A former upstate New York prison guard on trial for murder repeatedly stomped on the head of a 22-year-old inmate during a brutal beating by a group of guards, a jury heard Tuesday.
Jonah Levi was the first guard to go on trial after 10 were indicted last April in connection with death of Messiah Nantwi at Mid-State Correctional Facility on March 1, 2025, a time when the state prison system was reeling from a wildcat strike.
Prosecutors said Nantwi suffered 69 separate blows from guards who used their fists, boots and batons in a series of beatings.
Investigators collected DNA evidence from boots taken from Levi and a second guard facing a top charge of second-degree murder, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick told jurors in his opening statement.
“With utter depravity and recklessness, you will hear eyewitness testimony that Jonah Levi multiple times stomped Messiah Nantwi on the head. And pathetically, his brother officers did nothing,” said Fitzpatrick, the special prosecutor.
Nantwi died due to massive head trauma and other injuries to his body from the beatings, according to prosecutors.
Levi’s attorney, Lewis G. Spicer, told the jury that the use of force that morning was justified given Nantwi’s aggressive behavior. He said Levi did not use any force that resulted in Nantwi’s death.
“Mr. Levi was doing everything he was supposed to do,” Spicer said.
Nantwi’s death came several months after Robert Brooks was fatally beaten at a separate prison just across the road from Mid-State. Prisoner advocates say the two beatings illustrated a culture of violence by guards at New York prisons.
His death also came as New York prisons were 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.
Levi was part of an emergency response team called to Nantwi’s room to help National Guard members who sought backup after Nantwi was uncooperative with a prisoner headcount. Fitzpatrick said the situation was resolved by the time the response team arrived.
Several guards began beating Nantwi after he refused to be handcuffed and grabbed a guard’s vest. The beatings intensified after Nantwi bit a guard’s hand, prosecutors claim.
“He’s dead because he protested cuffing up and because he tried to bite someone’s finger,” Fitzpatrick said.
Prosecutors say guards falsely claimed a makeshift knife had been recovered as part of a cover-up effort.
