Mahoney, Tamikia Nicole

Tenure Summary

Tamikia Nicole Mahoney entered the Georgia Department of Corrections in 2006 as a Correctional Officer at Wilkes County Prison, then spent most of the following decade in counseling and behavioral-health roles at Hancock State Prison — Counselor (2011), Chief Counselor (2013), Behavioral Health Counselor (2015 and 2016). She moved into custody leadership as a Correctional Unit Manager at Hancock (2017) and at Augusta Transitional Center (2018), served as Correctional Asst. Superintendent at Hancock from 2019 through August 2024, and has held the Deputy Warden of Security post at Hancock since September 1, 2024. The positions records also list a Correctional Asst. Supt entry at Augusta dated Nov. 22, 2023, a Deputy Warden posting at Augusta Transitional Center in 2025, and a one-day Deputy Warden entry at Hancock dated Aug. 27, 2026.

GPS attributes 28 deaths to her facility-leader tenures: 27 at Hancock State Prison and 1 at Augusta Transitional Center. No lawsuit naming her as a defendant appears in the records. Three state liability payouts recorded in the GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger are tied to Hancock State Prison incidents in her leadership years — $600,000 (2019), $437,500 (2021) and $424,710.20 (2022).

What happened on their watch

Hancock State Prison — Correctional Asst. Superintendent (2019–Aug. 2024)

Earlier records for this posting include Cesar Arnold Pastrana Morales (March 13, 2020), Xaysana Thao (Dec. 20, 2020) and Rashad Bolton (Jan. 4, 2021), the last tied to the $437,500 state payout; Bolton's parents filed a lawsuit claiming he was stabbed to death, and a $600,000 payout is tied to a 2019 Hancock incident that an AJC account describes as the death of Amanuel Selassie Geberyesus, who per that report was placed in a regular cell contrary to a counselor's advice after expressing suicidal thoughts and subsequently hung himself.

During the same posting, GPS's death registry lists:

• Dwayne Zackery died Feb. 12, 2021, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 22.
• Michael Anthony Brown died June 26, 2021, at Hancock State Prison; the cause is listed as Natural/Medical, age 54.
• Terrill Bernard Howard died Oct. 17, 2021, at Hancock State Prison; the cause is listed as Other, age 51.
• Charles Tristen Mckee died May 23, 2022, at Hancock State Prison; the cause is listed as Homicide, age 24.
• Antione Lamar Bush died June 18, 2022, at Hancock State Prison; the cause is listed as Natural/Medical, age 32.
• Terry Lee Bishop died Oct. 18, 2022, at Hancock State Prison; the cause is listed as Homicide, age 49.
• Zackery Phillip Brown died Dec. 23, 2022, at Hancock State Prison; the cause is listed as Suicide, age 39.
• Norman Jackson Samples died Dec. 27, 2022, at Hancock State Prison; the cause is listed as Homicide, age 59.
• Roland Lamont Phillips died June 28, 2023, at Hancock State Prison; the cause is listed as Homicide, age 33.
• Francisco Melgar-Saldivar died Aug. 12, 2023, at Hancock State Prison; the cause is listed as Homicide, age 26.
• Timothy Dale Hicks died Aug. 22, 2023, at Hancock State Prison; the cause is listed as Suicide, age 37.

The DOJ investigation found McKee tried to escape gang members beating and stabbing him by jumping through stair railings, and that the attack continued below; a lawsuit alleges he had been placed in a dorm with known gang members hostile to LGBTQ inmates and that staff failed to act on his repeated requests to move the day before he died. Cleveland Gary was convicted in 2025 of killing McKee after a fight had ended, per the AJC. The AJC also reports a claim filed against the state alleging Melgar-Saldivar was not given appropriate medical care after being attacked, and that a murder warrant was served against Phillips's cellmate.

