Major, LEE

Tenure Summary

Lee Major entered the Georgia Department of Corrections in 2010 as a correctional officer at Burruss Correctional Training Center, then moved through tactical and security-response assignments — Tactical Squad at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in 2011 and Security Management Response Team member in 2012 — before returning to Burruss as a correctional officer in 2016. Major was recorded as a sergeant at Metro Reentry Facility in 2017 and a lieutenant there in 2018, then served as lieutenant at Burruss from 2019 through 2021, as lieutenant and then captain at the Special Management Unit in 2022–2023, and as a Correctional Unit Manager at the Special Management Unit from November 2023 into January 2025.

On January 1, 2025, Major was recorded as holding two titles — Deputy Warden at Dooly State Prison and Unit Manager at the Special Management Unit — and on January 16, 2025, became Deputy Warden of Security at Dooly, the post of record from that date. The death registry attributes 13 deaths to Major's leadership tenure, all of them at Dooly State Prison, spanning February 2, 2025 to October 25, 2026. Two federal lawsuits naming Major as a defendant were terminated; neither carries a recorded payout amount in the data.

What happened on their watch

Metro Reentry Facility — Lieutenant, 2018. Major held the lieutenant's post at Metro Reentry for that year.

Burruss Correctional Training Center — Lieutenant, 2019–2021. Major held the lieutenant's post at Burruss across those three years.

Special Management Unit — Lieutenant 2022; Captain 2023; Correctional Unit Manager from November 22, 2023 through 2024, and again January 1–15, 2025. Major served in these unit-supervisor roles at the Special Management Unit; the January 2025 unit manager title ran concurrently with the Dooly deputy warden title.

Dooly State Prison — Deputy Warden from January 1, 2025; Deputy Warden of Security from January 16, 2025. All 13 deaths attributed to Major's leadership tenure occurred here. Per the death registry:

• Horatio Philmore died February 2, 2025, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide.
• Timothy Glenn Williams died April 17, 2025, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Overdose.
• Orlando Perez Glass died August 17, 2025, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending.
• Marshall Davis Crews died September 19, 2025, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending.
• Willie Mote died October 14, 2025, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending.
• Paul Counts died October 30, 2025, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending.
• Darrow Brown died November 7, 2025, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide (a separate GPS event record describes Brown as stabbed to death).
• Dexter Andres Levy died November 16, 2025, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Overdose.
• Samuel Jacob Blackmon died January 19, 2026, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Overdose.
• Martez Desmond Terry died April 29, 2026, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical.
• Jerry Mccaster died August 11, 2026, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending.
• Jerry Jerome Smith died August 21, 2026, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending.
• Gary L. Harshaw died October 25, 2026, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending.

GPS holds no known cause for the seven Unknown/Pending entries. The event record for Philmore notes that inmate reports described strangulation while the death was officially classified as suicide; the registry now lists Homicide.

Alongside the deaths, the facility's intelligence record during Major's deputy tenure is dominated by reported violence: gang-related fights the GDC described as injuring five inmates (March 23, 2026), six inmates with three airlifted (April 1, 2026), and nine inmates (May 22, 2026), the last followed by a statewide GDC lockdown. Submissions also describe repeated stabbings through spring 2026, including one in which an incarcerated person reportedly used a nurse as a shield, and a stabbing victim (Zeary Davis) reportedly reliant on a contraband phone to summon medical help. Reports describe Dooly holding 1,593 people in a facility designed for 500 with roughly 50% officer vacancies and, in late 2025, housing units left without officer supervision for hours or entire shifts. Contraband cases include a cadet, Julius Deshawn Williams Jr., sentenced in 2026 over 640 grams of methamphetamine, and inmate Abraham Rivas, accused of running a phone fraud scheme from inside the prison while, per WALB and Wesh.com, claiming staff knew of such schemes. An inside report to GPS documented a roughly 17-hour gap between the evening and breakfast meals on October 10, 2026, against a 14-hour food-service policy standard. AJC investigations describe James Yarbrough dying of ketoacidosis after months of uncontrolled diabetes in a case alleging medical malpractice, and a coroner's allegation that Carlos Omar Soldiew-Acosta may have been dead more than 24 hours before his body was found.

Litigation

• Dorsey v. Lee, No. 5:21-cv-00435 (GAMD), filed December 7, 2021, terminated November 7, 2024; no outcome amount recorded. At filing, Major's recorded post was lieutenant at Burruss Correctional Training Center.
• Mccarthian v. Melton, No. 1:11-cv-02654 (GAND), filed August 10, 2011, terminated September 10, 2014; no outcome amount recorded. In 2011 Major's recorded post was Tactical Squad at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — homicide list and prison-system failures investigation referencing Dooly deaths and medical-malpractice allegations
• WGXA — gang-related fight coverage and meth-smuggling plea/sentencing at Dooly
• 13WMAZ — fight coverage at Dooly
• WALB, Wesh.com, News-journalonline.com — Abraham Rivas fraud case and claims about staff awareness
• CourtListener dockets — Dorsey v. Lee; Mccarthian v. Melton
• Inside report to GPS — Dooly meal-gap documentation
• GPS case submissions — stabbing, staffing-shortage, lockdown and disturbance reports at Dooly
• Facebook anonymous public comment — alleged 2025 commissary shortage at Dooly

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Nov 1, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.