The stage is set for two more Mid-State COs for trial after final pre-trial conferences.
On April 27, at the Oneida County Courthouse, Caleb Blair and Craig Klemick were before Judge Michael Nolan as their attorneys and the prosecution laid the groundwork for jury selection to begin on May 4. Both will be tried together for the death of Messiah Nantwi.
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.
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.
Nantwi, an inmate 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 alleges the corrections officers got together to plant evidence and submit false testimony.
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 their top charges, Blair and Klemick face up to 25 years in state prison.
Jury selection is expected to start early on May 4, with the trial itself lasting for an expected two weeks.
This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: 2 more Mid-State COs heading to trial on May 4
Reporting by Casey Pritchard, Utica Observer Dispatch / Observer-Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
