JURY CONVICTS GUARD OF KILLING HARLEM MAN IN UPSTATE NY PRISON, JUROR SPEAKS
JONAH LEVY CONVICTED OF MANSLAUGHTER AND RELATED CHARGES IN 2025 KILLING OF MESSIAH NANTWI
Former New York State prison guard Jonah Levy being handcuffed by court officers after a jury found him guilty of manslaughter and related crimes for beating inmate Messiah Nantwi to death inside the Mid-State Correctional Facility on Mar. 1, 2026. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
UTICA, NEW YORK Apr. 1, 2026
A former state prison guard was led crying from an upstate New York courtroom after a jury convicted him of manslaughter and related crimes on Wednesday for "curb stomping" a black prisoner to death in 2025.
Jonah Levy did not look back at family members as presiding judge Michael R. Nolan revoked his bail, as court officers handcuffed him and as they led Levy from the courtroom to a cell in the Oneida County jail.
Levy's supporters, sitting on a bench behind him in State Supreme Court, burst into tears when the jury of 10 men and two women announced their verdict.
The only bright spot for Levy was the jury's decision to spare him a murder conviction. The 39-year-old faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison when he is sentenced May 27. Had he been convicted of murder, he would have faced a life sentence.
The jury also convicted Levy of gang assault in the first and second degrees, conspiracy and offering a false instrument for filing by submitting a fake official report denying he beat Nantwi.
The jury’s verdict came on the eighth day of Levy's trial, which started Monday, Mar. 23. The jury was given the case to decide on Monday by judge Nolan.
Dominick Wofford, 20, was the only black person on the jury.
Wofford told The Free Lance News outside the State Supreme Court courthouse in Utica he thought the evidence presented by Special Prosecutor William J. Fitzpatrick justified a murder conviction. But Wofford said his fellow jurors thought it only justified a first degree manslaughter conviction.
“I was pretty strong on murder for a while. I wanted to see the murder charge get done,” Wofford said. But, he added, “a lot of my fellow jurors wanted just only manslaughter."
“Even if he wasn’t the one who directly killed him,” Wofford explained, “I know he was in that room watching what was going on and didn’t really make an attempt to stop anything so I definitely wanted to find him guilty.”
"I'm only 20," Wofford added. "It's definitely an experience having all this pressure on you."
The remainder of the jurors declined to comment.
Levy was the first guard to go to trial for killing Nantwi. A total of 10 guards have pleaded guilty to charges related to Nantwi's killing. Four chose trials, including Levi. Caleb Blair and Craig Klemick are scheduled to go to trial May 4. Thomas Eck is scheduled to go to trial June 1.
Nantwi, then 22, was beaten with fists, batons and boots in at least two different locations inside the Mid-State Correctional Facility on Mar. 1, 2025, evidence presented by prosecutors at Levy's trial showed. Guards beat Nantwi so sadistically they left a boot-print on his face.
Former New York State prison guard Jonah Levy being led to jail by court officers after a jury found him guilty of manslaughter and related crimes for beating inmate Messiah Nantwi to death inside the Mid-State Correctional Facility on Mar. 1, 2026. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
Levy and the guards who beat Nantwi belonged to a prison version of a police SWAT team called a "Corrections Emergency Response Team." CERT for short. Levy was charged with "acting in concert" with other members of the CERT team to kill Nantwi.
Nathan Palmer, a fired guard and a former member of Mid-State's CERT team, testified for the prosecution against Levy. He called Levy an old friend.
"I saw Officer Levi kick the individual in the head three to six times, curb-stomped him,” Palmer testified.
Michael Moon, Nantwi's roommate at Mid-State,testified Levy kicked Nantwi so hard “His face bounced off the locker.” The blow knocked Nantwi out, but Levy didn’t stop. He “stomped on his face.”
After stomping on Nantwi's head, Moon testified Levy and the CERT team “took out their batons” and "continuously started beating on him."
Guards at Mid-State were issued body cameras and were required to activate their body cameras when using force against prisoners, according to official policy put into effect after Brooks' murder by guards at Marcy.
