A former upstate New York prison guard went on trial Tuesday, accused of stomping an inmate’s head during a fatal beating at Mid-State Correctional Facility on March 1, 2025.
The case is centered on Messiah Nantwi, 22, who prosecutors said died from massive head trauma and other injuries after multiple corrections officers beat him in his room, during a period when New York prisons were under extreme strain from a three-week wildcat strike by guards that prompted the governor to send in National Guard troops.
Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, the special prosecutor, told jurors that Jonah Levi—who has been charged with murder—was the first guard to face a jury in the case. He said prosecutors would present eyewitness testimony that Levi repeatedly stomped Nantwi on the head, while other officers did nothing.
Fitzpatrick also told jurors that investigators collected DNA evidence from boots taken from Levi and from another guard facing a top charge of second-degree murder. Prosecutors said Nantwi suffered 69 separate body blows from guards who used their fists, boots and batons during the sequence of beatings.
A witness testified Tuesday that Nantwi was bloodied and making noises of distress after being pummeled in his room, and prosecutors said the injuries included massive head trauma. Prosecutors also said guards falsely claimed a makeshift knife had been recovered as part of a cover-up effort.
Levi’s attorney, Lewis G. Spicer, told the jury the defense would offer a different account of what happened that morning. He said prosecutors offered an “extremely sanitized” version of events, and argued that the use of force was justified because Nantwi was aggressive. Spicer further told the jury that Levi did not use any force that resulted in Nantwi’s death.
Spicer also said jurors would hear that Nantwi was fighting back, and he pointed to Nantwi’s condition during the incident, including that prosecutors would describe him as high on synthetic marijuana.
A National Guard member, Nicholas Mouzon, testified that he had a limited view from outside the room but saw a guard standing on Nantwi’s calves and striking his feet with a baton. Mouzon said he later saw Nantwi being carried out, with his eyes closed and making sounds he described as “aggravated dog noises” and growling.
Prosecutors said the beating began after several corrections officers responded to a call for an emergency team to help National Guard members seeking backup following Nantwi’s refusal to comply with a bedside prisoner headcount. They said the officers began beating Nantwi after he refused to be handcuffed and grabbed a guard’s vest, and that the beatings intensified after Nantwi bit a guard’s hand.
The trial also comes amid broader attention to violence inside New York prisons. Nantwi’s death followed months after Robert Brooks was fatally beaten in a separate incident at a prison just across the road from Mid-State, according to prosecutors and the court account presented at trial, and prisoner advocates have cited the two cases as part of a pattern of violence by guards.
Fitzpatrick told jurors that prosecutors would explain why Nantwi died, saying “He’s dead because he protested cuffing up and because he tried to bite someone’s finger.” Mouzon’s testimony included his account of Nantwi calming down after backup was called, before the officers responded from inside his room.
The prosecution said the use of force continued despite rules for recording interactions. Prosecutors said video footage is expected to play a limited role because some guards involved were not wearing mandated body cameras, or had them turned off, or allegedly looked the other way.
Besides murder, Levi also faces charges including first-degree manslaughter, first-degree gang assault, second-degree gang assault, fifth-degree conspiracy and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing. Levi is the first guard to face a jury in the case, while prosecutors said more than half a dozen other guards have pleaded guilty to lesser charges tied to the incident and an alleged cover-up.
Nantwi entered the state prison system in May 2024, serving a five-year sentence for second-degree criminal possession of a weapon tied to an exchange of gunfire with police officers in 2021, prosecutors said. In separate testimony referenced by prosecutors in court, they said he shot and killed Jaylen Duncan, 19, on a Harlem street in April 2023 and then shot and killed Brandon Brunson, 36, the next evening at a Harlem smoke shop after an argument.