Home › Intelligence › Personnel Accountability › King, Sheneca
King, Sheneca
Status: active
Profile written August 2, 2026
This profile reflects positional accountability — this individual held the leadership roles shown during the dates shown, during which the listed deaths or lawsuits occurred. Inclusion does not constitute a legal finding of personal culpability for any specific incident.
Tenure Summary
Sheneca King began her career with the Georgia Department of Corrections at Central State Prison, serving as Captain in 2011 and later as Unit Manager in several stints from 2013 to 2018. In 2019 she moved into facility-level leadership, holding the position of Deputy Warden at Dooly State Prison through 2021, then at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison from 2022 to 2024. She transferred to the Special Management Unit as Deputy Warden in January 2025, and since December 2025 has served as Special Assistant to the Warden there.
GPS records attribute 80 deaths to facilities during King’s leadership tenures. The largest toll—66 deaths—occurred during her three years as Deputy Warden at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison. An additional 12 deaths are attributed to her time at Dooly State Prison, and two deaths to her 2025 tenure at the Special Management Unit. A lawsuit naming King as a defendant, Miller v. Holt, was filed in 2025 and remains pending.
What happened on their watch
Dooly State Prison (2019–2021)
As Deputy Warden at Dooly, King’s tenure saw 12 deaths of incarcerated people, according to GPS records. Among those who died were James Yarbrough, whom the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported suffered from uncontrolled diabetes for months and died of ketoacidosis—a case the publication framed as alleging medical malpractice. Other deaths during this period included Charles Blassingame, Kenneth Hicks, and Andrew Harris. No lawsuits directly naming King from this posting appear in the record, though the facility later faced broader scrutiny from the Department of Justice for systemic understaffing and violence.Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison (2022–2024)
King spent three years as Deputy Warden at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison. During that span, GPS records show 66 deaths occurred at the facility. The sample of named decedents includes several homicides detailed by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Carrell D. Johnson (chopping injuries of the head and sharp-force injuries of the torso), Elmer W. Pless (strangulation), Boyd Williams (manual strangulation and blunt force trauma to the head), and Daniel Charriez (delayed complications of traumatic brain injury from an assault four months earlier). Many other deaths carry a cause category consistent with suicide or undetermined manners.The prison, originally designed for 800 people, held approximately 4,540 during her tenure—568% of its design capacity. Consultants hired by the governor and cited by the AJC reported that almost every part of the facility had been vandalized and that infrastructure was overwhelmed. Intel records also show that during this time, security failures allowed organized contraband operations: an inmate named David Zavala had 35 cellphones seized from him; a corrections officer, Vera Jackson, admitted to accepting thousands of dollars to supply a death-row prisoner with information about upcoming shakedowns; and a newly convicted man was found with a homemade shank and a contraband cellphone within days of arrival. The Department of Justice later described Georgia’s prisons as inhumane, with people “assaulted, stabbed, raped, and killed in woefully understaffed facilities.”
Special Management Unit (2025)
King began 2025 as Deputy Warden at the SMU. Two deaths are attributed to the facility during her watch: Michael Ogletree, 33, on October 31, 2025, and Lashon Boddie, 30, on September 2, 2025. Both are recorded with a cause category that often denotes suicide or pending determination.During this period, the SMU faced allegations that staff falsified and backdated prisoner review forms to make it appear required hearings had been held, and that correctional officers failed to check on a prisoner for nearly seven hours before his body was discovered, despite a policy requiring checks every 30 minutes, per the AJC. A pending lawsuit, Miller v. Holt, filed August 25, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, names King among the defendants. The case remains open with no disposition.
Additionally, while King served as Special Assistant to the Warden from December 2025 onward, the unit was the site where Warden Jose Morales discovered a contraband cellphone that inmate Arthur Lee Cofield Jr. had used to steal $11 million—and that showed Cofield had amassed $31 million in a bank account. The AJC reported that investigators had earlier presented false or misleading information to federal monitors about conditions at the SMU.
Litigation
- Miller v. Holt, No. 5:25-cv-00356 (M.D. Ga., filed Aug. 25, 2025) — pending; no disposition.
Sources
- GPS records (personnel positions, death counts, and decedent names for Dooly, Georgia Diagnostic, and SMU)
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution — multiple investigative reports on homicides, medical neglect, overcrowding, and staff misconduct at Georgia Diagnostic and Dooly; DOJ findings on SMU falsified records and false testimony
- Georgia Public Broadcasting — coverage of prison deaths and staff shortages
- WGXA — reports on contraband and staffing failures
- 13WMAZ — reports on violence at Central State (not during King’s leadership tenures) and altercations at Dooly (post-tenure)
- CourtListener docket for Miller v. Holt
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| Special Assistant to the Warden | SPECIAL MANAGEMENT UNIT | 2025-12-01 → present |
| DEPUTY WARDEN | SPECIAL MANAGEMENT UNIT | 2025-01-01 → present |
| DEPUTY WARDEN | GEORGIA DIAGNOSTIC AND CLASSIFICATION STATE PRISON | 2022-01-01 → 2024-12-31 |
| DEPUTY WARDEN | DOOLY STATE PRISON | 2019-01-01 → 2021-12-31 |
| CORRECTIONAL UNIT MANAGER | CENTRAL STATE PRISON | 2016-01-01 → 2018-12-31 |
| CORRECTION ADMINISTRATION | 2015-01-01 → 2015-12-31 | |
| Unit Manager | CENTRAL STATE PRISON | 2013-01-01 → 2013-12-31 |
| Captain | CENTRAL STATE PRISON | 2011-01-01 → 2011-12-31 |
Lawsuits as defendant
| Case # | Court | Filed | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5:25-cv-00356 | GAMD | 2025-08-25 | pending |
Deaths attributed during tenure
80 people died at facilities under King, Sheneca's leadership.
Submit a correction
If you are the named individual or an authorized representative and dispute information on this page, submit details below. Substantiated corrections are applied promptly. Disputes that remain unresolved are flagged on the profile.