JURY GETS CASE OF WHITE GUARD CHARGED WITH MURDERING BLACK HARLEM MAN IN UPSTATE NY PRISON
JURY HEARS CLOSING ARGUMENT IN TRIAL OF JONAH LEVY, WHO FACES MURDER, MANSLAUGHTER, GANG ASSAULT AND RELATED CHARGES FOR ALLEGEDLY KILLING MESSIAH NANTWI IN 2025
Jonah Levy fist-bumping with a fellow New York State prison guards after allegedly “curb-stomping” Messiah Nantwi to death at the Mid-State Correctional Facility outside Utica Mar. 1, 2025. Photo credit: Body-worn camera video from the New York State Department of Correctional Services and Community Supervision.
UTICA, NEW YORK Mar. 30, 2026 Last updated: 9:58 PM
Closing arguments in the trial of a white former guard accused of "curb stomping" a black inmate to death in an upstate New York prison last year were heard on Monday.
"The facts of this case, folks, are remarkably simple," William J. Fitzpatrick, the special prosecutor in the case, argued. "30 minutes, 69 body blows later, at least 15 of them to the head, Messiah Nantwi is dead."
Describing the defendant, Jonah Levy, Fitzpatrick charged "You abandoned your oath and you went in that room and you stomped that man to death. And it continued down the stairway ..."
Levy is charged with murder, manslaughter, gang assault, and conspiracy for allegedly killing Natwi, a 22-year-old Harlem man, at the Mid-State Correctional Facility on Mar. 1, 2025.
Levy is also charged with offering a false instrument for filing, for attempting to cover up his participation in Nantwi’s killing by filing a false official report denying he used any force at all on Nantwi.
Graeme Spicer, Levy’s defense attorney, argued "Any use of the force in that room was justified." Even if it wasn’t, another former guard, Caleb Blair, who left a bootprint on Nantwi’s head, was solely responsible.
“It was plainly Blair,” Spicer told the jury.
Prosecution exhibit showing bootprint on Messiah Nantwi’s face, allegedly left by for New York State Correction Officer Caleb Blair acting in concert with Jonah Levi. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
Nantwi's killing took place less than three months after another "beat-up squad" of all white guards killed Robert Brooks at the Marcy Correctional Facility on Dec. 9, 2024. Marcy is directly across the road from Mid-State.
Guards killed Nantwi on the 15th day of a wildcat strike by guards that saw National Guard troops replace strikers. A minority of guards continued working. Most went on strike. Mid-State's CERT team did not. It worked throughout the strike.
CERT stands for "Correctional Emergency Response Team." CERT teams are the prison version of SWAT teams. Levy belonged to Mid-State's CERT team and is charged with "acting in concert" with other members of the CERT team to kill Nantwi.
Nathan Palmer testified "I saw Officer Levi kick the individual in the head three to six times, curb-stomped him.”
Palmer is a former Mid-State Correction Officer and member of Mid-State's CERT team.
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."
Jonah Levy entering court for closing arguments in his murder trial in State Supreme Court in Utica on Monday. Levy is charged with allegedly “curb-stomping” Messiah Nantwi to death at the Mid-State Correctional Facility outside Utica Mar. 1, 2025. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
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 last week 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 at 11:02:52 on the video’s clock. The sound aligns with the testimony that’s when Levy kicked Nantwi in the face and his head ricochet off his metal locker.
Following the loud metallic bang, close to two dozen dull slaps can be heard for almost a minute starting at 11:03:14.
“That’s their batons hitting him,” Moon testified.
When the dull slaps stop, Nantwi can be heard moaning in pain at 11:03:55. At 11:04, an officer announces Nantwi has finally been handcuffed and shackled at the ankles.
After the beating, Levy and fellow CERT team member Caleb Blair carried Nantwi to the prison's infirmary where they placed him in a holding cell. According to Fitzpatrick, the Special Prosecutor, Levy and Blair allegedly beat Nantwi more during the trip to the infirmary.
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.
Blair, like Levy, is charged with murder, manslaughter, gang assault, conspiracy and offering a false instrument for filing. Both Levy and Blair rejected plea-bargain offers that would have required them to plead to murder.
Levy is being tried alone; his trial started last Monday. Blair is scheduled to start trial May 4.
Levy is charged with a kind of murder that does not require the prosecution to prove he intentionally killed Nantwi. Instead of intent, the kind of murder Levy is charged with is called "depraved indifference" murder. It only requires the prosecution prove Levy killed with depraved indifference to human life.
The manslaughter and gang assault charges Levy faces require the prosecution prove Levy intended to seriously injure Nantwi.
Back inside the infirmary where Nantwi was taken, Joseph, the former Correction Officer testifying 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.
Referring to Blair, "I just saw a jerk forward with an arm."
Joseph had trouble seeing because the holding cell was filled with CERT officers.
"Blocked by several people and legs," Joseph said.
Special Prosecutor William J. Fitzpatrick playing body camera video capturing guards at the Mid-State Correctional Facility conspiring to plant a shank in Messiah Nantwi’s cell after the 22-year-old Harlem native was allegedly killed by Jonah Levy and other guards at Mid-State. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
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.
Nantwi's blood, they said, was on one of Blair's boots too.
Also, a bloody mark on Nantwi’s forehead was caused by the heel of one of Blair’s boots, Kenneth Zercie, a forensic consultant hired by the State Police, testified.
Spicer, Levy’s lawyer, argued to the jury there was what he called a "pretty reasonable explanation for how blood got on his boots."
Levy, simply, “coulda stepped in [Nantwi’s] blood."
“There should be no doubt in your mind about Jonah Levy's innocence,” Spicer concluded. "He did not do anything to contribute to Messiah Nantwi's death."
But Fitzpatrick, the Special Prosecutor, said "These are people that disgrace the uniform! Disgrace their badge! And have no right to wear a flag on their uniform ever! And don't you let them get away with it!”
Subtly referring tothe systemic and supervision failures that allowed Mid-State’s CERT to become a death squad, Fitzpatrick concluded: "Folks, this sordid tale of deceit, cover up, violence, depravity, inhumanity, it didn't start with Jonah Levy, but it can end with Jonah Levy."
If found guilty of murder, the law allows presiding judge Michael R. Nolan to sentence Levy to up to 25 years to life in prison. If found guilty of either manslaughter or gang assault, Levy faces up to 25 years.
Send tips or corrections to jasonbnicholas@gmail.com or, if you prefer, thefreelancenews@proton.me