Ten New York jail guards have been charged Wednesday in reference to the deadly beating of a 22-year-old inmate final month — together with two charged with homicide. It is the second time a bunch of correctional officers within the state was indicted for a dying behind bars this 12 months.
The indictment says a number of guards severely beat Messiah Nantwi, a prisoner on the Mid-State Correctional Facility, who was hospitalized and died on March 1 “due to massive head trauma and numerous other injuries to his body.” Three guards are additionally accused of orchestrating an effort to falsely declare that Nantwi had a makeshift knife in his room.
Nantwi’s dying got here a number of months after Robert Brooks was fatally overwhelmed on the Marcy Correctional Facility, simply throughout the road from the Mid-State jail. Six guards have pleaded not responsible to homicide prices in Brooks’ dying and different jail staff have additionally been charged.
The Utica-area facility was one among many state prisons struggling to perform throughout a three-week wildcat strike by guards. Correctional officers who have been upset over working circumstances started illegally strolling off the job Feb. 17 at many state prisons, forcing the governor to ship in Nationwide Guard troops to take care of operations. Incarcerated folks and their advocates complained that providers and circumstances deteriorated through the walkout.
Legal professionals for the 2 guards charged with second-degree homicide, Jonah Levi and Caleb Blair, entered not responsible pleas at an indictment listening to Wednesday. They’re additionally charged with first-degree manslaughter alongside three different guards. The beatings and lack of urgency about getting him medical consideration “demonstrated depraved indifference” for Nantwi’s life, the indictment mentioned.
Gov. Kathy Hochul known as it a “horrific crime” in asserting the indictments Tuesday.
“The tragic death of Mr. Nantwi at the hands of correction officers who are responsible for protecting the incarcerated population is deeply, deeply disturbing,” Hochul mentioned in a short video message.
Levi and Blair have been a part of an emergency response crew known as to Nantwi’s room to assist Nationwide Guard members with an “unknown issue.” His fingers have been raised when the correctional officers first entered the room however he protested being handcuffed for no obvious purpose and grabbed one other guard’s vest, the indictment says. A number of guards instantly started raining down blows on his head and physique utilizing their boots, the doc says. The assault intensified when Nantwi bit Blair and one other guard Thomas Eck on their fingers.
Nantwi turned unresponsive and guards transported him towards the infirmary. Nantwi was assaulted a second time in a stairwell and was “dumped in a holding cell at the infirmary and further assaulted” by Blair, the indictment says.
Six of the ten guards are accused within the indictment of collaborating in beating Nantwi. 5 of the six — Levi, Blair, Eck, Craig Klemick and Daniel Burger — are additionally charged with first-degree manslaughter and first-degree gang assault. All six, together with Sgt. Francis Chandler Jr., are charged with second-degree gang assault.
The opposite 4 guards allegedly took half in an tried coverup by making false statements or tampering with proof, in response to the indictment. 4 of the ten guards have been sergeants. Two of the sergeants, Chandler and David Ferrone, are charged with second-degree manslaughter for allegedly not attempting to cease the assaults on Nantwi.
In response to the proof tampering cost, Chandler ordered a corrections officer to retrieve a weapon that had been confiscated earlier that day in an incident not involving Nantwi. At Chandler’s asking, Eck “volunteered” to mislead authorities about discovering it on the ground in Nantwi’s room.
The lawyer normal’s workplace has recused itself in Nantwi’s case, citing its illustration of a number of correctional officers in civil lawsuits. A particular prosecutor was appointed, Onondaga County District Lawyer William Fitzpatrick, who can be the prosecutor in Brooks’ dying.
Nantwi entered the state jail system final Could and had been serving a five-year sentence for second-degree legal possession of a weapon associated to an trade of gunfire with cops in 2021. He was shot a number of occasions, whereas the officers have been unhurt.
Prosecutors in Manhattan say Nantwi shot and killed Jaylen Duncan, 19, on a Harlem road in April 2023. The next night, they are saying, he shot and killed Brandon Brunson, 36, at a Harlem smoke store after an argument.
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Collins contributed from Hartford, Connecticut.
