McFarlane, Andrew M

Tenure Summary

Andrew M. McFarlane's GDC payroll record begins in 2015 in correction administration, then moves through Rogers State Prison — correctional unit manager in 2016, deputy warden in 2017–2018 — before a four-year stretch as deputy warden at Smith State Prison from 2019 through 2022. After a deputy warden posting in the first half of 2023 (no facility listed in the records), he became Warden at Telfair State Prison on July 1, 2023, and appears in later years as "Warden 3" at the same facility, with 2024 pay of $107,804.08.

GPS's death registry attributes 53 deaths to his leadership tenures: 36 at Telfair State Prison and 17 at Smith State Prison. The single largest liability item tied to his watch is a $3,249,873 state payout recorded to the family/estate of Juan Carlos Ramirez Bibiano over a 2023 Telfair death. Court records also list him as a defendant in six civil cases, none with a recorded outcome amount.

What happened on their watch

Rogers State Prison — unit manager (2016), deputy warden (2017–2018). No deaths are attributed to these postings in the registry. The DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger records one $75 liability payout tied to Rogers for a 2017 incident, listed to Carl Garrett.

Smith State Prison — deputy warden (2019–2022). Seventeen deaths are attributed to this posting, running from February 2020 through October 2022. The AJC-reported circumstances that accompany several of them describe a facility where prisoners were killed in their cells and dormitories: Nathan Michael Mahan died October 23, 2022, of stab wounds; Christopher Michael Redwine died September 27, 2021, of asphyxia due to manual strangulation; Christopher Ray Reynolds died July 1, 2021, of blunt and sharp force injuries to the head and neck; Derrick Dionte Deshun Harvey died June 25, 2021, of a stab wound to the chest; Hiwatha Abdulcah Hakeem Jr. died April 12, 2021, of multiple stab wounds; Desmond Hill died April 9, 2021, of strangulation; Justin Nathaniel Wilkerson died January 5, 2021, of asphyxia due to neck compression; John Bretleir Reyes Cardona died April 20, 2020, of exsanguination from a stab wound to the neck; Taylor Harrison Brooks died April 10, 2020, of multiple stab wounds.

Joseph Franklin Norris died February 12, 2020, at Smith State Prison. John Brently Reyes died April 20, 2020, at Smith State Prison. Michael Lee Canty died March 20, 2021, at Smith State Prison. Roderick A Golden died August 17, 2020, at Smith State Prison. Christopher Darnell Heath died December 11, 2020, at Smith State Prison. Jerome Tisdol died May 28, 2022, at Smith State Prison. Michael Lewis Turner died May 14, 2022, at Smith State Prison. Manuel Villagomez died September 16, 2022, at Smith State Prison. Juan Miguel Orduna died October 25, 2022, at Smith State Prison.

Allegations attached to those years: an incident report on Hakeem's death shows four other prisoners involved, and a lawsuit alleges the attackers had a history of violence and that prison officials failed to provide timely medical care. A family member of Desmond Hill reported he had called his mother the day before his death saying his cellmate threatened to kill him. Wilkerson's mother testified at a Georgia Legislature hearing about his mental health diagnoses and prior prison attacks. Statewide reporting in this period describes at least 90 people slain in Georgia prisons between 2020 and the end of 2022 (three times the prior three-year figure), at least 49 overdose deaths from 2019–2022, and at least 43 suicides in 2022; overtime spending rose past $4 million as staff fell by about a third. The DOAS ledger records a $1,450,000 payout tied to Smith (2020, Christopher Heath) and $3,472 (2022, Micki Antonio Brown). Separately, the family of Bobby C. Kicklighter — the 88-year-old shot in Glennville in 2021 in what investigators described as a mistaken-identity hit allegedly ordered from inside Smith — filed a wrongful death suit alleging former warden Brian Adams and former officer Ireon Moore facilitated a criminal enterprise; McFarlane is not named in that allegation.

Telfair State Prison — Warden from July 1, 2023. Thirty-six deaths are attributed to this tenure, July 2023 through July 2026, the majority homicides and a cluster of overdoses:

