Keith, Tonja T

Tenure Summary

Tonja T. Keith's GDC leadership record begins with a 2018 post as a correctional unit manager, with no facility listed in the records. In 2019 she became Deputy Warden at Telfair State Prison, a title she carried on the records through 2025; on July 16, 2026 she took the post of Deputy Warden of Care and Treatment at the same facility.

GPS's death registry attributes 53 deaths to her leadership tenures — every one of them at Telfair State Prison. Court records list her as a defendant in four civil cases filed between June 2022 and December 2023, all terminated with no recorded payout amount. Separately, the state's risk-management settlement ledger (obtained through open records) records a $3,249,872.60 liability payout tied to Telfair and to the July 20, 2023 death of Juan Carlos Ramirez Bibiano, along with smaller payouts tied to the facility in 2021, 2023 and 2024.

What happened on their watch

Telfair State Prison — Deputy Warden (2019–2025)

Deaths recorded in the registry during this tenure run from March 2020 onward and are dominated by homicides. Several are documented in detail in the underlying reporting: Juan Carlos Ramirez Bibiano died July 20, 2023, at Telfair State Prison after, per the account in the records, officers placed him in a roughly 12-by-8.5-foot fenced outdoor cage with no shade while the heat index reached about 105°F; he was left roughly five hours and arrived at the hospital with an internal body temperature of 107°F. The state's settlement ledger shows a $3,249,872.60 payout tied to that death. De'ahmoz Oshmic Floyd died April 18, 2023, of exsanguination from a stab wound to the neck; a claim filed against the state alleged he was stabbed by several prisoners at a time when no staff were in the dorm, and that he had renounced gang affiliation and was therefore a target of prior attacks (AJC).

Conditions allegations from the AJC during this tenure: in March 2024 the paper reported Telfair was missing 76% of its essential workforce, leaving 36 correctional officers to supervise 1,400 prisoners; in March 2025 it reported 79% of officer positions unfilled — 32 officers against a stated requirement of at least 153. The AJC also reported that the warden at Telfair was stabbed by an inmate during a contraband shakedown in March 2024. Settlement ledger entries during this tenure include $1,850 (David Morris, 2021), $5,361 (Darryl Thomas, 2021), $2,600 (Derrell Ruth, 2021), $1,750 (Ryan Frank DeMon, 2023) and $500 (Deante Gholston, 2024).

The following people died during this tenure, per the GPS death registry:

• Cedric La'Troy Johnson Sr. died March 13, 2020, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide.
• Aldrich Norval Cain died April 23, 2020, at Telfair State Prison; Homicide.
• Marcus Derrelle Pearson Jr. died May 29, 2020, at Telfair State Prison; Homicide.
• Luis Garcia Palacio died July 28, 2020, at Telfair State Prison; Homicide.
• Juan Carlos Arguelles-Reveles died May 7, 2021, at Telfair State Prison; Homicide.
• Xavier LaMar Warren died December 28, 2022, at Telfair State Prison; Homicide.
• De'ahmoz Oshmic Floyd died April 18, 2023, at Telfair State Prison; Homicide.
• Kwesi Jamal Stultz died December 22, 2023, at Telfair State Prison; Homicide.
• Joey Lebron Kilgore died February 29, 2024, at Telfair State Prison; Homicide.
• Tochi Andre Leak died March 9, 2024, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Accident.
• Lamar Jarmaine Wilson died June 1, 2024, at Telfair State Prison; Homicide.
• Jerome Foster died July 3, 2024, at Telfair State Prison; Unknown/Pending.
• Zoumana Madiou Sarre died July 5, 2024, at Telfair State Prison; Homicide.
• Anthony James Mulder died July 7, 2024, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Suicide.
• Marc Avon Jr Lefevre died August 29, 2024, at Telfair State Prison; Unknown/Pending.
• Henry Earl Crump died September 2, 2024, at Telfair State Prison; Homicide.
• Eric Leigh Whitehead died September 18, 2024, at Telfair State Prison; Homicide.
• Aaron Joshua Smith died December 19, 2024, at Telfair State Prison; Homicide.
• Guillermo Nava died December 27, 2024, at Telfair State Prison; Unknown/Pending.
• Deandre Moody died January 28, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; Homicide.
• Ezra Dangelo Ford died March 25, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; Homicide.
• William Clinton Worley died April 12, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; Unknown/Pending.
• Lester James Smith died June 2, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; Homicide.
• Tony Morales Adame died June 26, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Overdose.
• Thaddeus Jovell Perry died July 17, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; Unknown/Pending.
• Malindzo Eddy Hatcher died July 21, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; Homicide.
• David Lane Campbell died July 22, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; Overdose.
• Henry L Gadson died September 10, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; Unknown/Pending.
• Robert Wayne Messer died September 11, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; Overdose.
• Gary Chad Thomason died September 14, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; Unknown/Pending.
• Robert Baker died October 12, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Suicide.
• Preston C Phelps died December 13, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; Homicide. GDC's Office of Professional Standards investigated the death as a homicide; the body was sent to the GBI Crime Lab for cause of death.
• Elvis Noe Garcia-Nelasco died December 29, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; Unknown/Pending.

