Ex-prison guard pleads guilty to manslaughter in New York inmate’s fatal beating

One of several corrections officers charged in the fatal beating of an inmate at an upstate New York prison last year pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter Monday and agreed to serve 11 years in prison.

Former guard Caleb Blair initially faced the most serious charges against officers, including second-degree murder, in the death of Messiah Nantwi, 22, at Mid-State Correctional Facility near Utica on March 1, 2025. Nantwi died of massive head trauma and other injuries, and Blair was one of two guards who prosecutors say inflicted head injuries.

Prosecutors said Nantwi suffered 69 separate blows from guards who used their fists, boots and batons in a series of beatings. Nantwi, who was serving a five-year prison sentence for exchanging gunfire with police officers, objected to being handcuffed by guards as he resisted the prisoner count before the beating, according to an indictment.

Blair pleaded guilty in Oneida County Court in Utica just before jury selection began Monday for a trial. Onondaga County Prosecutor William Fitzpatrick, who prosecuted the case, said Nantwi’s family agreed with the plea deal.

“I am confident that justice has been served,” Fitzpatrick told The Associated Press in a telephone interview after the hearing. “There needs to be systemic changes in institutions regarding the relationships between (correctional officers) and incarcerated people, and I hope people don’t turn the page.”

Blair’s lawyer, William Sullivan, said his client accepted responsibility for his actions. He said Blair had been a model corrections officer with no history of discipline and had served overseas in the National Guard.

“It was a terrible combination of eight or six minutes in that cell that ruined an otherwise exemplary life,” Sullivan said. “If you had a daughter and Caleb Blair came home to ask for her hand, you would be proud.”

Sentencing has been set for June 17

Lawyers for Nantwi’s family have said his loved ones want accountability for his death above all else.

“Most of the defendants here are going to prison. And we hope the impact of this will have an impact throughout state prisons, which for too long have tolerated and turned a blind eye to violence against inmates,” attorneys Ed Ward and Katie Rosenfeld said in a statement.

The other former officer who Fitzpatrick said punched Nantwi in the head, Jonah Levi — who has denied the allegation — was convicted of manslaughter and other crimes by a jury last month and is awaiting sentencing.

A third former guard, Craig Klemick, pleaded guilty Friday to offering a false instrument to file, a felony commonly charged for lying in incident reports. Several other former guards have pleaded guilty and only one case remains to be tried.

In an initial indictment of 10 corrections officers last year, six were accused of assaulting Nantwi, while the other four were accused of participating in a cover-up that included filing false reports, plotting to plant a makeshift knife and cleaning up blood in Nantwi’s room in an attempt to destroy evidence.

The beatings took place during a wildcat strike by many officers that forced the governor to send members of the National Guard to help maintain order. Nantwi’s death also came several months after Robert Brooks was fatally beaten at a segregated prison just across the street from Mid-State.