Harmon, Orbey

Tenure Summary

Orbey Harmon entered the Georgia Department of Corrections in 2015 as a corrections officer, and state salary records show a steady climb through the custody ranks: lieutenant in 2016 and 2017, captain in 2018, and correctional unit manager from 2019 through 2021. In 2022 Harmon moved into facility leadership as a deputy warden at Augusta State Medical Prison, a title carried on the salary records through 2025; records also list Harmon as Deputy Warden of Security there from July 16, 2026.

Two hundred and forty-eight deaths are attributed to Harmon's leadership tenure, every one of them at Augusta State Medical Prison, per the GPS death registry. The record spans natural-medical deaths, pending-cause deaths and deaths classified as homicides — among them Rodarick Lee Hayes, stabbed to death in May 2024, a case in which a correctional officer was among those charged. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's investigations and the U.S. Department of Justice's 2024 findings describe violence at the prison during the same years. State records also show a $2,726.03 liability payout tied to the facility.

What happened on their watch

Pre-leadership postings (2015–2021). Harmon served as a correctional officer in 2015, a lieutenant in 2016–2017, a captain in 2018, and a correctional unit manager in 2019–2021.

Augusta State Medical Prison — Deputy Warden (2022–2025) and Deputy Warden of Security (from July 16, 2026). All 248 deaths attributed to Harmon's tenure occurred at this facility. The earliest documented in GPS's files is William Taylor Bodge, 61, who died February 5, 2022 from delayed complications of blunt force injuries to the head suffered weeks earlier, with the incident date listed as January 20, 2022. Raphael Zachery Milligan, 41, died July 21, 2022 from blunt force injuries and strangulation; another prisoner was charged with his murder. Amos Bennett Huff Jr., 60, died March 30, 2023 by strangulation, and his 26-year-old cellmate was charged. Randall Joey Futch, 61, died June 8, 2023 from delayed complications of blunt force head trauma.

In 2024, Thomas Preston Johnson, 56, died April 12 in a death an incident report records as a homicide; Rodarick Lee Hayes, 29, died May 25 from sharp force injury of the torso, with two prisoners and a correctional officer charged with murder, the officer accused of aiding in the attack; and Lamar Wesson Phillips, 39, died June 8 in an inmate-to-inmate assault recorded as a murder. Also in September 2024, an incarcerated man at the prison, Joseph Collins, was sentenced to 240 months in federal prison for directing a heroin and meth trafficking network from inside the facility.

The Department of Justice's 2024 report on the GDC described horrific violence, sexual assaults and gang-run prisons enabled by a culture of indifference, and a January 21, 2025 DOJ finding — reported by the AJC — concluded that Hayes had been attacked on multiple occasions before his death. The same AJC reporting cited in GPS's files states that Thomas Henry Giles was left for hours in his smoke-filled cell while officers evacuated nearby inmates and died of smoke inhalation, a death the GBI ruled a homicide; that guards moved a prisoner with a history of strangulation into Eddie Gosier's cell, where Gosier was killed hours later; and that Jimmy Lucero was held in solitary without required medical checks and fell into a catatonic state and starved.

Under Harmon's Deputy Warden of Security tenure, internal reports describe a person dying at the prison in 2026 after reportedly never being moved from the dorm to medical care — the report described the cause as likely natural but unconfirmed — and an assault of one incarcerated person by another over stolen property, framed as retaliation. The facility also recorded more than 120 dog adoptions through its Pups in the Pen program in a little over two years.

The 25 most recent deaths in the registry from this tenure:

• Richard Atwood died September 18, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the cause is listed as Unknown/Pending.
• Donnie Gene Poland died September 15, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the cause is listed as Natural/Medical.
• Alphonso Dade died September 14, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the cause is listed as Natural/Medical.
• Demilo Ponchorello Johnson died September 10, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the cause is listed as Natural/Medical.
• Dwight Bernard Freeman died August 28, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the cause is listed as Unknown/Pending.
• Jimmie Lee Dennis died August 17, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the cause is listed as Unknown/Pending.
• John Henry Tuff died August 8, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the cause is listed as Unknown/Pending.
• Anretoes Kenwood Wilkins died August 7, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the cause is listed as Unknown/Pending.
• Donald Hugh Young died August 5, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the cause is listed as Unknown/Pending.
• Phillip Curtis Walker died July 16, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the cause is listed as Unknown/Pending.
• Ronnie Williams died December 31, 2025, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the cause is listed as Natural/Medical.
• Alfonzo Foster died December 30, 2025, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the cause is listed as Natural/Medical.
• Gary Thomas Shaughnessy died December 21, 2025, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the cause is listed as Natural/Medical.
• Eugene Cornelius Edmond died December 1, 2025, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the cause is listed as Natural/Medical.
• Kenneth Craig Mccowan died November 24, 2025, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the cause is listed as Unknown/Pending.
• Kimmeth Devon Harden died November 20, 2025, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the cause is listed as Natural/Medical.
• Jeffery Jackson died October 29, 2025, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the cause is listed as Natural/Medical.
• Lloyd Lewis died October 19, 2025, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the cause is listed as Natural/Medical.
• Deonta Smith died October 10, 2025, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the cause is listed as Unknown/Pending.
• Johnnie Wildermuth died October 9, 2025, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the cause is listed as Unknown/Pending.
• Randy Clay died October 1, 2025, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the cause is listed as Natural/Medical.
• Trammell Lyonda Williams died September 28, 2025, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the cause is listed as Natural/Medical.
• Eric Deal died September 14, 2025, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the cause is listed as Natural/Medical.
• Treyvance Elliott Currie died August 31, 2025, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the cause is listed as Unknown/Pending.
• Michael Juan Campbell died August 19, 2025, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the cause is listed as Natural/Medical.

Litigation

• Martin v. Philbin, No. 1:18-cv-00212, filed December 10, 2018, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia; terminated October 23, 2019. Harmon is listed as a defendant; the filing date falls within his correctional unit manager years.
• Martin v. Philbin, No. 1:19-cv-00216, filed December 17, 2019, in the same court; terminated January 8, 2020. Harmon is listed as a defendant; the filing date falls within his correctional unit manager years.

A state liability payout of $2,726.03 tied to Augusta State Medical Prison and a 2022 incident, naming Justina Collins-Powell, appears in the Georgia DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — homicide list and "prison system failures cost Georgia taxpayers millions" investigations, including the Hayes, Giles, Gosier and Lucero accounts (reports dated January 21, 2025, during Harmon's deputy warden tenure)
• U.S. Department of Justice — 2024 report on GDC violence and the January 2025 finding on attacks preceding Rodarick Lee Hayes's death
• Court records via CourtListener — dockets for Martin v. Philbin, Nos. 1:18-cv-00212 and 1:19-cv-00216
• Georgia Department of Administrative Services, Risk Management — settlement ledger entry for Augusta State Medical Prison (2022 incident)
• GPS death registry — 248 deaths attributed to the Augusta State Medical Prison tenure, with cause classifications and dates
• GPS intake reports — 2026 accounts of a death following delayed medical transfer and of an inmate-on-inmate assault over stolen property

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Nov 1, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.