afternoon.
After killing Nantwi, the guards "concocted a scheme to posthumously plant a weapon in Mr. Nantwi's room" to cover-up the murder, Fitzpatrick, the special prosecutor, said. They also filed false reports. A "body-worn camera caught two of the conspirators discussing" the scheme to plant a shank.
The indictment alleges that, at the direction of Chandler, a sergeant, the group "assembled at RASPBERRIES, a local diner, for breakfast in order to develop and coordinate the false narrative that nothing improper was done to Messiah Nantwi."
Fitzpatrick called the botched cover-up "amateur and ineffective."
Nantwi's killing came 11 days after six prison guards were charged with murder for killing Robert Brooks at the Marcy Correctional Facility on Dec. 9, 2024. Marcy is across the road from Mid-Orange.
It also came 13 days into a state-wide wildcat strike by New York's prison guards that lasted 22 days. The strike caused interruptions in the delivery of medication to some prisoners, including mental health medication and including prisoners at Mid-State.
CO David Berger (l) was charged with first degree manslaughter; Sgt. Francis Chandler (r) was charged with second degree manslaughter. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
Nantwi was serving time for illegally possessing a handgun he fired at police in the Bronx. He was also awaiting trial on two murder charges in Manhattan.
Fitzpatrick said Nantwi held up a headcount and was "interjecting himself in another individuals' effort to obtain medication."
Because of the strike, National Guardsmen were assigned to guard housing units at Mid-State instead of Correction Officers. Not all the guards in every prison joined the strike. Among those who remained on-duty at Mid-State were members of the prison equivalent of a SWAT team: a Corrections Emergency Response Team, or CERT team.
Guardsmen reported Nantwi was a problem. A CERT team was dispatched. Fitzpatrick said most of the defendants were CERT members.
"None of them,” Fitzpatrick said,”were wearing mandated body-worn cameras,” despite being required to by state prison policy.
By the time they arrived, Fitzpatrick said Nantwi’s roommate intervened and “that situation had resolved itself.”
Senior Assistant District Attorney Alphonse Williams addresses the court during the arraignment of Jonah Levy while Senior Assistant District Attorney Sarah Fitzpatrick and District Attorney William Fitzpatrick (seated) stand-by. State Police Inv. Olivia L. Tabor (far left) stands behind the defendant. Tabor was singled out by Fitzpatrick as “incredible in helping me present this case.” Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
Nantwi had his hands raised when the CERT team arrived, but he resisted when they tried to handcuff him, the indictment alleges. When he “grabbed the vest” of a guard, guards started beating him. During the fight, Nantwi bit Blair and Eck. After that, guards beat Nantwi until he was “no longer responsive,” the indictment alleges.
They also beat Nantwi again while they dragged him handcuffed down a flight of stairs. Finally he was “dumped in a holding cell” at the prison’s infirmary, the indictment alleges. That’s where Blair—one of the two guards charged with murder—beat Nantwi more, according to the indictment.
Ferrone and Chandler, both sergeants, were there and could have stopped the deadly assault but did not.
“These two sergeants in a supervisory role in Mr. Nantwi’s room did absolutely nothing to stop the beating he was enduring and offered absolutely no assistance to him,” Fitzpatrick said at the news conference.
Sgt. David Ferrone is charged with manslaughter for failing to stop the fatal beating of Messiah Nantwi and with coming up with a scheme to cover-up the crime by planting a shank in Nantwi’s living quarters. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
After the beating, Sgt. Ferrone allowed the names of both Chandler and Levi to be left out of official use of force reports filed by members of the group “to mislead those investigating the use of force,” the indictment alleges. Ferrone also came up with the plan to plant a shank in Nantwi’s cell. Eck volunteered to “find” it.
They met at Raspberries, the diner, the morning after the killing to make sure everyone had the fake story straight.
Fitzpatrick was assigned to prosecute both Brooks' and Nantwi’s killings because Letitia James, designated by law to investigate killings of unarmed citizens by law enforcement, had to recuse herself because of a conflict of interest. Her office was already defending some of the accused killers from excessive force lawsuits.
In what typically would be considered the twilight of his career, Fitzpatrick has done what many prosecutors failed to do: secure indictments against prison guards for unjustifiably killing a person in their custody and care.
When asked by this reporter if he thought the killings of Brooks and Nantwi revealed New York’s prison system had systemic problems he didn’t hesitate to say “It is a problem. And there is a problem.”
“I do have some thoughts and ideas,” the special prosecutor added, “that' I’d like share with Dan [Gov. Kathy Hochul’s prison chief] and the governor at some point in the future.”
Oneida County Court Judge Michael Nolan hearing arguments during the arraignments from Senior Assistant District Attorney Alphonse Williams (r) and a defense attorney. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
Charged With Murder
Jonah Levi
Caleb Blair
Charged with First Degree Manslaughter
Jonah Levi
Caleb Blair
Thomas Eck
Craig Klemick
Daniel Burger
Charged with Second Degree Manslaughter
David Ferrone
Francis Chandler
Charged with First Degree Gang Assault
Jonah Levi
Caleb Blair
Thomas Eck
Craig Klemick
Daniel Burger
Charged with Second Degree Gang Assault
Jonah Levi
Caleb Blair
Thomas Eck
Craig Klemick
Daniel Burger
Francis Chandler
Charged with Taking Part in the alleged Cover-up
Donald Slawson
Michael Iffert
Nicholas Vitale
Officers Resigned
Daniel Burger, correction officer at Mid-State
Frank Jacobs, correction officer at Mid-State
Adam Joseph, correction officer at Mid-State
Jonah Levi, correction officer at Mid-State
Tristan Sheppard, correction officer at Marcy
David Ferrone, sergeant at Mid-State
Ryan Russell, sergeant at Mid-State
Officers Suspended Without Pay
Joshua Bartlett, correction officer at Mid-State
Caleb Blair, correction officer at Mid-State
Dean Cross, correction officer at Mid-State
Thomas Eck, correction officer at Marcy
Craig Klemick, correction officer at Marcy
Zachary Lallier, correction officer at Marcy
Nathan Palmer, correction officer at Mid-State
Nicholas Vitale, correction officer at Marcy
Frank Chandler Jr., sergeant at Mid-State
Sgt. Michael Iffert, sergeant at Mid-State
Donald Slawson, sergeant at Mid-State
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