'LAST MOVE YOU EVER FUCKING MAKE': TRIAL OF PRISON GUARD FOR KILLING MESSIAH NANTWI NEARS END
JONAH LEVY IS CHARGED WITH SECOND DEGREE MURDER AND RELATED CRIMES FOR ALLEGING KILLING NANTWI AT THE MID-STATE CORRECTIONAL FACILITY IN 2025
"If you try anything stupid, its going to be the last move you ever fucking make," Sgt. Francis Chandler allegedly told Harlem man Messiah Nantwi in the Mid-State Correctional Facility on Mar. 1, 2025, before the special group of guards he helped lead killed Nantwi, according to evidence introduced at former guard Jonah Levy’s murder trial on Thursday. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
UTICA, NEW YORK Mar. 26, 2026
A sergeant in charge of a beat-up squad of guards in an upstate New York prison threatened to kill a Harlem man serving time if did "anything stupid." After they made good on their threat, two of the guards who beat and "curb-stomped" Messian Nantwi to death celebrated with a fist-bump. Nantwi's blood was on their boots.
Two more sergeants got caught, on camera, conspiring to cover up the killing, realized they'd been caught on camera, but then went ahead and brazenly tried to cover it up anyway.
Incriminating body camera recordings and damning forensic testimony linking former New York State prison guard Jonah Levy to Nantwi's killing was introduced into evidence on the fourth day of Levy's trial on Thursday.
Levy faces murder and related charges for allegedly killing Nantwi at the Mid-State Correctional Facility outside Utica in central New York Mar. 1, 2025. Levy was part of Mid-State's “Correction Emergency Response Team”—the prison version of a SWAT team.
Levy kicked Nantwi in the face and stomped on his head between three and seven times while the rest of the CERT team held Nantwi down, punched and beat him with batons, evidence introduced at Levy's trial on Wednesday alleged.
After that, Levy and the rest of the CERT team carried Nantwi to the infirmary for treatment.
Inside the infirmary, former CERT officer Adam Joseph was stationed in a post across from a holding cell. Joseph testified on Thursday he saw "multiple officers carrying an inmate." They "sat him down in there," Joseph said, meaning the cell.
Unlike all the other guards there, Joseph had a body camera and turned it on to record.
Levy and Caleb Blair, another CERT officer, celebrated with a fist-bump after putting Nantwi in the cell, video from Joseph's body camera 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 on Monday. Blair is scheduled to start trial May 4.
Jonah Levy, former New York State prison guard on trial for allegedly murdering inmate Messiah Nantwi and related crimes, outside the courtroom with family and friends. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
All Correction Officers at Mid-State were issued body cameras and were required to activate their body cameras when using force against a prisoner, according to official policy put into effect after the murder of Robert Brooks by guards at the Marcy Correctional Facility Dec. 9, 2024.
Most Mid-State guards ignored the policy.
Only one of the sergeants leading the CERT team that day, 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 on Wednesday showed.
Back inside the infirmary, Joseph saw that Levy and the CERT team were about to beat Nantwi again. This time in the holding cell, right in front of him, and his 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 his 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.
After Nantwi was beaten again by Blair and 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, before they realized they were being recorded. “Oh fuck.”
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.
"Might want to get a nurse, he's not moving much," one guard said, according to audio from Joseph's body camera video. "Oh boy."
Then "Nurse!"
"Fuck! He ain't moving," according to the audio. "You fucked him up."
"We got a situation" and "You and your war" are two other things unidentified guards say, according to a transcript of the audio captured by Joseph's body camera video.
On Wednesday, former guard Nathan Palmer testified Levy "curbed stomped" Nantwi in his room after he refused to be handcuffed and jumped on a CERT officer instead.
Michael Moon, Nantwi's roommate, testified he saw a guard kick Nantwi "like he was a football. Right in the face” once they got him on the floor.
The guard "stomped on his face," Moon added.
Police seized Levy's boots three days after the killing, testimony by State Police Inv. Andrew Skerpon established on Thursday.
Nantwi's blood was on both of Levy's boots, Robinson and fellow State Police Forensic Scientist Sarah Koss testified on Thursday.
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.
The prosecution's last witness, the medical examiner who performed Nantwi's autopsy, is scheduled to testify at 10:00 AM Friday.
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