A GPS case submission dated July 17, 2026 also alleges that in 2025 multiple people were killed at Telfair during a conflict between the Bloods and Muslims, triggering a statewide lockdown.

Telfair State Prison — Deputy Warden of Care and Treatment (from July 16, 2026)

Kwame Conte Mccombs died July 25, 2026, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. Case submissions during this posting describe a large-scale fight between two rival groups in a dorm, with officers deploying chemical agents and one incarcerated person reporting being overcome by the agent while their cell door was open (Sept. 16, 2026); a related entry reports an altercation producing injuries to at least three people, at least one fatality in a Telegram-group account, and lockdowns at multiple facilities. A further entry, dated Sept. 18, 2026, reports a gang-related fight contained to a single dorm that injured three inmates, all treated at local hospitals and returned to the facility, and records that GDC placed all facilities under lockdown. A report dated Sept. 17, 2026 relayed Telegram chatter of a death at a state prison and a regional director's visit. An Oct. 10, 2026 submission describes a stabbing in a dorm by a group of incarcerated people and states that a deputy warden reviewed video of the incident. Records also note a GBI-traced bomb threat against an Atkinson County school attributed to an inmate at Telfair, and a GBI investigation referred to the Alapaha District Attorney's Office.

Litigation

• Thomas v. White, No. 3:23-cv-00100, court recorded as GASD — filed December 21, 2023; terminated February 23, 2024. No payout amount recorded.
• Powell v. White, No. 3:23-cv-00096, GASD — filed December 4, 2023; terminated March 28, 2024. No payout amount recorded.
• Hall v. Mcfarlane, No. 3:23-cv-00094, GASD — filed November 29, 2023; terminated March 4, 2024. No payout amount recorded.
• Mckinney v. White, No. 3:22-cv-00062, GASD — filed June 13, 2022; terminated September 8, 2022. No payout amount recorded.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — homicide list and claim reporting on De'ahmoz Oshmic Floyd; staffing investigations (March 2024, March 2025); contraband-shakedown stabbing of the Telfair warden
• Court records via CourtListener dockets — Thomas v. White; Powell v. White; Hall v. Mcfarlane; Mckinney v. White
• Georgia Department of Administrative Services Risk Management settlement ledger (open records) — payouts tied to Telfair State Prison, 2021–2024, including the Ramirez Bibiano settlement
• Georgia Department of Corrections statements — confirmed deaths at Telfair, December 2025 and others
• GDC Office of Professional Standards — homicide investigation of the Preston Cato Phelps death
• 13WMAZ, as cited in facility records — bomb threat traced to a Telfair inmate
• Yahoo.com — bomb-threat allegation against an inmate at Telfair State Prison
• GPS case submissions — incarcerated-person and Telegram-group accounts of 2025–2026 altercations, stabbings, chemical-agent deployment and lockdowns

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.