Henderson, Marcus

Tenure Summary

Marcus Henderson held a position at Phillips State Prison recorded without a title from January 2015 to January 2019, then served as Deputy Warden of Security at Smith State Prison from January 2019 to January 2023. The Smith posting carries the accountability record: GPS's death registry attributes 17 deaths to his leadership tenure, every one of them at Smith State Prison.

Nine of the 17 are classified as homicides, five as suicides, one as an overdose, one as natural/medical, and one remains unknown/pending. No lawsuit in these records names Henderson as a defendant. State liability payouts tied to Smith State Prison fall inside the same window — including $1,450,000 tied to the December 2020 death of Christopher Heath and $3,472 tied to a 2022 incident involving Micki Antonio Brown — per the Georgia Department of Administrative Services Risk Management settlement ledger obtained through open records.

What happened on their watch

Phillips State Prison — position recorded without a title, January 2015 to January 2019. No deaths in the registry are attributed to Henderson at this facility.

Smith State Prison — Deputy Warden of Security, January 2019 to January 2023. Seventeen deaths are attributed to this posting, between February 2020 and October 2022:

• Joseph Franklin Norris died February 12, 2020, at Smith State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Suicide, age 55.
• Taylor Harrison Brooks died April 10, 2020, at Smith State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 26.
• John Brently Reyes died April 20, 2020, at Smith State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 24.
• Roderick A Golden died August 17, 2020, at Smith State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical, age 51.
• Christopher Darnell Heath died December 11, 2020, at Smith State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Suicide, age 43.
• Justin Wilkerson died January 5, 2021, at Smith State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 25.
• Michael Lee Canty died March 20, 2021, at Smith State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Suicide, age 35.
• Desmond Hill died April 9, 2021, at Smith State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 35.
• Hiwatha Abdullah Hakeem died April 12, 2021, at Smith State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 26.
• Derrick Dionte Harvey died June 25, 2021, at Smith State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 26.
• Christopher Reynolds died July 1, 2021, at Smith State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 38.
• Christopher M Redwine died September 27, 2021, at Smith State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 45.
• Michael Lewis Turner died May 14, 2022, at Smith State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Overdose, age 38.
• Jerome Tisdol died May 28, 2022, at Smith State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 67.
• Manuel Villagomez died September 16, 2022, at Smith State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Suicide, age 24.
• Nathan Michael Mahan died October 23, 2022, at Smith State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 37.
• Juan Miguel Orduna died October 25, 2022, at Smith State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Suicide, age 39.

The homicide detail on file describes knives and strangulation: Redwine died of asphyxia from manual strangulation, Reynolds of blunt and sharp force injuries to the head and neck, Harvey of a stab wound to the chest, Mahan of stab wounds, Brooks of multiple stab wounds, and Reyes of exsanguination from a stab wound to the neck. Two deaths carry allegations alongside the findings: an incident report on Hakeem's death shows four other prisoners involved, and a lawsuit alleges the attackers had a history of violence and that prison officials failed to provide timely medical care; a family member of Hill reported he had called his mother the day before his death saying his cellmate had threatened to kill him. Wilkerson's mother testified at a Georgia Legislature hearing about his mental health diagnoses and prior attacks in prison.

Conditions at Smith during the posting are documented separately: in 2020 a prisoner was tied up, beaten, waterboarded and sexually assaulted by his cellmate; in 2022 officer Andrew Phillips, the only officer assigned to an area holding 600 men, worked 11 consecutive days, faced a mass mattress fire and empty fire extinguishers, had feces and urine thrown at him, and was called to escort a stabbing victim to the hospital. Statewide reporting from the same period records at least 49 prisoner overdose deaths between 2019 and 2022 against two in 2018; at least 43 suicides in 2022; at least 90 people slain in Georgia prisons from 2020 through the end of 2022, three times the prior three-year figure; and overtime spending past $4 million from 2019 to 2022 as corrections staff fell by about one-third.

Records logged to this posting also extend into 2023: a record 37 prison homicides in Georgia that year, per AJC reporting from GDC mortality reports and death records, including the killing of a correctional officer at Smith; department records showing 40 homicides and 38 suicides in state prisons in fiscal year 2023; and seven shakedowns at Smith that removed 1,509 weapons, 694 cell phones, 854 phone chargers, 7.55 kilos of marijuana and 12.53 kilos of tobacco. Smith's then-warden Brian Adams was arrested and fired for his part in a contraband scheme and charged with violating Georgia's RICO Act, bribery, making false statements and violating his oath; GBI agents alleged Adams gave false statements in an April 13, 2022 interview when he said he had not been solicited or bribed by an inmate in the prior decade. As of mid-November 2023 the Smith warden was arrested in connection with a contraband investigation, while the GDC website listed four worker arrests for the year against records showing 38 involving contraband.

Separately, 88-year-old Bobby Kicklighter was shot to death in his bed in Glennville in 2021; the GBI determined it was a hit orchestrated from inside Smith State Prison by inmate Nathan Weekes, intended for a correctional officer cracking down on contraband.

Litigation

• No lawsuit in this record names Henderson as a defendant.
• Wrongful death suit filed by the family of Bobby C. Kicklighter (2021, Smith State Prison) — alleges former Warden Brian Adams and former officer Ireon Moore facilitated a criminal enterprise that led to Kicklighter's murder in a botched murder-for-hire scheme.
• Southern Center for Human Rights v. Georgia Department of Corrections (2021) — filed over poor prison conditions; Terrica Redfield Ganzy is named in the record.
• A suit referenced in connection with the April 2021 death of Hiwatha Abdullah Hakeem alleges the attackers had a history of violence and that prison officials failed to provide timely medical care.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — 2023 record homicide count drawn from GDC mortality reports and death records; individual Smith State Prison homicide reporting
• Georgia Department of Corrections — mortality reports, fiscal year 2023 homicide and suicide figures, 2023 shakedown totals
• Georgia Department of Administrative Services Risk Management settlement ledger (open records) — Smith State Prison liability payouts
• Georgia Bureau of Investigation — allegations in the Adams contraband case; determination in the Kicklighter killing
• Southern Center for Human Rights — 2021 conditions lawsuit
• Georgia Legislature testimony — mother of Justin Wilkerson
• GPS death registry — cause and age for each of the 17 deaths listed above

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Oct 25, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.