Epperson, Alicia

Tenure Summary

Alicia Epperson's GDC career began as a correctional officer at Georgia State Prison in 2007 and moved through secretary and lieutenant posts at the same facility, then into unit management, before entering the facility-deputy and facility-lead ranks: Deputy Warden at Montgomery State Prison (2021), Deputy Warden at Smith State Prison (2022, salary $64,733.14), Deputy Warden at the Women's Probation Detention Center (2023), and Superintendent at the Women's PDC from June 16, 2024 to the present. GPS lists her status as active.

GPS records attribute five deaths to her leadership tenures — all five at Smith State Prison, per `deaths_by_facility`, and all falling within 2022, the calendar year she held the Deputy Warden role there per GDC position records. No deaths are attributed to her tenures at Georgia State Prison, Montgomery SP, or the Women's PDC. Court records also list her as a defendant in one federal matter terminated in March 2026 with no monetary outcome recorded.

What happened on their watch

Georgia State Prison (CO 2007–08; secretary 2012, 2015; lieutenant 2016–18; unit manager 2019). GPS records attribute no deaths to her leadership-tier years here. Facility-level intel in that window includes an allegation by inmate David Dwayne Cassady, reported by The Georgia Virtue, that he was placed in solitary confinement in July 2019 and held for months without the 30-day segregation hearings GDC policy requires — a period overlapping her 2019 unit-manager year. The allegation names other staff, not Epperson.

Smith State Prison (unit manager 2020; Deputy Warden 2022). All five attributed deaths fall in her 2022 deputy wardenship, in a six-month span:

• May 14, 2022 — Michael Lewis Turner, 38. A GBI Division of Forensic Sciences autopsy (DOFS case 2022-6002829) lists cause of death as methamphetamine and synthetic cannabinoid toxicity complicating coronary atherosclerotic disease; manner accident.
• May 28, 2022 — Jerome Tisdol, 67. The coroner requested an autopsy; GBI declined to examine (DOFS 2022-6003057, report dated 5/31/22, ME Edmund Donoghue, Coastal Regional Lab), stating that "an examination by this office is not necessary." GPS records describe this as the most explicit documented instance of the no-examination mechanism; cause of death rests with the county coroner and remains unknown.
• Sept. 16, 2022 — Manuel Villagomez, 24. GBI DOFS autopsy (DOFS 2022-6005485): hanging, manner suicide. GPS records group it in a Smith SP "hanging cluster."
• Oct. 23, 2022 — Nathan Michael Mahan, 37. Stab wounds, per the AJC's Georgia prison homicides investigation.
• Oct. 25, 2022 — Juan Miguel Orduna, 39. GBI DOFS autopsy (DOFS 2022-6006390): hanging, manner suicide; also logged in the hanging cluster.

Two self-inflicted hangings in roughly six weeks, one stabbing homicide, one accidental overdose death, and one death with no state forensic examination. Facility-level intel and reporting overlapping this period — much of it centered on then-Warden Brian Adams and inmate Nathan Weekes, not Epperson — alleges a contraband/RICO enterprise at Smith SP, including an April 13, 2022 GBI interview of Adams and an allegation that GDC knew of at least two murders orchestrated from inside the prison some eighteen months before Adams' termination (The Georgia Virtue, AJC). The AJC and The Marshall Project also alleged Smith SP operated with roughly two-thirds of correctional officer positions unfilled (53 officers against 160 authorized posts) and that understaffing left prisoners without timely medical care and bodies undiscovered for days.

Montgomery State Prison (Deputy Warden 2021; a single-day Deputy Warden record dated 2023-11-22). No deaths attributed.

Women's Probation Detention Center (Deputy Warden 2023; Superintendent 2024–present). No deaths attributed in GPS records.

Litigation

• Daker v. Oliver, No. 1:25-cv-03191 (N.D. Ga.) — filed June 6, 2025, terminated March 30, 2026. GPS records list Epperson as a defendant; the docket (via CourtListener) gives no monetary outcome. Filed while she was Superintendent at the Women's PDC.

Sources

• GBI Division of Forensic Sciences autopsy/consult records obtained via ORR releases R000397-071026, R000399-071026, R000400-071026, R000401-071026 (Smith SP deaths, 2022)
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Georgia prison homicides investigation and Smith SP reporting (contraband scheme, Adams/Weekes allegations, understaffing figures)
• The Georgia Virtue — Smith SP contraband/RICO indictments; Georgia State Prison solitary-confinement allegations
• The Marshall Project — January 2024 reporting on Smith SP understaffing and officer overtime
• CourtListener docket — Daker v. Oliver, 1:25-cv-03191 (N.D. Ga.)
• WTOC and In These Times — facility-level Smith SP reporting cited in GPS intel records
• GDC position and salary records (positions table, 2007–2026)

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Sep 13, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.