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Carr, Willie E
Status: active
Profile written May 31, 2026
This profile reflects positional accountability — this individual held the leadership roles shown during the dates shown, during which the listed deaths or lawsuits occurred. Inclusion does not constitute a legal finding of personal culpability for any specific incident.
Tenure Summary
Willie E. Carr began his career with the Georgia Department of Corrections as a correctional officer at Dodge State Prison in 2007. Over the following years, he cycled through staff and unit-supervisor roles — sergeant, lieutenant, and unit manager — primarily at Johnson State Prison. By late 2024, Carr stepped into a facility-deputy leadership tier: first as Deputy Warden of Security in November 2024, then as Deputy Warden in January 2025. GPS records attribute 29 deaths to Johnson State Prison during his deputy-warden tenures, which span from November 2024 through at least April 2026. During this window, the state finalized a $4 million settlement in the 2021 homicide of David Lamar Henegar, and multiple reports of contaminated food trays and systemic safety failures surfaced at the prison.What happened on their watch
Johnson State Prison — Deputy Warden of Security (Nov. 1, 2024 – Mar. 31, 2025) & Deputy Warden (Jan. 1, 2025 – present) GPS records show 29 deaths at Johnson State Prison while Carr held a deputy warden role. The first recorded death during his tenure was on November 8, 2024, when 68-year-old John W. Williams died of a cause categorized in GDC data as “natural/illness” (cause category 6). Over the following seventeen months, the facility saw a mix of homicides (cause category 3) and deaths attributed to natural causes or illness (category 6), with ages ranging from 29-year-old Kevin Kosturi (homicide, Dec. 13, 2024) to 91-year-old Richard Charles Bishop (natural/illness, Dec. 2, 2024). Among the homicides, Jason Dwight Mitchell, 45, died on Dec. 9, 2024, and Justin Brandon Hulett, 38, died Feb. 12, 2025. A cluster of deaths from June through October 2025 — including Robert Barnwell, 80; Paul Russell Brewster, 48 (listed as “Homocide”); John Charles Rhoten, 54; and others — further marked the period. In 2026, deaths continued: Michael Elias Peschel, 36, died March 14 from 20 stab wounds inflicted by his cellmate, whom, according to GPS records, “should have been housed alone” after a prior confrontation. Marries McKay, whose death on April 18, 2026 was initially reported as a possible suicide but later described as a sudden collapse, remains under investigation.During Carr’s deputy tenure, the state of Georgia agreed to a $4 million settlement in a lawsuit brought by the family of David Lamar Henegar, who was beaten and strangled to death by his cellmate at Johnson in October 2021. The settlement, finalized in April 2026, resolved allegations — reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution — that prison staff ignored Henegar’s screams and the pleas of other incarcerated people during the five-hour attack, failed to act on warnings about the cellmate’s mental health, and kept Henegar confined past his release date due to an administrative delay. Those allegations surfaced in AJC coverage and a federal lawsuit naming corrections officers and a prison manager. While the 2021 death predates Carr’s leadership role, the settlement and its attendant public scrutiny unfolded on his watch. Separately, in April 2026, GPS intel reports documented an outbreak of illness linked to contaminated food trays at Johnson, attributed to degraded dishwashing equipment; photos of dirty, stained trays circulated among incarcerated people, and multiple incident reports cited prisoners becoming sick.
Litigation
- Smith v. Hospital Authority of Cobb County, No. 1:16-cv-04736 (GAND, filed Dec. 23, 2016, terminated Mar. 16, 2017). Carr was named as a defendant. The docket, per court records, does not indicate a monetary outcome.
Sources
- GPS personnel and death-tracking records — attribution of 29 deaths to Johnson State Prison under Carr’s deputy-warden tenures
- GPS death-records detail — individual decedents, cause categories, and notes on incidents (e.g., Peschel, Hulett, Mitchell, Henegar settlement context)
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution — multiple reports on the Henegar homicide, allegations of staff failure to intervene, and the $4 million settlement (2025–2026)
- GPS intel reports — contaminated food tray incidents at Johnson State Prison (April 2026)
- CourtListener — docket for Smith v. Hospital Authority of Cobb County
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| DEPUTY WARDEN | JOHNSON STATE PRISON | 2025-01-01 → present |
| Deputy Warden of Security | JOHNSON STATE PRISON | 2024-11-01 → 2025-03-31 |
| BUSI SUPPORT ANALYST 1 | JOHNSON STATE PRISON | 2024-01-01 → 2024-10-31 |
| BUSI SUPPORT ANALYST 1 | 2021-01-01 → 2023-12-31 | |
| CORRECTIONAL UNIT MANAGER | JOHNSON STATE PRISON | 2019-01-01 → 2020-12-31 |
| CORRECTIONAL LIEUTENANT | JOHNSON STATE PRISON | 2016-01-01 → 2018-12-31 |
| CORRECTIONS OFFICER (SP) | JOHNSON STATE PRISON | 2015-01-01 → 2015-12-31 |
| Sergeant | JOHNSON STATE PRISON | 2014-01-01 → 2014-12-31 |
| Sergeant | DODGE STATE PRISON | 2013-01-01 → 2013-12-31 |
| Correctional Officer | DODGE STATE PRISON | 2007-01-01 → 2007-12-31 |
Lawsuits as defendant
| Case # | Court | Filed | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1:16-cv-04736 | GAND | 2016-12-23 | terminated |
Deaths attributed during tenure
29 people died at facilities under Carr, Willie E's leadership.
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