Kwame Conte Mccombs died July 25, 2026, at Telfair State Prison (cause Unknown/Pending, age 37). Antwane Shanfiel Robinson died July 13, 2026, at Telfair State Prison (Unknown/Pending, age 46). Franciso Samuel Cruz-Castro died June 12, 2026, at Telfair State Prison (Unknown/Pending, age 56). Timothy Wilson died June 7, 2026, at Telfair State Prison (Unknown/Pending, age 48). Tavares Zavoyd Atwell died March 10, 2026, at Telfair State Prison (Unknown/Pending, age 41). Eric Bernard Haynes died January 21, 2026, at Telfair State Prison (Natural/Medical, age 51). Kenneth George Hinton died January 2, 2026, at Telfair State Prison (Unknown/Pending, age 41). Elvis Noe Garcia-Nelasco died December 29, 2025, at Telfair State Prison (Unknown/Pending, age 38). Preston C Phelps died December 13, 2025, at Telfair State Prison (Homicide, age 28). Robert Baker died October 12, 2025, at Telfair State Prison (Suicide, age 45). Gary Chad Thomason died September 14, 2025, at Telfair State Prison (Unknown/Pending, age 53). Robert Wayne Messer died September 11, 2025, at Telfair State Prison (Overdose, age 63). Henry L Gadson died September 10, 2025, at Telfair State Prison (Unknown/Pending, age 60). David Lane Campbell died July 22, 2025, at Telfair State Prison (Overdose, age 44). Malindzo Eddy Hatcher died July 21, 2025, at Telfair State Prison (Homicide, age 42). Thaddeus Jovell Perry died July 17, 2025, at Telfair State Prison (Unknown/Pending, age 50). Tony Morales Adame died June 26, 2025, at Telfair State Prison (Overdose, age 32). Lester James Smith died June 2, 2025, at Telfair State Prison (Homicide, age 45). William Clinton Worley died April 12, 2025, at Telfair State Prison (Unknown/Pending, age 49). Ezra Dangelo Ford died March 25, 2025, at Telfair State Prison (Homicide, age 21). Deandre Moody died January 28, 2025, at Telfair State Prison (Homicide). Guillermo Nava died December 27, 2024, at Telfair State Prison (Unknown/Pending, age 33). Aaron Joshua Smith died December 19, 2024, at Telfair State Prison (Homicide, age 32). Eric Leigh Whitehead died September 18, 2024, at Telfair State Prison (Homicide, age 29). Henry Earl Crump died September 2, 2024, at Telfair State Prison (Homicide, age 41). Marc Avon Jr Lefevre died August 29, 2024, at Telfair State Prison. Anthony James Mulder died July 7, 2024, at Telfair State Prison. Zoumana Madiou Sarre died July 5, 2024, at Telfair State Prison. Jerome Foster died July 3, 2024, at Telfair State Prison. Lamar Jarmaine Wilson died June 1, 2024, at Telfair State Prison. Tochi Andre Leak died March 9, 2024, at Telfair State Prison. Joey Lebron Kilgore died February 29, 2024, at Telfair State Prison (Homicide, age 45). Kwesi Jamal Stultz died December 22, 2023, at Telfair State Prison. Bobby Murray died December 21, 2023, at Telfair State Prison. Walter Rakim Jordan died August 30, 2023, at Telfair State Prison. Juan Carlos Ramirez died July 20, 2023, at Telfair State Prison (Unknown/Pending, age 27) — the death the DOAS ledger records as the Family/Estate of Juan Carlos Ramirez Bibiano payout of $3,249,873; 13WMAZ reported he was left roughly five hours in a fenced outdoor cage without shade at a heat index near 105°F and reached the hospital with a body temperature of 107°F, and that an officer allegedly responded "if he dies, he dies" when he pleaded for help.

Reporting and intel files from the Telfair years describe chronic understaffing and repeated violence. The AJC reported in March 2024 that Telfair was missing 76% of its essential workforce — 36 officers for 1,400 prisoners — and in May 2025 that 79% of correctional officer positions were unfilled, 32 officers against a requirement of at least 153; the same month a warden at the facility was stabbed by an inmate during a contraband shakedown, per the AJC. A January 2025 AJC report on the homicide list describes a claim filed against the state alleging De'ahmoz Oshmic Floyd had renounced gang affiliation, making him a target of earlier attacks, and was stabbed by several prisoners at a time when no staff were present in the dorm. In January 2026 the AJC reported Sgt. Desiree Briley helped prisoner James Dylon NeSmith smuggle meth into Telfair and distribute it for at least two years, in reporting tied to the federal Operation Ghost Busted prosecution of a Ghost Face Gangsters drug network. GPS case submissions from inside the facility include accounts of a large dorm fight dispersed with chemical agents (2026), a stabbing of one prisoner by a group in a dorm with a deputy warden reviewing footage (2026), reported deaths in restrictive housing with visitation cancelled (2026), and a September 2026 gang-related fight contained to one dorm that injured three prisoners treated at local hospitals and returned to the facility — after which GDC placed all facilities under lockdown, per GDC. The GBI also traced an August 2025 bomb threat against an Atkinson County school to Telfair prisoner Kendall Alfonzo Stevens, who was charged by allegation.

Litigation

• Hall v. Mcfarlane, No. 3:23-cv-00094 (GASD), filed November 29, 2023, terminated March 4, 2024. No outcome amount recorded.
• Bibiano v. Garrett, No. 3:25-cv-00013 (GASD), filed February 13, 2025, pending.
• Daker v. Oliver (filing restriction per 59 order), No. 1:25-cv-03191 (GAND), filed June 6, 2025, terminated March 30, 2026.
• Daker v. Ward, No. 7:20-cv-00113 (GAMD), filed June 11, 2020, terminated November 3, 2021.
• Timmons v. Georgia Department of Corrections, No. 6:17-cv-00116 (GASD), filed September 6, 2017, terminated March 25, 2021.
• Jackson v. Catanzariti, No. 6:12-cv-00113 (GASD), filed December 10, 2012, terminated June 28, 2023.

Sources

• GPS death registry — cause and date of death for each decedent named above
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Telfair staffing figures (March 2024, May 2025), the De'ahmoz Oshmic Floyd claim (January 2025), Sgt. Desiree Briley / contraband reporting (January 2026), and statewide homicide, overdose, suicide and overtime figures
• 13WMAZ — reporting on the July 2023 Telfair heat death and the $3.2 million settlement
• Georgia DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger (open records) — Heath ($1,450,000), Ramirez Bibiano ($3,249,873), Brown ($3,472), Garrett ($75)
• CourtListener dockets — the six civil cases above
• Georgia Department of Corrections / Office of Professional Standards statements — altercation deaths and lockdown notices at Telfair
• GPS inmate, family and Telegram case submissions — 2026 Telfair fight, stabbing, restrictive-housing death and lockdown accounts
• Yahoo.com — bomb-threat allegation concerning Telfair prisoner Kendall Alfonzo Stevens

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.