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Epperson, Alicia
Status: active
Profile written August 2, 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
Alicia Epperson has worked for the Georgia Department of Corrections since at least 2007, rising from a correctional officer at Georgia State Prison to a series of facility-leadership roles. According to GPS records, her career includes postings as a unit manager, deputy warden, and ultimately superintendent at the Women’s Probation Detention Center. Across her various leadership positions, five deaths are attributed to a facility where she served in an accountability-tier role — all five occurred during her single year as deputy warden at Smith State Prison in 2022. No lawsuits alleging personal misconduct in connection with those deaths are listed in GPS’s database; the one lawsuit naming her as a defendant appears to be a procedural filing restriction matter unconnected to custodial deaths.What happened on their watch
Deputy Warden — Smith State Prison (2022)
Epperson served as deputy warden at Smith State Prison throughout 2022. During that year, GPS records attribute five in-custody deaths at the facility. Two deaths were suicides by hanging: Manuel Villagomez, 24, died on September 16, 2022, and Juan Miguel Orduna, 39, died on October 25, 2022; both were later confirmed by GBI Division of Forensic Sciences autopsy reports obtained by GPS, which list the manner as suicide and note they are part of a “Smith SP hanging cluster.” A third death, Nathan Michael Mahan, 37, died on October 23, 2022, from stab wounds; the AJC’s Georgia Prison Homicides Investigation recorded the cause as homicide. Michael Lewis Turner, 38, died on May 14, 2022; a GBI autopsy, processed by GPS, determined the cause was methamphetamine and synthetic cannabinoid toxicity complicating coronary atherosclerotic disease, manner accident. The fifth death, Jerome Tisdol, 67, died on May 28, 2022; a GBI record obtained by GPS shows the coroner requested an autopsy and GBI declined, stating an examination was “not necessary.” No independent state forensic cause of death was established, leaving the manner permanently unknown.While Epperson is not personally named in the extensive corruption and racketeering allegations that later engulfed the facility’s warden, the deaths occurred against a backdrop of systemic breakdowns documented in multiple news reports. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other outlets have described Smith State Prison as dangerously understaffed — with roughly two-thirds of correctional officer positions unfilled — and rife with contraband, violence, and a criminal enterprise allegedly run by inmates with staff complicity. Epperson’s tenure as deputy warden coincided with the period in which, according to later civil suits and press accounts, a contraband cell-phone network allowed inmates to orchestrate violence inside and outside the walls.
Other leadership postings
Epperson held facility-lead roles at Montgomery State Prison (deputy warden, 2021) and the Women’s Probation Detention Center (deputy warden 2023, superintendent from mid-2024 onward). No deaths are attributed to her tenure at either facility. Earlier in her career, she served in line-staff and unit-supervisor positions at Georgia State Prison, none of which are linked to attributed deaths.Litigation
- Daker v. Oliver Filing Restriction Per 59 Order (Case 1:25-cv-03191, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, filed June 6, 2025, terminated March 30, 2026). The docket title indicates a procedural order regarding filing restrictions; GPS records do not contain allegations of misconduct by Epperson in this matter.
Sources
- GBI Division of Forensic Sciences autopsy reports and consult records (obtained via Open Records Requests, processed and linked in GPS GBI archive) — cause and manner determinations for Orduna, Villagomez, Turner, Tisdol.
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Georgia Prison Homicides Investigation (homicide classification for Mahan); multiple reports on understaffing, contraband, and criminal conspiracies at Smith State Prison during the relevant period.
- The Georgia Virtue — reporting on the indictment of former Warden Brian Adams and conditions at Smith State Prison.
- GPS court and intel records — consolidated litigation and allegation logs.
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| CORRECTIONAL SUPERINTENDENT | WOMEN’S PROBATION DETENTION CENTER | 2025-01-01 → present |
| Superintendent | WOMEN’S PROBATION DETENTION CENTER | 2024-06-16 → present |
| CORRECTIONAL SUPERINTENDENT | 2024-01-01 → 2024-06-15 | |
| DEPUTY WARDEN | WOMEN’S PROBATION DETENTION CENTER | 2023-01-01 → 2023-12-31 |
| DEPUTY WARDEN | SMITH STATE PRISON | 2022-01-01 → 2022-12-31 |
| DEPUTY WARDEN | MONTGOMERY STATE PRISON | 2021-01-01 → 2021-12-31 |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL UNIT MANAGER | SMITH STATE PRISON | 2020-01-01 → 2020-12-31 |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL UNIT MANAGER | GEORGIA STATE PRISON | 2019-01-01 → 2019-12-31 |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL LIEUTENANT | GEORGIA STATE PRISON | 2016-01-01 → 2018-12-31 |
| SECRETARY (AL) | GEORGIA STATE PRISON | 2015-01-01 → 2015-12-31 |
| Secretary | GEORGIA STATE PRISON | 2012-01-01 → 2012-12-31 |
| Correctional Officer II | GEORGIA STATE PRISON | 2008-01-01 → 2008-12-31 |
| Correctional Officer | GEORGIA STATE PRISON | 2007-01-01 → 2007-12-31 |
Lawsuits as defendant
| Case # | Court | Filed | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1:25-cv-03191 | GAND | 2025-06-06 | terminated |
Deaths attributed during tenure
5 people died at facilities under Epperson, Alicia's leadership.
| Date | Decedent | Age | Facility | Role at time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-10-25 | JUAN MIGUEL ORDUNA | 39 | SMITH STATE PRISON | DEPUTY WARDEN |
| 2022-10-23 | NATHAN MICHAEL MAHAN | 37 | SMITH STATE PRISON | DEPUTY WARDEN |
| 2022-09-16 | MANUEL VILLAGOMEZ | 24 | SMITH STATE PRISON | DEPUTY WARDEN |
| 2022-05-28 | JEROME TISDOL | 67 | SMITH STATE PRISON | DEPUTY WARDEN |
| 2022-05-14 | MICHAEL LEWIS TURNER | 38 | SMITH STATE PRISON | DEPUTY WARDEN |
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