UTICA, N.Y. — Joshua Bartlett, 49, a former Mid-State Correctional Facility guard previously implicated in the fatal beating of inmate Messiah Nantwi, has been charged with multiple sex crimes, State Police announced.
Bartlett faces three counts each of first-degree sexual abuse and forcible touching of a female. He was arrested Monday by State Police and the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office and is being held at Oneida County Jail on $100,000 bail following his arraignment in Oneida County Court.
The investigation began in June after State Police received a report of a possible sexual assault. Evidence collected by the State Police Marcy Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Oneida County District Attorney’s Office was submitted to a grand jury, resulting in Bartlett’s indictment.
Bartlett previously pleaded guilty in May to first-degree hindering prosecution and first-degree falsifying business records connected to a series of beatings that led to the death of 22-year-old Messiah Nantwi on March 1 at Mid-State Correctional Facility. Nantwi died from severe head trauma. Bartlett was subsequently terminated from his position as a correctional officer and is scheduled for sentencing in that case on February 25.
