Former guard accused of stomping inmate’s head goes on trial in fatal beating at New York prison
UTICA, N.Y. (AP) — A former upstate New York prison guard on trial in the death of an inmate repeatedly stomped on the man’s head during a brutal beating by a group of guards, a prosecutor told jurors Tuesday.
Jonah Levi, who has been charged with murder, 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, 22, suffered 69 separate body blows from guards who used their fists, boots and batons in a series of beatings. A witness testified Tuesday that Nantwi was bloodied and making noises in distress after being pummeled in his room.
Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick told jurors in his opening statement that investigators collected DNA evidence from boots taken from Levi and a second guard facing a top charge of second-degree murder.
“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 bedside prisoner headcount.
Nicholas Mouzon, a National Guard member working that day, testified that Nantwi would not leave a shower area to be counted, repeatedly saying, “What if I don’t want to?” But Nantwi instantly calmed down once backup was called for, he said.
Several corrections officers who responded to the call began beating Nantwi in his room after he refused to be handcuffed and grabbed a guard’s vest, authorities said. 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.
Mouzon said he had a limited view from outside the room, but saw a guard standing on Nantwi’s calves and striking his feet with a baton. He later saw Nantwi being carried out.
“His eyes were closed. He was making — best way I can describe it — aggravated dog noises. He was growling,” Mouzon said.
Prosecutors say guards falsely claimed a makeshift knife had been recovered as part of a cover-up effort.
Lewis told the jury that prosecutors offered an “extremely sanitized” version of events. Nantwi, who was high on synthetic marijuana, was the initial aggressor, Spicer said.
“You’re going to hear him fighting back,” Spicer said.
While Brooks’ beating months earlier was captured on body cameras, video footage will likely play less of a role in this trial. Prosecutors say some guards involved in Nantwi’s death were not wearing mandated body cameras, or turned them off, or looked the other way.
Besides murder, Levi also has been charged with first-degree manslaughter, first-degree gang assault, second-degree gang assault, fifth-degree conspiracy and first-degree offering a false instrument for file.
Levi is first guard to face a jury in the case. More than half a dozen others have pleaded guilty to lesser charges related to the incident and the alleged cover-up.
Nantwi entered the state prison system in May 2024 and had been serving a five-year sentence for second-degree criminal possession of a weapon related to an exchange of gunfire with police officers in 2021. He was shot multiple times, while the officers were uninjured.
Prosecutors in Manhattan say Nantwi shot and killed Jaylen Duncan, 19, on a Harlem street in April 2023. The following evening, they say, he shot and killed Brandon Brunson, 36, at a Harlem smoke shop after an argument.