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Pineiro, Aaron Thomas
Status: active
Profile written September 13, 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
Aaron Thomas Pineiro entered the Georgia Department of Corrections in 2007 as a correctional officer at Valdosta State Prison, returned there in 2015 as a behavioral-health counselor, and became a counselor supervisor at Georgia State Prison in 2016. He was promoted to deputy warden at Georgia State Prison for 2017–2018, then held the same rank at Valdosta from 2019 through 2021. GPS position records place him as Warden 1 at Coastal State Prison in 2022 and Warden 2 there in 2023, with an overlapping Warden posting at Coastal and a Warden 2 entry at Phillips State Prison both dated Jan. 1–June 15, 2024. From June 16, 2024, his records carry a Warden posting at Phillips State Prison forward.
Per GPS records, 85 deaths are attributed to his facility-leadership tenures: 40 at Coastal State Prison, 33 at Phillips State Prison, and 12 at Valdosta State Prison during his deputy-warden years. Those are the authoritative totals; the decedents named below come from a capped, most-recent sample and are illustrative, not exhaustive. Court records list him as a defendant in nine federal lawsuits filed between 2017 and 2026; GPS records show no settlement amount or judgment in any of them.
What happened on their watch
Valdosta State Prison — Deputy Warden (2019–2021): 12 deaths attributed. The sampled rows include three homicides documented by the AJC's Georgia prison homicides investigation: Prince Blige (Feb. 12, 2020, stab wound to the torso), Orvonta Casmir Tillman (June 16, 2020, multiple sharp-force penetrating trauma to the thorax), and Bobby Lane Carpenter (Sept. 9, 2020, stab wound to the chest). Five sampled deaths carry "suicide" classifications that are GDC's own coding — obtained by the UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project through an open records request covering 2015–2021 — and not autopsy findings; the rest are GDC-coded natural deaths. GPS holds no deaths attributed to his 2017–2018 deputy-warden tenure at Georgia State Prison.
Coastal State Prison — Warden (2022 – June 15, 2024): 40 deaths attributed. The sample names decedents ranging in age from 25 to 85, including Ryan Chase Archer (25, Dec. 13, 2023) and Roy Winnen Bridges (85, Aug. 8, 2022). Only one carries an attributed cause: Salomon Andres Ramirez, 43, per the AJC investigation an apparent homicide in October 2023. The remainder carry no published cause in GPS records — a gap GPS's intel file ties to GDC's practice of not releasing cause of death. Reporting that postdates his tenure documents facility-level conditions at Coastal: WTOC's February 2026 account in which workers and inmates alleged a "human rights crisis," including 7-to-10-day lockdowns without showers, and DOJ criticism of Georgia prisons including Coastal for overuse of lockdowns; and a Georgia Department of Public Health inspection on April 23, 2026 that issued a grade of 70 citing live roaches, mold and a dead mouse. Those records fall after his transfer to Phillips.
Phillips State Prison — Warden (June 16, 2024 – present): 33 deaths attributed. The sampled rows skew toward homicide and self-inflicted death. Homicide certifications include David E. Fambro (69, July 24, 2024), Timothy Hurley (19, Sept. 8, 2024), Brandon Lashaun Mincey (37, Oct. 11, 2024), Corey Madison Cochran (29, Dec. 18, 2024), Jody Stokes (strangulation, Jan. 13, 2025), and Alonzo Carter Jr. (78, died Sept. 20, 2025, of blunt-force head trauma from a May 12, 2025 assault at Phillips). In Carter's case the Gwinnett County Medical Examiner certified homicide without having received the custodial medical record, per the amended report. Suicides appear at least three times (Nile Baptiste Young, Oct. 7, 2024; Christopher Blake Hines, Mar. 24, 2025; Terry Nichols, Oct. 14, 2025), and accidents twice (Kendrick Keon Scales, Aug. 27, 2025; Justin Curtis Kinsey, fall trauma, Nov. 8, 2025). Leroy Brooks' Dec. 2024 death is recorded as undetermined: the ME declined jurisdiction, no autopsy was performed, the death certificate was to be signed as natural by the prison physician, and the family contests that finding, his daughter telling the ME "it can't be natural causes." The AJC has also reported allegations tied to Phillips that officers arranged for an inmate identified as McBride to be brought to the lockdown unit on the day he was killed, and that Dave Stone was assaulted in a mental-health ward with pipes wrapped in cloth.
Litigation
Cases in which GPS court records list Pineiro as a defendant:
- Young v. Smith, 6:17-cv-00131 (S.D. Ga.), filed Oct. 2, 2017 — terminated Mar. 16, 2021.
