King, Sheneca

Tenure Summary

What happened on their watch

Dooly State Prison (Deputy Warden, 2019–2021)
During King’s three-year tenure as Deputy Warden at Dooly, 12 incarcerated people died. The official cause categories in GPS records are uncategorized. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that James Robb Yarbrough, 46, died of diabetic ketoacidosis in August 2020 after months of uncontrolled diabetes, a case that the publication cited as an alleged instance of medical malpractice. Intel reports documented allegations that correctional staff were aware of inmate-run fraud schemes; one inmate, Abraham Rivas, was later charged with impersonating a deputy to defraud a victim through the prison’s phone system, and a corrections officer cadet was found attempting to smuggle 640 grams of pure methamphetamine into the facility, though the timing relative to King’s tenure cannot be precisely established from the available reports.

Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison (Deputy Warden, 2022–2024)
King’s service as a Deputy Warden at Georgia Diagnostic covered the facility with the highest death count of her career: 66 deaths. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation identified at least three homicides among them: Carrell D. Johnson, 32, died of chopping injuries to the head and sharp-force wounds; Elmer W. Pless, 65, was strangled; and Boyd Williams, 64, died from manual strangulation and blunt force trauma to the head. Another death, Daniel Charriez, 46, was attributed to delayed complications of a traumatic brain injury sustained four months earlier. According to news reports, the prison was operating at 568 percent of its original design capacity—holding approximately 4,540 people in a space built for 800—and had widespread infrastructure vandalism and severe staffing shortages. The AJC further reported that GDC officials presented false or misleading information to federal investigators and lawmakers during this period, and a later DOJ investigation described conditions in Georgia prisons as inhumane due to violence, understaffing, and systemic failures. These conditions overlapped with King’s tenure as a facility deputy.

Special Management Unit (Deputy Warden, 2025)
King was Deputy Warden at the SMU for approximately eleven months in 2025. Two deaths were recorded: Michael Ogleetree, 33, and LaShion Boddie, 30, both in the uncategorized cause category. The AJC documented that staff at the SMU falsified and backdated prisoner review forms to make it appear that required checks had been timely completed. In one case reported by the AJC, an inmate was not checked by officers for nearly seven hours before his body was discovered, despite a policy mandating 30-minute wellness checks; prison records also falsely listed the deceased inmate as participating in activities after his death. A separate AJC investigation noted that GDC defendants ran a strategy to avoid complying with a court injunction regarding the SMU. King was named as a defendant in the lawsuit Miller v. Holt, filed in August 2025 during her tenure at the SMU.

Litigation

• Miller v. Holt, No. 5:25-cv-00356 (M.D. Ga. filed Aug. 25, 2025) — pending.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Georgia Prison Homicides Investigation (identifying homicides of Johnson, Pless, Williams, Charriez at Georgia Diagnostic and the Yarbrough medical case at Dooly); reporting on overcrowding, falsified records, DOJ findings, and SMU compliance failures.
• GPS records — death counts, tenures, and facility assignments for Sheneca King.
• Court records — Miller v. Holt docket via CourtListener.
• WGXA — report on corrections officer cadet attempting to smuggle meth into Dooly State Prison.
• Wesh.com and News-journalonline.com — reports on inmate fraud scheme and staff awareness at Dooly.

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Jul 5, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.