Kelley, Tina

Tenure Summary

Tina Kelley began her Georgia Department of Corrections career as a correctional officer at Smith State Prison in 2003. Over the next two decades she moved through behavioral health counselor roles at several facilities, including Georgia State Prison, Montgomery State Prison, and Emanuel Women’s Facility, before being promoted to Deputy Warden of Care and Treatment at Rogers State Prison on September 16, 2024. Since January 2025 she has held the full deputy warden position at the same facility. During her leadership tenure at Rogers, five deaths were recorded at the prison. No lawsuits tied to these deaths name Kelley as a defendant, though she appears in five earlier federal suits from unrelated periods.

What happened on their watch

Kelley’s only facility-leadership posting has been at Rogers State Prison, where she served first as Deputy Warden of Care and Treatment and then as Deputy Warden. GPS records show that five prisoners died at Rogers during her tenure. The first, Taylor Anthony Hunt, 29, died on September 27, 2024. GPS intelligence events repeatedly note that Hunt’s death was officially classified as a suicide but that physical evidence—ligature marks, broken bones, bruises, puncture wounds, and stab wounds—suggested homicide, making the circumstances disputed. David Woods (sometimes spelled Wood) died on February 4, 2025, from coronary atherosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease complicated by influenza A; he was pronounced at a hospital after being transported from Rogers. Justin Waymon Hollingsworth, 43, died by suicide via hanging in his cell on June 26, 2025; a coroner’s report and GBI medical examiner limited autopsy documented a ligature furrow and mental health issues. Randy Eugene Stewart, 60, died on July 17, 2025, from E. coli peritonitis following a perforated duodenum, with contributing conditions including cirrhosis and chronic hepatitis-C; he was moved to a Savannah hospital two days before his death. John Meeks, 49, died on February 19, 2026, from a cause categorized under GPS code 6 (the specific manner is not detailed in the available records). Also during Kelley’s tenure, GPS records register an incident on May 17, 2025, where an inmate, Jason Palmer, was held in segregation at the facility and allegedly denied adequate food, phone access, and emergency contact registration. No systemic findings or lawsuits specific to these deaths appear in the intelligence records.

Litigation

Kelley is named as a defendant in five federal lawsuits, all filed before her deputy warden position and none apparently tied to the deaths at Rogers:

• Taser International Inc v. Morgan Stanley Co Inc, 1:10-cv-03108 (GAND), filed September 28, 2010, terminated July 27, 2011.
• Securities and Exchange Commission v. Torchia, 1:15-cv-03904 (GAND), filed November 10, 2015, status pending.
• Cunningham v. Fulton County Georgia, 1:16-cv-00533 (GAND), filed February 19, 2016, terminated March 29, 2019.
• Daker v. Bryson, 5:16-cv-00538 (GAMD), filed December 7, 2016, terminated June 9, 2017.
• Clervrain v. Fite, 3:22-cv-00030 (GASD), filed April 4, 2022, terminated May 10, 2022.

Sources

• Georgia Prisoners’ Speak (GPS) structured personnel records — five deaths attributed to Rogers State Prison during Kelley’s deputy warden tenure.
• GPS intelligence events — allegations of suspicious circumstances around Taylor Hunt’s death at Rogers State Prison (multiple entries, 2024-09-01).
• Coroner records (Tattnall Wave 1) — cause-of-death details for Woods, Hollingsworth, and Stewart.
• CourtListener docket entries — five federal civil actions in which Kelley is a defendant.
• GPS incident record — Jason Palmer segregation conditions at Rogers (facility ID 12) on May 17, 2025.

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on May 31, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.