Gillis, Shawn

Tenure Summary

Shawn Gillis holds a single leadership posting in the records reviewed here: Warden of Wheeler Correctional Facility, a position he assumed on January 1, 2024 and continues to hold. There is no earlier facility-lead tenure documented for him.

Across that tenure, 15 deaths are attributed to Wheeler Correctional Facility — the entire total attributed to Gillis's leadership. Eleven of the 15 carry the same coded cause category in the mortality records, three share a second code, and one carries a third; the decedents range in age from 23 to 70. No lawsuits naming Gillis as a defendant appear in the records, and no news report in the dataset names him directly. What the record does contain is a steady drumbeat of contraband-cellphone allegations and two unverified reports of stabbings at the facility during his watch.

What happened on their watch

Wheeler Correctional Facility — Warden, January 1, 2024 to present

Records attribute 15 deaths at Wheeler to this period, the first being Tony Lamar Pruitt, 60, on January 4, 2024. The records also name Antonio Perez Johnson, 45 (March 30, 2024); Ronnie Joseph Cranford, 34 (June 2, 2024); Stoney Joe Allen, 61 (June 21, 2024); David R. Folmar, 70 (July 15, 2024); Russell Anthony Waters, 55 (July 29, 2024); Carlos White, 41 (December 24, 2024); Saquan Dewest Anderson, 23 (March 3, 2025); Baldemar Jaramillo, 31 (June 10, 2025); Robert Lee Hodges, 56 (June 26, 2025); Jeffrey Scott Lay, 63 (July 25, 2025); Dustin James Parham, 35 (November 2, 2025); Demetrice Labron Joshen, 28 (November 21, 2025); Damon Luke Crowe, 40 (April 26, 2026); and Jacob V. Reyes, 62 (July 25, 2026). No public narrative accompanies any of these entries. Three of the deaths — Anderson, Jaramillo and Parham — share the same coded cause category as one another; all three were under 36.

Alongside the mortality record, the intel file for Wheeler during Gillis's tenure is dominated by contraband-phones cases. Per WCJB.com, Patrick Marquelle Turner was extradited from the Georgia Department of Corrections to Marion County, Florida, in August 2026 on charges including grand theft, defrauding a person older than 65, money laundering, using a communication device in a felony, and impersonating an officer; a sheriff's investigation alleges he used a contraband phone to spoof the Marion County Sheriff's Office caller ID and defraud an elderly resident, with eight transactions across multiple accounts linked to him totaling $5,600. The Georgia Virtue reported that Dequatte Tucker was sentenced in June 2026 to 188 months for a drug-trafficking conspiracy directed largely from inside state prisons using contraband phones; the same investigation seized 21 firearms and more than $17,000 and produced sentences of 84 months for Roger Jenkins and 18 months for Corey Hill. KLTV.com reported a $1 million arrest warrant issued May 6, 2026 for Marcus Allen Daniels over an alleged $13,000 bitcoin scam run from prison; a cellphone was recovered from his cell in an April 14, 2026 shakedown. In September 2024, Jose Calderon was sentenced to 262 months for brokering meth distribution from Wheeler using a contraband phone.

Two entries in the file are unverified allegations rather than reported findings. A March 7, 2026 anonymous tip submitted to GPS describes a serious violent altercation, possibly a stabbing, with emergency medical transport dispatched to the scene. An April 21, 2026 report from an inmate witness alleges a stabbing at Wheeler in which the injured person required emergency transport, with unconfirmed reports from medical staff that the victim may have died before transport arrived. Neither has been corroborated in the records provided.

Sources

• GPS personnel and mortality records for Wheeler Correctional Facility (Warden tenure, 2024–present)
• GPS case submissions #159 (April 21, 2026) and #84 (March 7, 2026) — unverified stabbing allegations
• WCJB.com — August 25, 2026 report on the alleged contraband-phone fraud and extradition of Patrick Marquelle Turner
• The Georgia Virtue — June 25, 2026 report on the Dequatte Tucker drug-trafficking conspiracy and related sentencings and seizures
• KLTV.com — May 7, 2026 report on the Marcus Allen Daniels arrest warrant and shakedown cellphone recovery
• Sentencing records for Jose Calderon (262 months) as reported in the intel file, September 5, 2024

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Sep 23, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.