Hancock State Prison — Deputy Warden of Security (Sept. 1, 2024– )

• Ralph Thompson died Oct. 8, 2024, at Hancock State Prison; the cause is listed as Unknown/Pending, age 53.
• Travon Montrell Walthour died Oct. 13, 2024, at Hancock State Prison; the cause is listed as Homicide, age 29.
• William Holeman died Jan. 30, 2025, at Hancock State Prison; the cause is listed as Homicide.
• Prince Porter died Jan. 30, 2025, at Hancock State Prison; the cause is listed as Homicide.
• John T Childree died April 9, 2025, at Hancock State Prison; the cause is listed as Unknown/Pending, age 60.
• Corey Jose July died June 17, 2025, at Hancock State Prison; the cause is listed as Homicide, age 33.
• Brian Smith died July 24, 2025, at Hancock State Prison; the cause is listed as Unknown/Pending, age 30.
• Andre Rashad Weems died Sept. 9, 2025, at Hancock State Prison; the cause is listed as Homicide, age 36.
• Steven Monroe Wood died Jan. 25, 2026, at Hancock State Prison; the cause is listed as Homicide, age 54.
• Jaylin Bell died Feb. 6, 2026, at Hancock State Prison; the cause is listed as Homicide, age 32.
• Jerrod Johnson died Feb. 18, 2026, at Hancock State Prison; the cause is listed as Homicide, age 27.
• Jacorey Derrelle Pearson died April 7, 2026, at Hancock State Prison; the cause is listed as Homicide, age 36.
• Albert Chapa died July 30, 2026, at Hancock State Prison; the cause is listed as Unknown/Pending, age 57.

Holeman and Porter were found dead in the same dorm about 15–20 feet apart after gang-related violence, per the AJC, which reported Porter had a single puncture wound and Holeman no marks; GDC incident report data cited in the records state four other prisoners were involved in Walthour's death. Vershaun Smith was convicted of malice murder and sentenced to life without parole for stabbing July in the prison yard. GDC Office of Professional Standards investigations are recorded as open into the deaths of Wood, Bell and Pearson; Bell died after an altercation with his roommate. AJC reporting during this tenure found Hancock's officer vacancy rate at 73.5% as of October 2024 — 49 officers for more than 1,100 prisoners — and consultants found emergency-level vacancies at 20 of Georgia's 34 prisons; the 2024 DOJ report described violence, sexual assaults and gang-run prisons "fueled by a culture of indifference." Incidents logged at Hancock under this role include a January 2026 stabbing of five inmates with two airlifted, an April 2026 report of an untreated mentally ill person stabbing a sleeping person, a tactical operation involving roughly 100 officers, reported IRT use of force, and monitored communications describing a violent conflict between Muslim incarcerated individuals and a gang.

Augusta Transitional Center — Deputy Warden (2025)

• James Nicolas Waugh died July 5, 2026, at Augusta Transitional Center; the cause is listed as Unknown/Pending, age 30. GPS's registry records her role at the time as Deputy Warden there.

Earlier Augusta postings — Unit Manager (2018) and a one-day Correctional Asst. Supt entry dated Nov. 22, 2023 — are recorded as those roles and dates.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Hancock State Prison homicides, gang-violence coverage, DOJ findings, staffing vacancy figures, and claims tied to the deaths of Charles "Tristen" McKee and Francisco Melgar-Saldivar
• 41NBC — reporting on the death of Jaylin Bell and the Corey July murder
• WGXA — reporting on Vershaun Smith's malice-murder conviction for Corey July's killing, citing the Oculmulgee District Attorney's Office
• GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger (Open Records) — $600,000 (2019), $437,500 (2021) and $424,710.20 (2022) Hancock State Prison payouts
• U.S. Department of Justice — 2024 findings on violence, sexual assault and gang-run conditions in Georgia prisons
• GDC Office of Professional Standards — open investigations into the deaths of Steven Wood, Jaylin Bell and Jacorey Pearson
• GDC incident report data and GPS case submissions / monitored communications — Hancock State Prison intelligence reports during her Deputy Warden of Security tenure

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.