Most Mid-State guards ignored the new policy.
Only one of the sergeants leading the CERT team the day Nantwi was killed, Sgt. Michael Iffert, was wearing a body camera and activated it to record. When Levy allegedly stomped on Nantwi's head, Iffert's body camera was facing down a hallway instead of into the room where it was happening, the video and testimony at Levy's trial showed.
But Sgt. Iffert's body camera did capture sound.
A loud metallic bang can be heard on the audio of the video captured by Sgt. Iffert’s body worn camera. The sound aligned with the testimony that’s when Levy kicked Nantwi in the face and his head ricocheted off his metal locker.
Following the loud metallic bang, close to two dozen dull slaps can be heard for almost a minute.
“That’s their batons hitting him,” Moon testified.
When the dull slaps stop, Nantwi can be heard moaning in pain. After that, an officer announces Nantwi has finally been handcuffed and shackled at the ankles.
After the beating, Levy and Blair carried Nantwi to the prison's infirmary where they placed him in a holding cell. After placing Nantwi in the cell, Levy and Blair fist-bumped, body camera video from inside the infirmary captured by former Correction Officer Adam Joseph showed.
Wofford, the juror, considered the guards’ failure to use body cameras when they were supposed to as evidence of Levy’s guilt.
"I really thought it was suspicious,” Wofford revealed. “All six of them not having body cameras?"
Family and friends of Jonah Levy react to the jury’s verdict finding him guilty of manslaughter and related crimes for killing Messiah Nantwi. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
Joseph, another former Correction Officer who testified for the prosecution, saw that Levy, Blair and the CERT team were about to beat Nantwi again. This time in the holding cell, right in front of Joseph’s body camera, which was recording.
Joseph picked up his camera and put it on a ledge just inside an adjacent bathroom. The camera was pointed toward a toilet in the back of the bathroom, but was close enough to the entrance to capture guards speaking outside.
"If you try anything stupid, its going to be the last move you ever fucking make," Sgt. Francis Chandler told Nantwi, according to Joseph and audio his body-camera captured.
Sgt. Chandler also helped lead Mid-State's CERT team. Chandler pleaded guilty to gang assault in January. He faces up to four years in prison when he is sentenced later this year.
While Joseph's body camera did not capture video of it, Joseph testified he saw the CERT team including Blair beating Nantwi again.
"I saw movement, like he was getting hit," Joseph said.
After Nantwi was beaten again by the CERT team, Sgts. David Ferrone and Ryan Russell entered the bathroom where Joseph's body-camera was still recording. They didn't see the camera until it was too late.
"Where's that weapon from before?," one of them asked.
“Oh fuck,” one said moments later when they realized they’d been recorded.
Though they spotted the camera and realized it caught them conspiring, they went ahead anyway and orchestrated the filing of paperwork falsely alleging guards recovered a shank from Nantwi's cell. They used a shank that had been given to them by National Guard soldiers earlier in the day to do it.
The shank they turned in and claimed to be Nantwi's did not have Nantwi's DNA on it, State Police Forensic Scientist Kristine Robinson testified on Thursday.
Ferrone pleaded guilty to tampering with physical evidence. He was sentenced to a one year conditional discharge.
While Russell and Ferrone were plotting to cover-up Nantwi's beating, Nantwi went into cardiac arrest.
"Fuck! He ain't moving," according to the audio. "You fucked him up."
Police seized Levy's boots three days after the killing, testimony by a State Police investigator established. Nantwi's blood was on both of Levy's boots, state police forensic scientists testified.
Graeme Spicer, Levy’s defense lawyer, argued to the jury there was a "pretty reasonable explanation for how blood got on his boots." Levy, simply, “coulda stepped in [Nantwi’s] blood."
But Wofford, the juror, was convinced.
"I thought it was a weak defense," he said.
Referring to a prison nurse Spicer called to testify in Levy's defense, who claimed Nantwi gave him the finger while handcuffed behind his back after he was carried into the infirmary, "I thought Mr. Savitsky was pretty unreliable."
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