Mahoney, Tamikia Nicole

Tenure Summary

Tamikia Nicole Mahoney has served in the Georgia Department of Corrections since at least 2006, moving from entry‑level staff positions to facility‑deputy leadership. According to GPS records, 26 deaths are attributed to her tenure at Hancock State Prison, where she held the roles of Correctional Asst. Superintendent (January 2019–August 2024) and Deputy Warden of Security (September 2024–present). All 26 documented deaths occurred inside Hancock during a period when the prison was marked by extreme staffing shortages, multiple homicides, and a U.S. Department of Justice report cataloguing systemic violence, sexual assault, and gang control across Georgia facilities. No lawsuits name Mahoney individually as a defendant, though the families of several people killed at Hancock have filed claims and civil actions against the state alleging failure to protect and inadequate medical care.

What happened on their watch

Mahoney first worked at Hancock State Prison as a counselor in 2011 and chief counselor in 2013, but the deaths recorded by GPS begin after she became a facility deputy in 2019. During her six‑year tenure as Correctional Asst. Superintendent and then Deputy Warden of Security, 26 incarcerated people died at Hancock. The cases span a mix of homicides and deaths attributed to natural or undetermined causes (category‑6 events).

Violent deaths frequently involved sharp‑force injuries or blunt trauma. Cesar Arnold Pastrana, 33, died from a stab wound to the chest in March 2020, according to the AJC’s homicide investigation. Rashad Bolton, 29, was killed by a puncture wound to the chest in January 2021; his parents later filed a lawsuit alleging he was stabbed to death. Dwayne Zackery Jr., 22, died in February 2021 from a stab wound inflicted by his cellmate with a homemade knife, per death certificate data. Charles Tristen McKee, 24, was stabbed 13 times in the back and head in May 2022 after staff allegedly failed to move him despite repeated pleas that his life was in danger. A DOJ investigation found that McKee attempted to jump through stair railings to escape gang members but was stabbed further below; his family’s lawsuit claims he was housed in a dorm with known gang members hostile to LGBTQ inmates. Other homicides during the Asst. Superintendent period included Terry Lee Bishop (blunt force trauma and acute drug toxicity, October 2022), Norman Jackson Samples (blunt force injuries to head and torso, December 2022), Roland Lamont Phillips (multiple sharp‑force injuries, June 2023), and Francisco Melgar‑Saldivar (strangulation and blunt force injuries, August 2023). A claim filed by Melgar‑Saldivar’s family alleges he was not given appropriate medical care after the attack.

Shortly after Mahoney assumed the Deputy Warden of Security role in September 2024, Travon Walthour, 29, was stabbed to death the following month. In January 2025 two prisoners, William Holeman and Prince Porter, were found dead in the same dorm following gang‑related violence; initial reports indicated one had a puncture wound and the other had no visible marks. By mid‑2025, more homicides followed: Corey Jose July was stabbed in the yard in June; Andre Rashad Weems was fatally stabbed in September, prompting eight murder charges that a grand jury later no‑billed; Jerrod Johnson, 27, was fatally stabbed in February 2026; Jaylin Bell, 32, died after an altercation with his cellmate that same month; Steven Monroe Wood, 54, was beaten by his cellmate in January 2026 and succumbed at an Augusta hospital. Jacorey Derrelle Pearson, 36, died in April 2026 under circumstances still under investigation by the GDC Office of Professional Standards.

These deaths unfolded against a backdrop of extreme institutional strain. By October 2024, Hancock State Prison carried a correctional‑officer vacancy rate of 73.5%, leaving roughly 49 officers for more than 1,100 prisoners, according to AJC reporting. Statewide, consultants identified emergency‑level staffing shortages at 20 of Georgia’s 34 prisons, broken cell locks, and gang‑run housing units. A 2024 U.S. Department of Justice report described a culture of indifference that allowed violence and sexual assaults to flourish. During the January 2025 gang altercation, at least five people were stabbed with shanks inside Hancock, and two were airlifted to hospitals. Separately, a settlement of $600,000 was reached after Amanuel Selassie Geberyesus hanged himself in 2019 while Mahoney was Asst. Superintendent; the lawsuit alleged that prison officials placed him in a regular cell contrary to a counselor’s advice after he had expressed suicidal thoughts.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Georgia Prison Homicides Investigation; multiple homicide reports, staffing data, and legal claims tied to Hancock State Prison deaths (2020–2026)
• GPS research — cause‑of‑death details, incident reports, Telegram inmate reports, and death certificate data
• U.S. Department of Justice — 2024 report on violence, sexual assault, and gang control in Georgia prisons; findings on the killing of Charles Tristen McKee
• 41NBC — report on Jaylin Bell’s death at Hancock after altercation with cellmate
• 13WMAZ — coverage of Andre Weems homicide and charges
• Union‑Recorder — reporting on Steven Wood’s fatal beating and Corey July’s stabbing
• FOX 5 / WGXA — additional homicide coverage at Hancock State Prison
• Court records / civil claims — lawsuits filed by families of Rashad Bolton, Charles McKee, and Francisco Melgar‑Saldivar; settlement in Geberyesus suicide case

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Jun 21, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.