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Nicholson, Nequeva
Status: active
Profile written May 31, 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
Nequeva Nicholson began her Georgia Department of Corrections career in 2015 as a correctional officer at Macon State Prison, rising through sergeant and lieutenant roles there before transferring to Dooly State Prison as a lieutenant in 2023. In 2024 she was promoted to Correctional Captain at Dooly, and by January 2025 she had assumed the facility’s Deputy Warden position, later designated Deputy Warden of Administration. During her tenure in a facility-level leadership role, GPS records attribute 10 deaths to Dooly State Prison. No lawsuits naming Nicholson as a defendant were identified. Multiple allegations of violence, contraband, severe understaffing, and medical neglect surfaced during her watch, including incidents that drew federal scrutiny of Georgia’s prison system.What happened on their watch
Dooly State Prison (Deputy Warden, Jan. 2025 – present)
Nicholson became a deputy warden at Dooly State Prison on January 1, 2025, and was titled Deputy Warden of Administration on January 16. Over the following twelve months, GPS records document 10 deaths at the facility. The first was Joshua Parrott, 45, on January 12, whose cause was categorized as a homicide by strangulation. Less than a month later, Horario Philmore, 58, died in another homicide. In April, Timothy Glenn Williams, 56, died of what a GPS note terms “Natural/Drug OD.” Six additional deaths occurred between August 2025 and January 2026: Orlando Perez Glass (49), Marshall Davis Crews (69), Willie Mote (70), Paul Counts (60), Dexter Andres Levy (32), and Samuel Jacob Blackmon (40). All six were classified under cause categories 5 or 6, with Glass, Crews, Mote, Counts, and Levy listed under category 6 and Blackmon under category 5. The death of Darrow Brown, 58, on November 7, 2025, was documented as a homicide; a user report submitted to GPS alleges he was killed by a member of the Crips gang while being escorted by an officer.Multiple accusations of systemic dysfunction and violence accompanied Nicholson’s tenure. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a coroner alleged that an inmate at Dooly had been dead more than 24 hours before his body was found. Georgia Public Broadcasting reported a family’s claim that medical staff delayed treatment for James Yarbrough, who died of ketoacidosis from uncontrolled diabetes while incarcerated there. An anonymous Facebook comment, summarized in GPS intelligence, alleged that the commissary was severely understocked for weeks and blamed “Miss Nichols”—likely Nicholson—for the shortage, claiming it effectively starved inmates.
Contraband smuggling and gang activity also marked the period. WGXA reported that a corrections officer cadet was arrested in December 2025 after being found with 640 grams of pure methamphetamine he intended to bring into Dooly. WALB and Wesh.com detailed a fraud scheme run by inmate Abraham Rivas, who impersonated a sheriff’s deputy to steal $1,000; Rivas claimed correctional staff were aware of such scams and that he used the proceeds to buy marijuana inside the prison.
The facility experienced repeated gang-related fights. GPS incident records show five inmates injured in a dormitory brawl on March 23, 2026; less than a week later, six were hurt—three airlifted—in another clash. On May 22, 2026, a gang altercation sent nine inmates to the hospital, prompting a statewide lockdown of all GDC facilities and the cancellation of Memorial Day weekend visitation at Dooly and three other prisons. Intelligence from Telegram relays and inmate reports describe other stabbings and a claim that a nurse was used as a human shield during one incident.
Underpinning these episodes was a long-standing staffing and capacity crisis. GPS event records note that Dooly held 1,593 people—212 percent of its original 750-person design capacity—while statewide correctional officer vacancy rates hovered around 50 percent. An investigation in late 2025 found that many housing units had no officer present for hours or entire shifts. A U.S. Department of Justice report released in October 2024, prior to Nicholson’s deputy warden role but describing conditions still in effect, found that assaults, stabbings, and rapes had become routine in Georgia’s understaffed prisons. All 10 deaths attributed to her leadership occurred against this backdrop.
Litigation
No lawsuits naming Nequeva Nicholson as a defendant were identified in GPS records.Sources
- GPS records — 10 deaths attributed to Dooly State Prison during deputy warden tenure
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution — coroner’s allegation of delayed discovery of a body; systemic understaffing and violence in Georgia prisons; DOJ report findings
- GPB (Georgia Public Broadcasting) — allegation of delayed medical treatment for James Yarbrough
- WGXA — officer cadet meth smuggling arrest; gang-related fights at Dooly
- WALB / Wesh.com — Abraham Rivas fraud scheme and claim that staff knew
- Facebook (anonymous comment) — commissary shortage allegation against “Miss Nichols”
- GPS intel reports — Telegram relay details on stabbings, gang fights, human-shield claim
- DOJ investigation (2024) — conditions of violence and understaffing in Georgia prisons
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| Deputy Warden of Administration | DOOLY STATE PRISON | 2025-01-16 → present |
| DEPUTY WARDEN | DOOLY STATE PRISON | 2025-01-01 → present |
| CORRECTIONAL CAPTAIN | DOOLY STATE PRISON | 2024-01-01 → 2024-12-31 |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL LIEUTENANT | DOOLY STATE PRISON | 2023-01-01 → 2023-12-31 |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL LIEUTENANT | 2020-01-01 → 2022-12-31 | |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL SERGEANT | MACON STATE PRISON | 2018-01-01 → 2019-12-31 |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 2 | MACON STATE PRISON | 2017-01-01 → 2017-12-31 |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 1 | MACON STATE PRISON | 2016-01-01 → 2016-12-31 |
| Correctional Officer | MACON STATE PRISON | 2015-01-01 → 2015-12-31 |
Deaths attributed during tenure
10 people died at facilities under Nicholson, Nequeva's leadership.
| Date | Decedent | Age | Facility | Role at time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-01-19 | SAMUEL JACOB BLACKMON | 40 | DOOLY STATE PRISON | Deputy Warden of Administration |
| 2025-11-16 | DEXTER ANDRES LEVY | 32 | DOOLY STATE PRISON | Deputy Warden of Administration |
| 2025-11-07 | DARROW BROWN | 58 | DOOLY STATE PRISON | Deputy Warden of Administration |
| 2025-10-30 | PAUL COUNTS | 60 | DOOLY STATE PRISON | Deputy Warden of Administration |
| 2025-10-14 | WILLIE MOTE | 70 | DOOLY STATE PRISON | Deputy Warden of Administration |
| 2025-09-19 | MARSHALL DAVIS CREWS | 69 | DOOLY STATE PRISON | Deputy Warden of Administration |
| 2025-08-17 | ORLANDO PEREZ GLASS | 49 | DOOLY STATE PRISON | Deputy Warden of Administration |
| 2025-04-17 | TIMOTHY GLENN WILLIAMS | 56 | DOOLY STATE PRISON | Deputy Warden of Administration |
| 2025-02-02 | Horario Philmore | 58 | DOOLY STATE PRISON | Deputy Warden of Administration |
| 2025-01-12 | Joshua Parrott | 45 | DOOLY STATE PRISON | DEPUTY WARDEN |
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