Last of 11 Guards Sentenced in Death of New York Prisoner
by Chuck Sharman
Former New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) guard Thomas Eck, 45, was sentenced on July 7, 2026, to nine months in county jail for offering a false instrument for filing with an incident report that attempted to cover up fellow guards’ fatal beat-down of prisoner Messiah Nantwi, 22, at Mid-State Correctional Facility in February 2025.
Eck rejected a deal that would have put him in prison for 12 years with a guilty plea to first-degree gang assault and tampering with physical evidence. His conviction on the lesser charge marked the end of a series of 11 prosecutions sparked by Nantwi’s killing.
Mid-State was on lockdown at the time of the incident due to a wildcat guard strike that began after 10 other DOCCS guards were indicted for another lethal beating—of prisoner Robert Brooks, 43—at nearby Marcy Correctional Facility. To support the thinned guard ranks, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) had called in National Guard troops, with whom Nantwi had a confrontation that sent him hiding in a shower area. When he was found there sobbing, he reportedly grabbed the vest of one responding guard, Joshua Bartlett. The other guards then piled on and beat the prisoner to death with at least 69 blows, the coroner determined.
The only guard to go to trial was Jonah Levi, 39, who was found guilty in Oneida County Superior Court in April 2026 of first-degree gang assault, second-degree gang assault, fifth-degree conspiracy and offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree. He was handed a 25-year state prison term on May 27, plus five years of post-release supervision.
Bartlett, 50, and fellow former guard Nathan Palmer, 29, were sentenced on June 17 for offering a false instrument for filing and hindering prosecution; Bartlett got a two-year term in county jail, while Palmer got a one-year prison term that was conditionally discharged. Another former guard, Craig Klemick, 39, was sentenced for the same charge on the same day to nine months in county jail. Former guard Caleb Blair, 32, was also sentenced that day to 11 years in state prison, after pleading guilty to manslaughter in early May.
Yet another former guard, Daniel Burger, 46, was also convicted of offering a false instrument for filing. He was sentenced to 16 months in state prison in October 2025. The guards’ former supervisor, Lt. Donald Slawson, 54, pleaded guilty that same month to attempted offering of a false instrument for filing and was sentenced to a one-year conditional discharge. The same plea to the same charge earned the same sentence for former guards Nicholas Vitale II, 33, and Michael Iffert, 43, on July 1, 2025, and March 19, 2026, respectively.
Just before Iffert’s sentencing, former guard David Ferrone, 36, was given a one-year prison sentence that was conditionally discharged on January 20, after he pleaded guilty to planting a knife in Nantwi’s cell to justify the use of force. Former guard Francis Chandler, 36, then pleaded guilty on May 13 to second-degree gang assault and was sentenced four years in state prison.
Bartlett is also facing prosecution for sexually abusing two minor girls. He was arraigned in May 2026 on two counts first-degree sexual abuse, one count of second-degree sexual abuse, one count of third-degree sexual abuse, and two counts of forcible touching.
Ten more DOCCS guards were fired and charged in connections with Brooks’ killing, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Mar. 2025, p.61.] So far eight have been convicted and sentenced.
Sources: Rome Sentinel, Syracuse Post-Standard, Utica Observer-Dispatch, WSTM/WTVH
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