A grand jury has indicted about 10 current and former New York state correction officers in connection with the March 1 beating death of 22-year-old Messiah Nantwi at Mid-State Correctional Facility in Oneida County.
The officers are expected to surrender to State Police on Wednesday afternoon and will be arraigned later that day in Oneida County Court, according to sources familiar with the case.
Fifteen officers initially placed on leave
Last month, 15 correction officers were placed on administrative leave during the investigation into Nantwi’s death. The exact number now facing criminal charges remains unclear.
Officials from the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision announced Tuesday that seven officers had resigned: Daniel Burger, Frank Jacobs, Adam Joseph, Jonah Levi, Tristan Sheppard, and sergeants David Ferrone and Ryan Russell.
The officers suspended without pay include Joshua Bartlett, Caleb Blair, Dean Cross, Thomas Eck, Craig Klemick, Zachary Lallier, Nathan Palmer, Nicholas Vitale, and sergeants Frank Chandler Jr., Michael Iffert, and Donald Slawson.
State corrections officials named these officers and sergeants as “persons of interest” in Nantwi’s beating. Inmates said multiple officers, including members of a Correctional Emergency Response Team, beat Nantwi. Some officers under investigation may not have used physical force but are accused of violating policies or falsifying paperwork to conceal what happened.
A law enforcement source revealed that members of the emergency team involved either didn’t wear body cameras or failed to activate them. One officer who wasn’t on the emergency team wore an active body camera but didn’t capture anything useful.
Nantwi’s death marks the second homicide investigation in under four months involving correction officers accused of using fatal force on an inmate. On Dec. 9, officers beat 43-year-old Robert L. Brooks to death at Marcy Correctional Facility, adjacent to Mid-State in Oneida County.
Thirteen officers face criminal charges in Brooks’ death. Six are charged with murder, three with manslaughter, and one with tampering with evidence. Three others have agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges and cooperate with the investigation, said Onondaga County District Attorney William J. Fitzpatrick, the special prosecutor in that case.
One of the beatings Brooks endured that night was captured on body-cam footage, aiding the investigation.
Fitzpatrick also serves as special prosecutor in Nantwi’s case. Five of the officers suspended or who resigned after Nantwi’s death had been working at Marcy Correctional Facility.
Court documents show that Bartlett, 48, who began working at Mid-State in 2016, had faced similar accusations before. In April 2018, inmate Everton Gonzalez claimed Bartlett ordered him to “get on the wall” for walking to the mess hall with his shirt untucked. Gonzalez alleged Bartlett slapped him, then beat him with help from other officers. Gonzalez also alleged a second assault in 2019, linked to his past grievances and lawsuits.
In July 2023, Court of Claims Judge David A. Weinstein dismissed Gonzalez’s state claims after a trial in Albany. The case lacked video evidence, and testimony from officers and a nurse discredited Gonzalez’s story, including his claim of losing hearing in one ear.
The lack of video footage in Nantwi’s death contrasts with Brooks’ case. In December, Times Union reported that four correction officers, including a sergeant, passively recorded parts of Brooks’ beating on body cameras. Though the officers hadn’t manually activated the devices, investigators retrieved footage thanks to a built-in feature of Axon cameras that records when the devices are turned on.
In February, the department updated its body camera policies to clarify that cameras must be worn and activated where in use. It remains unclear why emergency team members or others involved in Nantwi’s beating failed to activate their cameras—or why supervisors didn’t enforce this requirement.
Nantwi died amid a widespread, unsanctioned strike that began on Feb. 17 and disrupted operations at over 30 state prisons. More than 6,500 New York National Guard troops were deployed to assist with operations and security.
Law enforcement sources said Nantwi began acting out before the beating, prompting a National Guard member to request assistance from the emergency response team. Nantwi reportedly had mental health issues and may have missed medication due to strike conditions.
After Times Union first reported the indictments, Gov. Kathy Hochul addressed reporters on Tuesday afternoon. She called Nantwi’s death “deeply, deeply disturbing.”
“The loss of any life in our correctional facilities is one too many that does not reflect our values as … New Yorkers and his family deserves justice,” Hochul said.
