Prosecutors have indicted ten New York prison guards for their involvement in the death of an inmate last month. Two of them are facing murder charges.
Several guards viciously beat Massiah Natwi, an inmate at the Mid-State Correctional Facility, on March 1, leading to his death, according to The Associated Press.
The indictment says several guards severely beat Messiah Nantwi, a prisoner at the Mid-State Correctional Facility, who was hospitalized and died on March 1 “due to massive head trauma and numerous other injuries to his body.” Three guards are also accused of orchestrating an effort to falsely claim that Nantwi had a makeshift knife in his room.
Nantwi’s death came several months after Robert Brooks was fatally beaten at the Marcy Correctional Facility, just across the street from the Mid-State prison. Six guards have pleaded not guilty to murder charges in Brooks’ death and other prison employees have also been charged.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the indictments in a video message. “The tragic death of Mr. Nantwi at the hands of correction officers who are responsible for protecting the incarcerated population is deeply, deeply disturbing,” she said.
Gov. Hochul all but confirms CO misconduct in Messiah Nantwi's death at Mid-State.
— Conor Wight (@ConorWightTV) March 4, 2025
"While the investigation into this incident is ongoing, early reports point to extremely disturbing conduct leading to Mr. Nantwi’s death and I am committed to accountability for all involved." pic.twitter.com/vVd62AlrZQ
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Several inmates told The New York Times about the incident.
Inmates, many of whom fear retaliation by prison guards, are often reluctant to speak out about allegations of brutality behind bars.
Mr. Nantwi, they said, became upset when the count was set to begin and left for the shower area of the dorm, where he could be heard crying. One prisoner, Rodney Richards, said Mr. Nantwi appeared to be having a disagreement with the National Guard members who were filling in for striking officers, and had refused to go to his cubicle. Several prisoners said he had stopped taking his psychiatric medications.
In response, the Guard members alerted a group of corrections officers known as the “correctional emergency response team,” the prisoners said, noting that anywhere from seven to 15 officers responded, some already wielding their batons.
Jordan McLin, who said his cubicle was near Mr. Nantwi’s, said he could hear the blows landing on his body.
“He was screaming,” Mr. McLin, 26, said. “I kept hearing ‘stop resisting’ and at one point you can just hear something being hit.”
Another prisoner, Aaron Perry, 34, said Mr. Nantwi had begged the prison guards to stop beating him.
“He said, ‘I didn’t do anything,’” Mr. Perry recalled. “‘You’re really hurting me. Stop!’”
The prisoners stated that members of the National Guard, who Hochul deployed due to a prison strike, did not intervene and merely watched the beating.
After the beating, the prisoners said, Mr. Nantwi, who had been handcuffed and shackled, was dragged down the hall and down a flight of stairs, his face bloodied and swollen. Mr. Richards said Mr. Nantwi “was not recognizable.”
One of the prisoners, Michael Hummel-Parker, 32, said Mr. Nantwi was making gurgling noises — a sign, he said, that he could not breathe.
Nantwi had been serving a five-year sentence for second-degree criminal possession of a weapon that was used in a gunfire exchange with law enforcement officers in 2021. He was shot several times during the encounter, NBC News reported.
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