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Fate of NY prison guard charged in Harlem man's death rests with jury
By
Samantha Max
Published Mar 30, 2026
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By
Samantha Max
Published Mar 30, 2026
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An upstate jury will soon decide the fate of a New York prison guard facing criminal charges in the beating death of an incarcerated man during an unauthorized prison strike last year.
Correction officer Jonah Levi faces charges of murder, manslaughter, gang assault and falsifying an official document in the death of Messiah Nantwi at Mid-State Correctional Facility in Oneida County, about 250 miles north of New York City. The prosecution and defense delivered closing statements on Monday, and jurors started to deliberate in the afternoon.
Prosecutors said Levi kicked Nantwi in the head, contributing to the injuries that caused his death. They also accused Levi and other officers of lying about what happened in reports they submitted after Nantwi’s death. Levi’s defense attorney argued at trial that Nantwi was acting violently, and any force used against Nantwi was justified.
The trial, unfolding in a Utica courtroom over the last week, has offered an inside look at one of the most chaotic moments in a weekslong strike that upended operations at prisons across the state. It also marks a rare case of a correction officer facing prosecution for using force against a prisoner.
“You abandoned your oath,” special prosecutor William Fitzpatrick said during closing statements on Monday. “You went in that room and you stomped that man to death.”
Thousands of correction officers walked off the job last year to protest dangerous conditions in state prisons and a new law that restricts officers’ use of solitary confinement.
The strike — illegal under state law — started just days before several officers were indicted in the beating death of Robert Brooks at a prison across the street from Midstate. Nantwi was one of at least seven incarcerated people who died during the strike, Gothamist previously reported.
Fitzpatrick told jurors Levi used excessive force against a young man who was acting like an “immature fool” but did not deserve to die. He said that on March 1, 2025, Nantwi, 22, left his dorm when he wasn’t supposed to and went to take a shower.
When a National Guardsman stationed at the prison during the strike told Nantwi to go back to his room, the prosecutor said, Nantwi resisted. The guardsman quickly defused the situation, Fitzpatrick said, but a request for backup prompted members of the prison’s emergency response team to descend on the unit and try to handcuff Nantwi.
Nantwi didn’t want to be handcuffed, and he grabbed an officer, the prosecutor said, adding that he also tried to bite one of the correction officer’s fingers. Over the next few minutes, Fitzpatrick said, officers hit and kicked Nantwi 69 times — at least 15 of them in the head. Nantwi, who lived in Harlem before he went to prison, died from massive head trauma and other injuries, according to the prosecutor.
Fitzpatrick said Levi and his fellow officers “disgraced the uniform, disgraced the badge” and then tried to hide their wrongdoing.
“Don’t you let ‘em get away with it,” he shouted at the jury. “There’s no self-defense here.”
Levi’s defense attorney, Graeme Spicer, denied any cover-up and said the officer was a “voice of reason” during the incident. He said the prison was under “heightened tension” that day, because of the strike. He also said Nantwi may have been high on synthetic marijuana and was holding a pencil like a knife as he interacted with members of the National Guard.
“They obviously felt threatened,” Spicer said. “This was a situation that could have got out of control really quick if they did not call for that backup.”
Spicer cast doubt on the prosecution’s theory and on the credibility of its witnesses, including Nantwi’s former prison roommate. He disputed the prosecution’s claim that Levi kicked Nantwi and said blood got on the officer’s boots because he was nearby and might have stepped in it.
”This is a tragic situation. Nobody disputes that,” the defense attorney said. “But, ladies and gentlemen, we do not double down on tragedy in courts of law. We do not double down and convict somebody of these allegations, convict somebody of these crimes without any evidence.”
He said there was no credible evidence that Levi’s actions caused Nantwi’s death.
Nantwi was serving a five-year sentence for criminal weapons possession and awaiting trial on homicide charges, according to court records and his lawyer. He sued the NYPD in 2022, alleging that officers in the Bronx shot him repeatedly while he lay on the ground in the fetal position.
After his death, the New York County public administrator filed a separate federal lawsuit on behalf of Nantwi’s estate, arguing officers covered up his beating by not wearing body cameras or turning them off. That lawsuit is still pending.
Tagged
new york state
public safety
Samantha Max
Samantha reports on whether New Yorkers feel safe and whether the institutions that are supposed to protect them are working. Before coming to WNYC/Gothamist, she spent three years covering the criminal justice system in Tennessee for Nashville Public Radio. Her reporting on Nashville's police department received multiple awards, including the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. Samantha was also part of the inaugural class of Report for America, a service journalism program that sends up-and-coming reporters to local newsrooms across the country. She is a Northwestern University grad, a Baltimore native and fluent in Spanish. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal: samanthamaxwnyc.93.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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