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A former corrections officer, Caleb Blair, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in upstate New York for his role in the fatal beating of inmate Messiah Nantwi at the Mid-State Correctional Facility near Utica, prosecutors said. Blair entered the plea Monday in Oneida County Court in Utica just before jury selection was set to begin, as the case moved toward sentencing in a related matter.

Prosecutors said Nantwi, 22, died of massive head trauma and other injuries after guards inflicted what prosecutors described as repeated beatings on March 1, 2025. According to the indictment, the beatings involved guards using their fists, boots and batons, and Nantwi suffered 69 separate body blows during the episodes that led to his death. Prosecutors also said Nantwi had objected to being handcuffed by guards while resisting a prisoner headcount before the beatings.

Blair had initially faced the most serious charges filed against the officers, including second-degree murder, in the death. He agreed to serve 11 years in prison as part of the plea deal, according to the prosecution. Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said Nantwi’s family was OK with the agreement.

“I’m satisfied that justice was done,” Fitzpatrick said in a phone interview with The Associated Press after the hearing. He added, “There has to be systemic changes in the facilities regarding relationships between (corrections officers) and incarcerated individuals, and I hope that people just don’t turn the page.”

Blair’s lawyer, William Sullivan, told the court that Blair accepted responsibility. Sullivan said Blair had been a model corrections officer with no history of being disciplined and that he had served overseas in the National Guard. “It was a terrible combination of eight minutes, six minutes, in that cell that ruined an otherwise exemplary life,” Sullivan said. He added: “If you had a daughter and Caleb Blair came home to ask for her hand, you’d be proud.”

Sentencing for Blair was set for June 17, according to the court schedule described by prosecutors. The plea comes in a case in which multiple officers faced allegations not only of assaults on Nantwi, but also of a cover-up involving false reports and actions prosecutors said were meant to destroy evidence. In an initial indictment filed last year, six of the 10 corrections officers were accused of assaulting Nantwi and the other four were accused of participating in a cover-up, including filing false reports, plotting to plant a makeshift knife and cleaning up blood in Nantwi’s room.

The case also includes other completed criminal outcomes for officers charged in connection with the beating. Another former officer, Jonah Levi, was found guilty of manslaughter and other crimes by a jury last month and was awaiting sentencing. A third former guard, Craig Klemick, pleaded guilty on Friday to offering a false instrument for filing, a charge prosecutors said is commonly filed when someone lies in reports about an incident, and prosecutors said several other former guards had pleaded guilty with one case still scheduled to go to trial.

Lawyers for Nantwi’s family said their focus remained on accountability. In a statement, attorneys Earl Ward and Katie Rosenfeld said, “Most of the defendants here are going to jail. And hopefully the impact of that will resonate throughout the state prisons, which for far too long have tolerated and turned a blind eye to violence against inmates.”

Prosecutors said the beating happened during a wildcat strike by many officers that prompted Gov. Kathy Hochul to send in National Guard members to help keep order. The case also followed a separate fatal beating at the same facility shortly before, where Robert Brooks was killed in a beating at a prison across the road from Mid-State.

Sources cited and the narrative were later corrected by The Associated Press to reflect that attorney Ward’s first name is Earl, not Ed.