King, Sheneca

Tenure Summary

Sheneca King's career in the Georgia Department of Corrections began at Central State Prison, where records list her as Captain (2011) and Unit Manager (2013), with a later return as Correctional Unit Manager (2016–2018) and a 2015 Correction Administration post carrying no facility assignment. She entered facility leadership as Deputy Warden at Dooly State Prison (2019–2021), then served as Deputy Warden at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison (2022–2024). In 2025 she held two concurrent deputy posts — Deputy Warden of Security at GDCP and Deputy Warden at the Special Management Unit, both dated Jan. 1–Nov. 30, 2025 — and since Dec. 1, 2025 has been Special Assistant to the Warden at the SMU. Records also list a one-day Deputy Warden assignment at the SMU dated Aug. 27, 2026. Her status is active.

The death registry maintained by Georgia Prisoners' Speak attributes 90 deaths to her leadership tenures: 76 at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison, 12 at Dooly State Prison and 2 at the Special Management Unit. Court records list her as a defendant in one pending federal case, Miller v. Holt. The GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger ties three state liability payouts to Dooly State Prison during her tenure as its deputy warden.

What happened on their watch

Dooly State Prison — Deputy Warden (2019–2021). Twelve deaths are attributed to this posting. Registry entries name Charles Scott Blassingame (73, Feb. 2, 2020), Terry Lee Mintz (63, April 6, 2020), Kenneth Hicks (68, May 22, 2020), Shelton Luzester Donaldson (56, June 2, 2020), Glenn Whorton (54, June 10, 2020), Michael Devern Terry (59, July 16, 2020), Nathaniel Troy Jr. (53, Aug. 5, 2020), James Robb Yarbrough (46, Aug. 14, 2020), Andrew Harris (58, Jan. 7, 2021), Luckie Odis Miller (72, Feb. 21, 2021), Charles Busbee (73, May 25, 2021) and David Hunter (63, Nov. 19, 2021). Yarbrough is the decedent linked to a $700,000 state liability payout recorded in the GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger (Open Records); the same ledger records a $3,100 payout tied to Rodney McCrary (2020) and a $1,000 payout tied to Anthony T. Hill (2019), neither of whom appears as a death in the registry.

Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison — Deputy Warden (2022–2024), Deputy Warden of Security (2025). Seventy-six deaths are attributed to her tenures here. The registry lists the following among them:

• Tabaya Marshall Gray died Nov. 27, 2025, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 52.
• Charles Ramen Coppeak died Nov. 19, 2025, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Overdose, age 26.
• Christopher Wayne Crook died Aug. 5, 2025, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 49.
• Daniel Claude Callahan died July 26, 2025, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical, age 72.
• Woodrow Wilson Hodges died July 14, 2025, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical, age 68.
• Jacob Scott Wilcox died June 28, 2025, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical, age 27.
• Mark Smith died June 7, 2025, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical, age 53. GPS incident records also describe a death of Mark Smith at GDCP marked by Parkinson's disease, missed medical transfer requests and hours without security rounds.
• David Octavious Robbs died April 30, 2025, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 37.
• Michael Scott West died March 6, 2025, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Accident, age 46.
• William Rhodes died Feb. 20, 2025, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 38.
• John Irvin Tidd Jr. died Dec. 15, 2024, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Suicide, age 36.
• Willie Henry Ponder died Nov. 8, 2024, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 47.
• Thomas Williams Jr. died Nov. 7, 2024, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 62.
• Stephen Allen Hester died Nov. 6, 2024, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 41.
• Joshua Mark Holliday died Oct. 21, 2024, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Suicide, age 43.
• Albert Stinson died Sept. 24, 2024, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 76.
• Rodriquez Demorris Garrett died Sept. 6, 2024, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Suicide, age 30.
• Christopher Shawn Burnett died July 14, 2024, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Suicide, age 37.
• Edgar Jaramillo died July 8, 2024, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 53.
• Gregory Lindsey died June 28, 2024, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 64.
• James Douglas Arrendale died June 25, 2024, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Suicide, age 40.
• Gerald Kennard Stewart died June 11, 2024, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 67.
• Johnny Earl Mcstotts died May 31, 2024, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical, age 48.

