Not long after the conviction of Jonah Levi, two more two corrections officers from Mid-State are heading to trial on May 4 for their role in the death of Messiah Nantwi.
Nantwi, an inmate at Mid-State Correctional Facility, was 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, according to officials.
After the death, a grand jury alleges the corrections officers got together to plant evidence and submit false testimony.
Caleb Blair is charged with second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, first-degree gang assault, second-degree gang assault, fifth-degree conspiracy and first-degree offering a false instrument for file.
Craig Klemick is charged with first-degree manslaughter, first-degree gang assault, second-degree gang assault, fifth-degree conspiracy, and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing.
Plea bargains turned down
Blair and Klemick were both offered a final plea bargain, with Blair offered the chance to plead guilty to either first-degree manslaughter or first-degree gang assault for a sentence of 16 years in state prison.
Meanwhile, Klemick was offered a chance to plead guilty to offering a false instrument for file in exchange for an indeterminate sentence of one and a third to four years in state prison.
Both Blair and Klemick turned down the plea bargains, with Nolan reminding the two that there was no guarantee that they would be able to take those plea bargains once the trial started.
If convicted on the top charges, Blair and Klemick face up to 25 years in state prison.
The trials of Klemick and Blair will be held together, with jury selection beginning May 4.
Judge Michael Nolan said he expects the trial to last about two weeks.
First CO convicted of manslaughter
On April 1, Jonah Levi’s verdict was delivered by a jury of his peers at the Oneida County Courthouse in Utica.
For his involvement in the death of Messiah Nantwi, Levi was charged with second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, first-degree gang assault, second-degree gang assault, fifth-degree conspiracy and first-degree offering a false instrument for file.
Of his charges, Levi was found guilty of all of them, save for second-degree murder. With a top charge of first-degree manslaughter, Levi faces up to 25 years in state prison and will be sentenced on May 27.
One more CO to face trail
After the trials of Klemick and Blair, the only Mid-State corrections officer left to go before Judge Nolan is Thomas Eck.
Eck is charged with first-degree manslaughter, first-degree gang assault, second-degree gang assault, two counts of fifth-degree conspiracy, first-degree offering a false instrument for file and tampering with physical evidence.
He will go before Judge Bauer on June 4 for jury selection.
Other Mid-State COs
A total of 13 corrections officers were named in the grand jury indictment for the death, and of the 13, nine have taken plea deals.
Nicholas Vitale, Joshua Bartlett, Nathan Palmer, Daniel Burger, David Ferrone, Francis Chandler, Adam Joseph, Donald Slawson, and Frank Jacobs have all pleaded guilty to lesser charges, with some, like Chandler, pleading to second-degree gang assault to avoid a trial for a second-degree murder charge.
This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: 2 more Mid-State COs going to trial, 1 more left
Reporting by Casey Pritchard, Utica Observer Dispatch / Observer-Dispatch
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