Judge Michael Nolan stared down Jonah Levi, one of the corrections officers convicted in the death of inmate Messiah Nantwi, and said he failed to uphold the oath he took as a corrections officer and sentenced him to 25 years in state prison.
Nantwi, while incarcerated at Mid-State Correctional Facility, was brutally beaten to death on March 1, 2025, by a Correction Emergency Response Team to the point of unresponsiveness and beaten twice more with his hands cuffed behind his back. After the death, a grand jury alleged the corrections officers got together to plant evidence and submit false testimony.
For his involvement in the death of Messiah Nantwi, Levi was found guilty by a jury of his peers on April 1 for first-degree manslaughter, first-degree gang assault, second-degree gang assault, fifth-degree conspiracy and first-degree offering a false instrument for file.
Before sentencing, Jonah Levi’s lawyer, Lewis Spicer indicated his intention to file with the Court of Appeals and asked for a maximum sentence of 11 years — the same sentence as Caleb Blair, who pleaded guilty — and said that Levi shouldn’t “…do a day more than Caleb Blair.”
Additionally, Spicer spoke to Levi’s character, pointing to a host of letters submitted by the friends and family of Levi, who spoke in his favor.
“He’s a father, he’s a husband, and he’s been a corrections officer for 17 years,” Spicer said to the judge. “He’s been a coach and he’s on the school board. All of these people are speaking in support of Mr. Levi. We do not want to minimize the death of Messiah Nantwi, but it was a perfect storm of events. The National Guard were there and the corrections officers there were sleeping at the facility for weeks at a time. And the prosecution has downplayed Nantwi’s actions that day. He was threatening the National Guard and they called in an emergency response team.”
Levi, when asked by the judge if he had anything to say, the former CO said he was remorseful and that “…no father should bury his son,” but that he stood true to what he said he did and the paperwork he submitted.
Common theme in letters
Before sentencing, Judge Nolan assured Spicer that he had indeed read the letters he mentioned and found a common theme running through them.
“Around 100 letters were sent and the sentiment I got was that Levi’s a great father, husband, co-worker, friend, board member, and pillar of the community. The reaching theme in those letters is that the Jonah Levi we saw in those videos and that we heard about in the trial wasn’t the real Jonah Levi,” Nolan said, before fixing Levi with a stare.
The judge went on to explain that it was easy to be good to people that were good to him and easy to be a good husband and wife when they love him.
“What isn’t easy is being good to people who aren’t good to you. And what’s even harder is being good to people who are horrible to you,” Nolan said firmly.
“I have no doubt Nantwi was not an ideal inmate at that facility. But you took an oath to protect the people who are sometimes so bad, they have to be removed from society and to protect those people. And it’s not easy. I see COs come into this courtroom every day as victims of crimes that take place at that corrections facility. But thousands of other men and women took that oath and they take that oath seriously. And they made a decision to uphold their oath. You did not.”
Nolan said that two things could be true: the real Jonah Levi is the one with his community and family and the real Jonah Levi is the one captured on body-worn camera “…fist-bumping and laughing with other officers as Messiah Nantwi lay on the floor, dying because of what you and those other officers did.”
Sentencing
For first-degree manslaughter, Levi was sentenced to a 25 year determinate sentence in state prison, followed by five years post release supervision.
For first-degree gang assault, Levi was sentenced to a 25 year determinate sentence in state prison, followed by five years post release supervision.
For second-degree gang assault, Levi was sentenced to a 15 determinate sentence, followed by five years post release supervision.
For fifth-degree conspiracy, Levi was sentenced to a one year definite sentence in Oneida County Jail.
For offering a false instrument for filing, Levi was sentenced to an indeterminate sentence of 1 ⅓ to four years in state prison.
All of Levi’s charges will run concurrent with one another.
Friend of Nantwi speaks
A victim impact statement was given by an inmate Michael Moon, who was in the room and witnessed the beating of Nantwi.
Spicer objected to this, saying that Moon was not a victim of the crime and not a family member. Nolan said the choice for victim impact statements was under his discretion and due to the close proximity Moon had to Nantwi at the time of his death, allowed him to speak.
Moon said that ever since Nantwi’s death, he’s had bad dreams and trouble sleeping.
“Seeing my friend getting killed in front of me affected me a lot,” Moon said. “I can’t handle it sometimes. I don’t think anything’s ever affected me so much. I hope Jonah Levi realizes how many people he hurt. He not only took away a friend, he took away someone I could have been friends with for a long time. He took away a son. He took away an uncle. I hope Jonah Levi looks back and realizes that he did wrong.”
After the sentencing
Special Prosecutor William Fitzpatrick said after the sentencing he was satisfied with the sentencing and felt the sentence and Nolan’s words were appropriate.
When asked about Levi’s comment about being remorseful, Fitzpatrick said he believed Levi was remorseful for his actions and “…remorseful that he will spend a good portion of his life in state prison.”
This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Former Mid-State CO sentenced to 25 years for death of Messiah Nantwi
Reporting by Casey Pritchard, Utica Observer Dispatch / Observer-Dispatch
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