Major, LEE

Tenure Summary

Lee Major’s recorded GDC career begins in 2010 as a correctional officer at Burruss Correctional Training Center and includes tactical squad duty at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison, sergeant and lieutenant posts at Metro Reentry Facility, lieutenant/captain/unit manager posts at the Special Management Unit, and deputy warden roles at Dooly State Prison. GPS records attribute 10 deaths to facility-leader tenures held by Major, all at Dooly State Prison, where Major is listed as Deputy Warden of Security from January 16, 2025 through August 15, 2026. The ten death records at Dooly are dated between February 2, 2025 and April 29, 2026. Two lawsuits naming Lee as a defendant appear in GPS litigation records; both are terminated with no payout recorded.

What happened on their watch

Dooly State Prison — Deputy Warden of Security (2025–2026)

GPS records attribute ten deaths at Dooly State Prison to this tenure: Horatio Philmore, 58 (Feb. 2, 2025); Timothy Glenn Williams, 56 (Apr. 17, 2025); Orlando Perez Glass, 49 (Aug. 17, 2025); Marshall Davis Crews, 69 (Sep. 19, 2025); Willie Mote, 70 (Oct. 14, 2025); Paul Counts, 60 (Oct. 30, 2025); Darrow Brown, 58 (Nov. 7, 2025); Dexter Andres Levy, 32 (Nov. 16, 2025); Samuel Jacob Blackmon, 40 (Jan. 19, 2026); and Martez Desmond Terry, 42 (Apr. 29, 2026). The records carry numeric cause-category codes — six as category 6, two as category 5, and two as category 3 — without text cause labels for most entries.

Record notes flag source uncertainty. Timothy Williams’s entry was reclassified from Official (GDC) to Prisoner Report and includes “Natural/Drug OD.” Horatio Philmore’s entry carries “Homocide” and was also reclassified from GDC to prisoner report. A user report for Darrow Brown alleges he was killed on the walk while being escorted by an officer, by a member of the Crips gang, and describes him as a civilian, not gang-affiliated.

GPS records describe Dooly operating at 212% of original design capacity — 1,593 people in a facility designed for 750 — and a 50% statewide correctional officer vacancy rate during this period. The intel archive contains Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporting that a coroner alleged Carlos Omar Soldiew-Acosta may have been dead more than 24 hours before his body was found at Dooly; AJC also reported a medical malpractice allegation in the death of James Yarbrough from ketoacidosis. Georgia Public Broadcasting reported that Cody Bailey alleged medical staff put his father’s treatment “on the back burner,” contributing to a death from sepsis.

During the same tenure, WGXA and 13WMAZ reported gang-related fights at Dooly — March 23 with five inmates injured, April 1 with six injured and three airlifted, and May 22 with nine injured — after which, according to GPS event records, GDC placed all facilities on lockdown and canceled visitation at four prisons for Memorial Day weekend. Unattributed Telegram-relayed reports in the GPS log describe stabbings in F2, G2, and D building in April 2026; these are logged as allegations without official confirmation. WGXA and other outlets also reported allegations that cadet Julius Deshawn Williams Jr. attempted to smuggle 640 grams of methamphetamine into Dooly; related GPS events note a guilty plea and a 10-year sentence plus five years supervised release. Wesh.com, WALB, and News-journalonline.com reported claims by inmate Abraham Rivas that staff were aware of phone-fraud schemes and that he used proceeds to buy marijuana inside Dooly.

Earlier postings — Burruss CTC, Georgia Diagnostic, Metro Reentry, and Special Management Unit

No leadership-tier deaths are attributed to Major’s earlier postings in GPS records. Major held correctional officer, tactical squad, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, and unit manager titles across those facilities. The GPS intelligence archive contains AJC allegations tied to GDCP and the Special Management Unit — including contraband cellphones at GDCP, falsified SMU review forms, a deceased inmate recorded attending activities after death, and the Arthur Lee Cofield Jr. financial-crime case — but the records do not link Major individually to any of those allegations.

Litigation

• Dorsey v. Lee, No. 5:21-cv-00435 (M.D. Ga.), filed December 7, 2021; terminated November 7, 2024; no outcome amount recorded.
• Mccarthian v. Melton, No. 1:11-cv-02654 (N.D. Ga.), filed August 10, 2011; terminated September 10, 2014; no outcome amount recorded.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — AJC investigations covering Dooly death allegations, SMU records, GDCP contraband, and federal-investigator-related reporting.
• WGXA — reporting on Dooly methamphetamine smuggling and gang-related fights.
• 13WMAZ — reporting on Dooly gang-related fight.
• Wesh.com — Abraham Rivas fraud allegations at Dooly.
• News-journalonline.com — Rivas claim that correctional staff knew of inmate scams.
• WALB — Rivas fraud and marijuana-purchase claims.
• Georgia Public Broadcasting — Cody Bailey sepsis allegation at Dooly.
• CourtListener — dockets for Dorsey v. Lee and Mccarthian v. Melton.
• Georgia Prisoners’ Speak personnel and death records — tenure, attributed deaths, and intel logs.

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Aug 23, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.