Hudson, Charles Leonard

Tenure Summary

Charles Leonard Hudson's Georgia Department of Corrections career began at Macon State Prison, where he served as a correctional officer in 2007 and again in 2015, then rose through the uniformed ranks there as correctional sergeant (2016–2018) and correctional lieutenant (2019–2020), followed by correctional captain (2021–2022) and correctional unit manager (2023 through Aug. 15, 2024); a record also places him as Correctional Unit Manager at Macon State Prison on Nov. 22, 2023. On Aug. 16, 2024, he entered facility leadership as Deputy Warden of Security at Dooly State Prison, a role he held until Jan. 15, 2025. He continued at Dooly as Deputy Warden through 2025, and on June 1, 2026, became Warden of Calhoun State Prison, where he is listed as active.

GPS's death registry attributes 14 deaths to Hudson's leadership tenures, all of them at Dooly State Prison. No lawsuit naming Hudson as a defendant appears in the records reviewed here.

What happened on their watch

Dooly State Prison — Deputy Warden of Security (Aug. 16, 2024–Jan. 15, 2025) and Deputy Warden (2025)

All 14 deaths attributed to Hudson's leadership tenure occurred at Dooly State Prison while he held the deputy warden roles there. They span Sept. 26, 2024, to Nov. 16, 2025, and range in age from 25 to 75:

• Zeary Davante Davis died Sept. 26, 2024, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 31.
• Ancion Leroy Wallace died Sept. 27, 2024, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical, age 25.
• Thomas Adrian Chamblee died Nov. 18, 2024, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Suicide, age 32.
• David Smith died Nov. 20, 2024, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical, age 53.
• Michael Hutchins died Dec. 21, 2024, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 75.
• Joshua Parrott died Jan. 12, 2025, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 45.
• Horatio Philmore died Feb. 2, 2025, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 58.
• Timothy Glenn Williams died April 17, 2025, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Overdose, age 56.
• Orlando Perez Glass died Aug. 17, 2025, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 49.
• Marshall Davis Crews died Sept. 19, 2025, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 69.
• Willie Mote died Oct. 14, 2025, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 70.
• Paul Counts died Oct. 30, 2025, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 60.
• Darrow Brown died Nov. 7, 2025, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 58.
• Dexter Andres Levy died Nov. 16, 2025, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Overdose, age 32.

Four deaths are recorded as homicides, two as overdoses, two as natural/medical, one as suicide, and five remain unknown/pending. An event record states that Parrott's death was initially ruled a suicide and later reclassified as homicide by strangulation; another states Philmore died in an open dorm, was classified as a suicide, and that inmate reports indicated strangulation.

Allegations recorded at Dooly during this tenure include an Atlanta Journal-Constitution report, dated Jan. 21, 2025, in which a coroner alleged Carlos Omar Soldiew-Acosta may have been dead more than 24 hours before his body was found, and a separate AJC account of James Yarbrough, who allegedly suffered uncontrolled diabetes for months and died of ketoacidosis in a case alleging medical malpractice. Georgia Public Broadcasting reported Oct. 1, 2024, that Cody Bailey alleges medical staff put his father's treatment "on the back burner," contributing to his death from sepsis; a related event record lists James Michael Bailey, 44, as dying of sepsis at Dooly. A report dated Nov. 25, 2025, describes an investigation into staffing collapse at Dooly, with housing units left without officer supervision for hours or entire shifts.

Other records during the tenure include a March 12, 2025, arrest record stating Abraham Rivas was charged with organized scheme to defraud and grand theft for impersonating a sheriff's officer, with $1,000 going into his prison commissary account; a Sept. 5, 2024, record of Magnum Jelani Neely's 278-month sentence for leading an Augusta-area drug ring from Dooly using contraband cellphones; the Georgia Department of Corrections' Feb. 19, 2025, deployment of cell-phone blocking technology at Dooly and other prisons; and a Feb. 16, 2025, report on the appointment of Mark Agbaosi as Dooly warden without a bachelor's degree. WGXA reported that cadet Julius Deshawn Williams Jr. was found with 640 grams of methamphetamine and pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute; an event record dated Dec. 8, 2025, states Hudson himself was bitten on the thumb by an inmate while helping handcuff him and was treated at the facility.

Calhoun State Prison — Warden (from June 1, 2026)

No deaths are attributed to Hudson's tenure at Calhoun State Prison. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution report dated Sept. 28, 2026, records a Florida sheriff's allegation that a "huge scam" operation is run out of Calhoun State Prison and Wheeler Correctional Institution, and a separate allegation that Annie Ashley participated in a prison-based scam network that took $15,000 from a woman near Daytona Beach, Florida. Both are allegations, not adjudicated findings.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Dooly homicide and medical-failure reporting (Jan. 2025); Sept. 2026 reports on alleged scam operations at Calhoun State Prison
• Georgia Public Broadcasting — Oct. 1, 2024, report on federal deliberate-indifference findings and the Bailey family's account of a Dooly death
• WGXA — Dec. 2025 report on a corrections cadet's meth-smuggling plea at Dooly (U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Georgia)
• Georgia Department of Corrections — cell-phone blocking deployment (Feb. 19, 2025); Dooly warden appointment (Feb. 16, 2025)
• County coroner statements, via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and television reporting — Soldiew-Acosta and Davis deaths
• GPS death registry — 14 deaths at Dooly State Prison attributed to Hudson's deputy warden tenures

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Oct 4, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.