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Prison Legal News

First of 10 Guards Charged with Killing 
of New York Prisoner Pleads Guilty

Loaded on July 15, 2025 published in Prison Legal News July, 2025, page 43
Filed under: Guard Brutality/Beatings, Excessive Force (Wrongful Death), False Statements/Perjury. Location: New York.

Former New York Department of Corrections and Community Services (DOCCS) guard Joshua Bartlett pleaded guilty on May 30, 2025, to helping cover up the March 1 killing of prisoner Messiah Nantwi at Mid-State Correctional Facility by fellow guards who beat the man to death. 

Prosecutors said guards beat Nantwi while he was handcuffed and continued to beat him while he was recovering from the assault in the prison infirmary. “As a result of the numerous beatings by defendants and their fellow correctional officers, incarcerated individual Messiah Nantwi died due to massive head trauma and numerous other injuries to his body,” the indictment said. The officers “demonstrated depraved indifference” to his life, according to the indictment.

As reported by the New York Times, other prisoners said Nantwi had been beaten so severely he was unrecognizable. “Mr. Nantwi’s death is a tragedy and we extend our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones,” said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), who directed the head of DOCCS to fire guards allegedly involved with the beating.

Bartlett, who was the first of 10 guards charged in connection with the fatal beating to plead guilty, admitted to two felonies: hindering prosecution and falsifying records. The former guard was accused of filing a false use of force report in an effort to help fellow guards cover up Nantwi’s murder.

As PLN reported, Nantwi was the second prisoner to be beaten to death at a DOCCS facility in the last six months; six guards were charged with the December 9, 2024 beating of prisoner Robert Brooks, who died the next day. [See: PLN, Feb. 2025, p. 59].  

 

Sources: Albany Times-Union, New York Times

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