Nicholson, Nequeva

Tenure Summary

Nequeva Nicholson entered the Georgia Department of Corrections in 2015 as a correctional officer at Macon State Prison, where personnel records show her serving as a sergeant in 2018 and 2019. She held the rank of Correctional Lieutenant from 2020 through 2022 (no facility is recorded for those years), then moved to Dooly State Prison as a lieutenant in 2023 and as Correctional Captain from November 22, 2023, through 2024. In January 2025 she moved into facility leadership: records list a Deputy Warden title dated January 1–15, 2025, followed by Deputy Warden of Administration at Dooly from January 16, 2025 — the post she held on the date of every death the registry attributes to her tenure.

The GPS death registry attributes 12 deaths to her leadership tenure, all of them at Dooly State Prison. Three are recorded as overdoses, two as homicides, one as natural/medical, and six as unknown/pending. No lawsuit naming her as a defendant appears in the records reviewed.

What happened on their watch

Macon State Prison — Correctional Officer (2015), CSM Correctional Officer 1 (2016), Officer 2 (2017), Sergeant (2018–2019). Staff-rank positions only; her salary rose from $29,065.61 in 2016 to $55,145.60 as a sergeant in 2018.

Correctional Lieutenant (2020, 2021, 2022). Unit-supervisor rank; no facility is recorded for these years.

Dooly State Prison — Correctional Lieutenant (2023); Correctional Captain (November 22, 2023; 2024). Records show only the ranks and dates; salary was $101,008.28 as captain in 2024.

Dooly State Prison — Deputy Warden / Deputy Warden of Administration (January 2025 onward). Twelve deaths are attributed to this tenure. Registry entries, in order:

• Horatio Philmore died February 2, 2025, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as homicide, age 58. An event record notes the death was officially classified a suicide while inmate reports indicated strangulation.
• Timothy Glenn Williams died April 17, 2025, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as overdose, age 56.
• Orlando Perez Glass died August 17, 2025, at Dooly State Prison; cause listed as unknown/pending, age 49.
• Marshall Davis Crews died September 19, 2025, at Dooly State Prison; cause listed as unknown/pending, age 69.
• Willie Mote died October 14, 2025, at Dooly State Prison; cause listed as unknown/pending, age 70.
• Paul Counts died October 30, 2025, at Dooly State Prison; cause listed as unknown/pending, age 60.
• Darrow Brown died November 7, 2025, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as homicide, age 58.
• Dexter Andres Levy died November 16, 2025, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as overdose, age 32.
• Samuel Jacob Blackmon died January 19, 2026, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as overdose, age 40.
• Martez Desmond Terry died April 29, 2026, at Dooly State Prison; the registry lists the cause as natural/medical, age 42.
• Jerry Mccaster died August 11, 2026, at Dooly State Prison; cause listed as unknown/pending, age 60.
• Jerry Jerome Smith died August 21, 2026, at Dooly State Prison; cause listed as unknown/pending, age 61.

Violence reports recorded during this posting include a March 23–24, 2026 gang-related dormitory fight in which five incarcerated people were injured and taken to an outside medical facility, and an April 1, 2026 altercation in which six were hospitalized and three airlifted — both described by the Georgia Department of Corrections as gang-related. On May 22, 2026, nine incarcerated people were injured in a gang-related fight at Dooly and all GDC facilities were placed on lockdown, with visitation cancelled at Dooly and three other prisons for the Memorial Day weekend. Between March and July 2026, submissions to GPS described repeated stabbings, lockdowns and hospital transports, including one account of an incarcerated person using a nurse as a shield during a stabbing at pill call.

Conditions reporting tied to her administrative role includes a January 31, 2026 record stating Dooly held 1,593 people in a facility designed for 500 with roughly 50% statewide officer vacancy; a November 25, 2025 investigation describing housing units without officer supervision for hours or entire shifts; and an October 10, 2026 inmate report alleging a roughly 17-hour gap between the evening meal and breakfast, contrary to the department's own food-service policy.

Other Dooly matters in the records: a former GDC cadet, Julius Deshawn Williams Jr., pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute after 640 grams of methamphetamine were found on him at the prison; incarcerated person Abraham Rivas was charged in a phone fraud scheme and allegedly claimed staff were aware of such schemes; Deputy Warden Charles Hudson was bitten by an incarcerated person in December 2025; Mark Agbaosi was appointed warden in February 2025; and an April 2025 submission described an incarcerated person beaten by officers after requesting protection. AJC reporting cited in the records includes a coroner's allegation that Carlos Omar Soldiew-Acosta may have been dead more than 24 hours before his body was found, and a medical-malpractice allegation that James Yarbrough died of ketoacidosis after months of uncontrolled diabetes at Dooly.

Sources

• GPS death registry and case submissions (gps.press intelligence records) — decedent names, dates, causes, facility
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Dooly homicide and medical-malpractice reporting
• WGXA — gang-related fight coverage; Williams methamphetamine smuggling and sentencing
• 13WMAZ — May 2026 Dooly fight coverage
• WALB and Wesh.com — Rivas fraud charges and statements attributed to him
• News-journalonline.com — Rivas inmate-scam allegations
• GDC statements and U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Georgia — fight investigations, lockdowns, Williams plea
• Facebook anonymous public comment and inside reports to GPS — commissary shortage, meal-gap and staffing accounts (allegations)

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Oct 18, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.