Older registry entries at GDCP during these tenures include Brandon Trace Burrell (31, Jan. 28, 2024), whose death the AJC reported followed an assault by another inmate while he was under methamphetamine and numerous stab wounds; Carrell Beontae Johnson (32, June 6, 2023, chopping and sharp-force injuries); Elmer W. Pless (65, May 15, 2023, strangulation); Desmond Layne Hattaway (27, April 2023, suicide in a mental-health dorm after segregation); Boyd Henry Williams (64, Oct. 3, 2022, strangulation and blunt-force trauma); and Daniel Charriez (46, Feb. 23, 2022, delayed complications of traumatic brain injury).

The AJC has reported, as allegations, that almost every part of GDCP has been vandalized by prisoners amid widespread infrastructure failures (March 31, 2025); that Charles Lee Broady Jr. was moved into a unit with six gang members who attacked him with razor blades despite his request for protection; that newly convicted Shane Tassi was photographed with a homemade shank and contraband phone days after arriving; and that 35 cellphones were seized from David "Toro" Zavala at the prison. A family member reported to GPS that a person who died at GDCP had received a death threat three days earlier, was supposed to be in isolation, and asked for medical help minutes before being found dead but was told to wait until after count; the family disputes the prison's suicide ruling. GPS incident records also log a "systemic failure in death reporting and investigation" at GDCP (Oct. 24, 2025), a fatal stabbing witnessed by multiple inmates with a 30-minute delay before an officer response (April 6, 2025), and a severe cold-injury to inmate Ronald Allen during kitchen work (April 2024).

Special Management Unit — Deputy Warden (Jan. 1–Nov. 30, 2025). Two deaths are attributed to this posting:

• Michael Ogletree died Oct. 31, 2025, at Special Management Unit; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 33.
• Lashon Boddie died Sept. 2, 2025, at Special Management Unit; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 30.

AJC investigations dated Jan. 10 and Jan. 21, 2025 — reports tied in GPS's records to her SMU deputy role — allege that the GDC stalled compliance with a 2019 SMU settlement until the injunction expired; that it blacked out entire pages of death incident reports; that its own consultants found in May 2022 that none of 388 PREA investigative files met the act's standards; that a rape complaint was ruled unsubstantiated despite bruising and seminal fluid; that GDC obstructed DOJ investigators; and that it stopped publishing preliminary causes of death in March 2024. U.S. District Judge Marc T. Treadwell held the GDC in contempt in April over the SMU settlement, finding officials were "thumbing their noses" at its requirements; the AJC also reported that Richardo Daughtry went nearly seven hours without a check and that records showed him at recreation after he had been pronounced dead, and that officials falsified and backdated review forms. The DOJ's October report called Georgia's prisons inhumane.

Litigation

• Miller v. Holt, No. 5:25-cv-00356, docketed as GAMD, filed Aug. 25, 2025; pending, with no disposition recorded. Sheneca King is listed among the defendants in the court records.

Sources

• Georgia Prisoners' Speak death registry — individual entries for the decedents named above at Dooly State Prison, Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison and the Special Management Unit.
• GPS incident log — GDCP entries including the Mark Smith death notes, the Oct. 24, 2025 death-reporting entry, the April 6, 2025 fatal stabbing, and the Ronald Allen injury entries.
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — reports on GDCP vandalism and infrastructure failures, the Broady and Tassi incidents, Zavala's seized cellphones, and the Jan. 10 and Jan. 21, 2025 investigations into SMU conditions, PREA investigations, mortality reporting and GDC representations to federal investigators and a federal judge.
• U.S. Department of Justice — October report finding conditions in Georgia's prisons inhumane and describing obstruction of federal investigators.
• Court records / CourtListener — Miller v. Holt docket.
• GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger (Open Records) — Dooly State Prison payouts tied to James R. Yarbrough, Rodney McCrary and Anthony T. Hill.
• Family report received by GPS — disputed suicide ruling at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison (March 2023).

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Oct 11, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.