An upstate New York jury on Wednesday convicted a former state correction officer of manslaughter, gang assault and other charges in the beating death of a Harlem man in a state prison last year.
Jonah Levi was acquitted of second-degree murder, the most serious charge, in the death of Messiah Nantwi, 22, at Mid-State Correctional Facility in Oneida County.
Prosecutors said Levi and other prison guards beat Nantwi dozens of times in a confrontation at the facility, about 250 miles north of New York City. The guards were also accused of trying to cover up the killing by lying about the confrontation in reports after Nantwi’s death.
The killing happened during an illegal prison guard strike, when thousands of correctional officers refused to go to work for weeks in protest of what they said were dangerous conditions at the facilities and restrictions on using solitary confinement.
Nantwi's father said in a statement that the verdict should have consequences beyond his son’s case.
“This verdict sets an important precedent — not just for Messiah, but for everyone who is incarcerated. No one should have to fear losing their life at the hands of those who are supposed to care for them,” Patterson Nantwi said.
The trial marked a rare instance where a correction officer faced prosecution for using violence against prisoners.
Special prosecutor William Fitzpatrick told jurors that Nantwi left his room when he was not supposed to and a National Guardsman who was stationed at the facility told him to go back to it. When Nantwi refused, members of the prison’s emergency response team responded and attempted to handcuff him.
A scuffle ensued and Nantwi tried to bite an officer and grabbed another, Fitzpatrick told the jury. Officers then punched and kicked him more than 60 times, including 15 times in the head, according to the prosecutor. Nantwi later died of head trauma and from the other injuries he sustained during the beating.
Levi’s defense attorney, Graeme Spicer, told jurors that Nantwi’s death was tragic, but said there was not enough evidence to back up prosecutors’ assertion that his client contributed to it and later covered it up.
The jury found Levi not guilty of second-degree murder, but convicted him of first-degree manslaughter, first-degree gang assault, second-degree gang assault, fifth-degree conspiracy, and first-degree offering of a false instrument.
Several other guards pleaded guilty to lesser charges in connection with Nantwi’s killing.
In a statement, attorneys for Nantwi’s estate said the jury’s verdict was the correct one given the evidence presented at trial. Nantwi was serving a five-year sentence for criminal possession of a weapon.
“The jury’s conviction of former corrections officer Jonah Levi affirms what the evidence showed: Messiah was restrained and defenseless when officers beat him, while others stood by and failed to intervene to stop the fatal assault,” lawyers Earl S. Ward and Katie Rosenfeld said in a joint statement.
They added his killing is part of a “disturbing pattern” of violence and cover-ups in the New York State prison system.
