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Messer, ADA Y
Status: active
Profile written August 30, 2026
This profile reflects positional accountability — this individual held the leadership roles shown during the dates shown, during which the listed deaths or lawsuits occurred. Inclusion does not constitute a legal finding of personal culpability for any specific incident.
Tenure Summary
Ada Y. Messer appears in GDC records as a purchase and procurement specialist from 2015 through 2017, then as deputy warden at Johnson State Prison from 2018 through 2025. Annual salary records show pay rising from $47,753.94 in 2018 to $70,923.05 in 2025. GPS records attribute 88 deaths to Messer’s facility-leader tenure, all at Johnson State Prison. The record also includes a pending federal lawsuit naming Messer as a defendant — Wade v. Morgan — and state liability payouts tied to Johnson deaths, including $1,449,640 for Jerry Brown and $4,000,000 for the estate of David Lamar Henegar.What happened on their watch
At Johnson State Prison, where Messer held the deputy warden role, GPS records attribute 88 deaths. The provided death-by-death sample runs from 2020 into 2026 and lists decedents ranging in age from 23 to 91. Several deaths are documented as homicides. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Georgia Prison Homicides Investigation, Jerry Lee Brown, 61, died Nov. 12, 2020, from stab wounds to the head and blunt force injury to the face; David Lamar Henegar, 44, died Oct. 16, 2021, from manual strangulation and blunt force trauma to the head; Michael Page, 53, died June 29, 2023, in a death ruled a homicide; Donald Prescott Lee, 41, died Nov. 16, 2023, from blunt force trauma to the head, neck and torso; and Kenneth Adam Robinson, 50, died Aug. 10, 2024, with incident report data showing a homicide. Court and AJC records around Henegar’s death allege officers failed to intervene despite neighboring prisoners screaming for help during a five-hour beating, and that Henegar was housed with a mentally ill cellmate who had previously attacked him. GPS records state the cellmate was charged with murder.Other sampled records show a reliance on GDC’s own cause coding for 2020–2021 deaths, obtained by the UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project; that coding lists deaths as natural, suicide, or undetermined. A whistleblower account from former GDC CERT commander Tyler Ryals, preserved in GPS intel records, alleges that around spring 2024 Johnson ran with four staff for roughly 1,400 incarcerated people, and that a taser use-of-force went unreported because the sergeant did not know how to file the report. Facility records also document a December 2023 food safety inspection failure with a score of 64/100, citing rats, roaches, broken kitchen equipment, and contaminated trays. The sample also includes 2026 death rows listing the Johnson deputy warden role, including Ernest Perez, whose June 2026 death GDC later confirmed, and Michael Elias Peschel, whose GPS record describes 20 stab wounds by his cellmate.
Litigation
- Wade v. Morgan, No. 3:23-cv-00073 (S.D. Ga.), filed Aug. 31, 2023, status pending; GPS records list Messer as a defendant.
- GPS records show a $4,000,000 state liability payout to Betty Wade for the Estate of David Lamar Henegar, tied to the 2021 Johnson death; a settlement event record says it was finalized by end of March 2026.
- GPS records show a $1,449,640 state liability payout tied to Jerry Brown’s 2020 death at Johnson State Prison.
Sources
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Georgia Prison Homicides Investigation; settlement coverage of the Henegar case
- GPS records — personnel, mortality, intel reports, and settlement event data
- GDC monthly mortality reports — June 2026 and CY2024 confirmations/corrections
- UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project custodial mortality dataset — GDC cause coding for 2015–2021
- GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger — state liability payouts
- Tyler C. Ryals YouTube channel — former GDC CERT commander’s staffing/use-of-force account
- CourtListener docket — Wade v. Morgan, No. 3:23-cv-00073 (S.D. Ga.)
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| DEPUTY WARDEN | JOHNSON STATE PRISON | 2018-01-01 → present |
| Deputy Warden | JOHNSON STATE PRISON | 2023-11-22 → 2023-11-22 |
| PURCHASE/PROCUREMENT AGENT 2 | 2016-01-01 → 2017-12-31 | |
| PURCH & PROC SPEC (AL) | 2015-01-01 → 2015-12-31 |
Lawsuits as defendant
| Case # | Court | Filed | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3:23-cv-00073 | GASD | 2023-08-31 | pending |
Deaths attributed during tenure
88 people died at facilities under Messer, ADA Y's leadership.
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