- Mosley v. Caraviello, 6:19-cv-00100 (S.D. Ga.), filed Nov. 4, 2019 — terminated May 6, 2021.
- Daker v. Ward, 7:20-cv-00113 (M.D. Ga.), filed June 11, 2020 — terminated Nov. 3, 2021.
- Brewer v. Chambers, 4:22-cv-00264 (S.D. Ga.), filed Nov. 9, 2022 — terminated July 25, 2024.
- Browner v. Brown, 4:23-cv-00167 (S.D. Ga.), filed June 21, 2023 — pending.
- Doe v. Georgia Department of Corrections, 1:23-cv-05578 (N.D. Ga.), filed Dec. 6, 2023 — pending.
- Patrick v. Moore, 4:24-cv-00242 (S.D. Ga.), filed Oct. 24, 2024 — pending.
- Daker v. Oliver Filing Restriction Per 59 Order, 1:25-cv-03191 (N.D. Ga.), filed June 6, 2025 — terminated Mar. 30, 2026.
- Mckenzie v. Oliver, 4:26-cv-00108 (N.D. Ga.), filed Apr. 28, 2026 — pending.
Sources
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Georgia prison homicides investigation (Blige, Tillman, Carpenter, Ramirez); Valdosta corruption and 80%-vacancy reporting; Operation Skyhawk contraband arrests; report on GDC destruction of video in the Hakeem Williams stabbing; Phillips-tagged homicide allegations (McBride, Stone)
- CourtListener federal dockets — nine cases, N.D. Ga., S.D. Ga., M.D. Ga. (2017–2026)
- Gwinnett County Medical Examiner records obtained via open records requests — Phillips State Prison in-custody deaths, including cases 24G-2185 (Brooks), 24G-2245 (Scott), 24G-1293 (Sheffield), 25G-0099 (Stokes), 25G-1850 (Carter), 26G-0270 (Burge)
- UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project custodial mortality dataset (GA-Individual.csv) — GDC's own cause coding for 2015–2021 Valdosta deaths
- GDC mortality report, January 2025 (official release)
- WTOC — Coastal State Prison "human rights crisis" report; Valdosta in-custody death coverage
- WALB — Valdosta stabbing and family-notification reporting; Coastal balcony-fall coverage
- WRDW — GDC statement on viral flooded-cell video, Valdosta
- The Georgia Virtue — Georgia State Prison segregation and mental-health allegations
- GBI Division of Forensic Sciences open records responses (2026) on incomplete testing
- Facebook public posts — witness claims regarding Coastal State Prison (2026)
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| WARDEN 2 | PHILLIPS STATE PRISON | 2024-01-01 → present |
| Warden | PHILLIPS STATE PRISON | 2024-06-16 → present |
| Warden | COASTAL STATE PRISON | 2024-01-01 → 2024-06-15 |
| WARDEN 2 | COASTAL STATE PRISON | 2023-01-01 → 2023-12-31 |
| WARDEN 1 | COASTAL STATE PRISON | 2022-01-01 → 2022-12-31 |
| DEPUTY WARDEN | VALDOSTA STATE PRISON | 2019-01-01 → 2021-12-31 |
| DEPUTY WARDEN | GEORGIA STATE PRISON | 2017-01-01 → 2018-12-31 |
| BEHAVIORAL HLTH COUNSELOR SPV | GEORGIA STATE PRISON | 2016-01-01 → 2016-12-31 |
| BEH HEALTH/COUNSELOR (WL) | VALDOSTA STATE PRISON | 2015-01-01 → 2015-12-31 |
| Correctional Officer | VALDOSTA STATE PRISON | 2007-01-01 → 2007-12-31 |
Lawsuits as defendant
| Case # | Court | Filed | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4:26-cv-00108 | GAND | 2026-04-28 | pending |
| 1:25-cv-03191 | GAND | 2025-06-06 | terminated |
| 4:24-cv-00242 | GASD | 2024-10-24 | pending |
| 1:23-cv-05578 | GAND | 2023-12-06 | pending |
| 4:23-cv-00167 | GASD | 2023-06-21 | pending |
| 4:22-cv-00264 | GASD | 2022-11-09 | terminated |
| 7:20-cv-00113 | GAMD | 2020-06-11 | terminated |
| 6:19-cv-00100 | GASD | 2019-11-04 | terminated |
| 6:17-cv-00131 | GASD | 2017-10-02 | terminated |
Deaths attributed during tenure
85 people died at facilities under Pineiro, Aaron Thomas's leadership.
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