Two corrections officers were charged with second-degree murder and eight others with related offenses on Wednesday in the killing of a man who inmates said was savagely beaten to death by guards last month at a prison in Central New York.
The man, 22-year-old Messiah Nantwi, died March 1 after he was beaten at the Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy, N.Y., near Utica. Mr. Nantwi, other inmates said, was bloodied, swollen and unrecognizable after the beating.
An 11-count grand jury indictment was unsealed on Wednesday charging two officers, Jonah Levi and Caleb Blair, with Mr. Nantwi’s murder. They and three other officers were charged with manslaughter in the first degree and gang assault, and two more were charged with second-degree manslaughter. Eight of the officers were charged with trying to cover up the attack.
The charges were announced by William J. Fitzpatrick, the Onondaga County district attorney, who was appointed special prosecutor in the case.
It is the second time in four months that New York State corrections officers have faced criminal charges in the death of an inmate. The other inmate, Robert Brooks, 43, was fatally beaten by guards in December at the Marcy Correctional Facility, directly across the road from where Mr. Nantwi was beaten.
Ten officers have been criminally charged in Mr. Brooks’s death, six of them with murder, after they were captured on body-worn cameras beating and choking him in the prison’s infirmary.
Mr. Nantwi’s death came amid a deepening crisis in the state prison system. Thousands of corrections officers in most of New York’s 42 prisons had left their assigned posts in protest of what they said were hazardous working conditions, taking part in a series of wildcat strikes that lasted three weeks.
Some prisoners’ rights groups had accused the officers of attempting to distract attention from the beating death of Mr. Brooks and the system’s deep-seated culture of brutality.
Mr. Nantwi, who had been serving a five-year term for second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital early on March 1. Nine prisoners interviewed by The New York Times, seven of whom agreed to have their names used, said Mr. Nantwi had been viciously beaten by up to 15 corrections officers and their supervisors.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said in March that “extremely disturbing conduct” had preceded Mr. Nantwi’s death.
In addition to Mr. Levi and Mr. Blair, Officers Thomas Eck, Craig Klemick and Daniel Burger were charged with first-degree manslaughter and gang assault. Sgts. David Ferrone and Francis Chandler were charged with second-degree manslaughter.
Prison officials had identified 18 guards as having been involved in the beating death of Mr. Nantwi. Seven resigned, including Mr. Levi, and 11 others, including Mr. Blair, were suspended without pay.
Members of the National Guard, who had been deployed to replace striking officers at Mid-State, a medium-security prison, were preparing to conduct a security check in a housing area to make sure all prisoners were accounted for, according to the nine interviewed by The Times.
Mr. Nantwi became emotional when the count was set to begin and left for the shower area of the dorm, where he could be heard crying. One prisoner, Rodney Richards, 43, said that Mr. Nantwi appeared to be having a disagreement with the Guard members and had refused to go to his cubicle. Several prisoners said he had stopped taking his psychiatric medications.
The Guard members alerted a group of officers known as the “correctional emergency response team,” the prisoners said, adding that up to 15 responded, some with their batons already in hand.
One prisoner whose cubicle was near Mr. Nantwi’s recalled the sounds of the blows to his body.
“He was screaming,” the prisoner, Jordan McLin, 26, said at the time. “I kept hearing ‘stop resisting’ and at one point you can just hear something being hit.”
Mr. Nantwi had begged the prison guards to stop beating him, said another prisoner, Aaron Perry, 34.
“He said, ‘I didn’t do anything,’” Mr. Perry recalled. “‘You’re really hurting me. Stop!’”
Some of the prisoners said the guards did not appear to be wearing body-worn cameras; others said a few of the officers were wearing them, but they were turned off. Four of the prisoners interviewed said they saw a corrections sergeant with either a hand-held or body-worn camera, but that he was facing away from the attack.
Members of the National Guard stood by, looking on, the prisoners said. None intervened.
After the beating, the prisoners said, Mr. Nantwi, who had been handcuffed and shackled, was dragged down the hall and down a flight of stairs, his face bloodied and swollen. One prisoner, Mr. Richards, said Mr. Nantwi “was not recognizable.”
Another prisoner, Michael Hummel-Parker, 32, recalled hearing Mr. Nantwi making gurgling noises — a sign, he said, that he could not breathe.
Jerod Crosby, 46, another inmate, said he could see from his cell window either officers or medical workers giving Mr. Nantwi CPR inside an ambulance.
Inside the housing area, they said, other inmates were ordered to clean up Mr. Nantwi’s blood.
Jan Ransom is an investigative reporter for The Times focusing on the criminal justice system, law enforcement and incarceration in New York.
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