Gillis, Shawn

Tenure Summary

What happened on their watch

In the first year alone, at least seven people died: Tony Pruitt (60) on January 4, 2024; Antonio Johnson (45) in March; Ronnie Cranford (34) and Stoney Allen (61) in June; David Folmar (70) and Russell Waters (55) in July; and Carlos White (41) on Christmas Eve. All but one fall under cause category 6, though the records do not provide detailed medical findings for most. Three additional deaths in 2025 — those of Robert Hodges (56) in June, Carlos White (41) in December, and Demetrice Joshen (28) in November — share the same category.

Three deaths are explicitly tied to violence or force. On March 3, 2025, Saquan Dewest Anderson (23) was stabbed to death at Wheeler; five inmates were indicted for murder, according to The Advance News and 13WMAZ. Baldemar Jaramillo (31) died on June 10, 2025, and GPS records list the cause as homicide. Dustin James Parham (35) died on November 2, 2025, under circumstances described in a user report as involving the use of excessive force while he was handcuffed — an allegation that has not been independently confirmed in court records. In a separate case, Jeffrey Scott Lay (63) died on July 25, 2025, from internal bleeding. A contemporaneous witness account, documented by GPS, alleges that Lay spent weeks complaining of intense pain but was repeatedly given antacids and sent back to his dorm; by the time he collapsed and was placed in a wheelchair, he had bled so extensively internally that a forehead cut barely bled, and he died soon after.

The period also featured a stream of intelligence reports and law enforcement actions highlighting contraband-driven crime within the facility. In September 2024, inmate Jose Calderon was sentenced to 262 months for using a contraband cellphone from Wheeler to broker meth distribution. In 2026, a shakedown recovered a phone from inmate Marcus Allen Daniels, who was later charged with a $13,000 bitcoin scam targeting a woman in Lindale, per Kltv.com. Inmate Dequatte Tucker directed a drug-trafficking conspiracy from inside the prison, leading to his 188-month sentence and seizures of 21 firearms and over $17,000, as reported by The Georgia Virtue. GPS internal tips also flagged a stabbing in dorm 8m4 in April 2026 and a relayed Telegram report of “blood on blood” serious violence in March 2026, reinforcing the picture of ongoing security breakdowns on Gillis’s watch.

Sources

• GPS records — 14 attributed deaths and death-by-facility totals for Wheeler Correctional Facility
• The Advance News, 13WMAZ — coverage of Saquan Anderson homicide and indictments
• Kltv.com — report on Marcus Allen Daniels bitcoin scam from Wheeler CF
• The Georgia Virtue — reporting on Dequatte Tucker drug trafficking conspiracy
• GPS case submissions — witness account of Jeffrey Lay death, stabbing incident report, and Telegram relayed violence tip

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Jul 5, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.