Sales, Timothy Deshaun

Tenure Summary

Timothy Deshaun Sales began his career with the Georgia Department of Corrections as a sergeant at Dooly State Prison in 2003 and advanced through several unit-supervisor roles—lieutenant at Rutledge State Prison, chief of security and unit manager at Macon State Prison, and a unit manager posting at Autry State Prison—before moving into facility-leadership positions. In 2018 he became Deputy Warden at Macon State Prison, a role he held through 2021, and then served as Deputy Warden at Dooly State Prison in 2022. He was promoted to Warden of Dooly State Prison in March 2023. Across these leadership tenures, GPS records attribute 33 in-custody deaths to facilities under Sales’s supervision: 20 at Macon State Prison and 13 at Dooly State Prison. Many of the Macon deaths were homicides documented by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Georgia Prison Homicides Investigation; the Dooly deaths occurred amid extreme overcrowding, documented staffing crises, and repeated gang-related violence.

What happened on their watch

Earlier career roles (2003–2017)
Sales’s earlier postings as sergeant, lieutenant, chief of security, and unit manager at Dooly, Rutledge, Macon, and Autry state prisons are not associated with any deaths attributed to his leadership tenure in the GPS records.

Macon State Prison — Deputy Warden (2018–2021)
During Sales’s four years as Deputy Warden at Macon State Prison, 20 people died in custody. GPS records show that 2020 was especially lethal: 11 deaths are documented that year alone, including those of Carrington Jwon Frye (stabbed to death), Rafael Becerra Blass (stab wounds), Bobby Edward Lee Jr. (ligature strangulation), Cody Dustin Silvers (asphyxia), David Travis Dennis (multiple sharp force injuries), Robbie Lee Brower (blunt and sharp force injuries to head and neck), Raul Villegas (stab wound), and Johnny Young (sharp force injury). In 2021, inmate homicides continued: Ryan Weston Darville (stab wounds) and Carlos Maurice Fisher (multiple sharp force injuries) died that year. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation reported these causes of death and identified clear patterns of fatal violence.

Broader systemic failures at Macon ran parallel to the death toll. The AJC documented that the prison was critically understaffed—the county coroner reported seeing only five to eight officers staffing the entire facility when responding to deaths, and by October 2024 about two‑thirds of correctional officer jobs at Macon were unfilled. Inmates told family members that men were packed four to a cell, rotating to sleep. A federal lawsuit alleged that Bobby Edward Lee Jr. was placed in a cell with an inmate who had previously killed someone, despite Lee’s pleas for protection, and was strangled before any officer responded. A DOJ-reviewed incident stated that four gang members ran past an officer to fatally stab a prisoner in the kitchen area. The AJC also noted that poorly maintained infrastructure meant most locks did not work, allowing prisoners to easily fashion shanks from walls and ceilings. Additionally, according to 13WMAZ, inmate Devito Duran Young pleaded guilty to directing a fentanyl and synthetic-cannabinoid trafficking ring from Macon State Prison using a contraband cellphone, while four correctional officers at the facility were arrested in 2024 on charges of violating their oath and providing false statements.

Dooly State Prison — Deputy Warden (2022)
As Deputy Warden at Dooly in 2022, Sales oversaw a facility where GPS records list five in-custody deaths: Richard Lavon Garland (age 66), Inocente Taboada (50), John Murray (25), Deroski Harris (36), and Ralph Scott Clemons (60). Six additional deaths occurred during Sales’s partial year as Warden in 2023—an eight‑month span—including three men aged 51, 44, and 39 years (Jeremy John Wells, James Michael Bailey, Willie Delane Snipes) and one homicide: Chad Taylor Roadifer, a 45‑year‑old who died of delayed complications of blunt force head trauma, as documented by the AJC homicide investigation. An inmate named Abraham Rivas was accused of running a phone‑based fraud scheme from Dooly, using the proceeds to buy marijuana inside the prison; according to WESH.com, Rivas claimed other inmates were running similar scams and that correctional staff were aware.

Although many of the most severe infrastructure and staffing reports postdate Sales’s departure, conditions during his tenure reflected a facility in deep crisis. A Georgia Public Broadcasting report on a DOJ probe into violence and deliberate indifference in Georgia prisons quoted a family member who alleged that medical staff at Dooly put a patient’s treatment “on the back burner,” contributing to his death from sepsis. A separate AJC investigation described a case from Dooly in which an incarcerated man, James Yarbrough, suffered uncontrolled diabetes for months and died of ketoacidosis, an allegation of medical malpractice. By early 2026, records would show that Dooly held 1,593 people in a facility designed for 750 and operated with roughly half of its correctional officer posts vacant—chronic conditions whose roots were firmly established during the period Sales helped lead the prison.

Litigation

No lawsuits naming Sales as a defendant are recorded in the GPS dataset.

Sources

• GPS personnel and death records — career timeline, facility-specific death counts, and in-custody death listings for Macon State Prison and Dooly State Prison.
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution Georgia Prison Homicides Investigation — causes of death for multiple homicides at Macon State Prison (sharp force injuries, ligature strangulation, blunt trauma, asphyxia) and the homicide of Chad Taylor Roadifer at Dooly State Prison; reporting on understaffing, failing infrastructure, and failures to protect people in custody.
• 13WMAZ — federal drug trafficking conspiracy charges against inmates at Macon State Prison.
• WESH.com — reporting on fraud and contraband allegations involving an inmate at Dooly State Prison.
• Georgia Public Broadcasting — reporting on a DOJ investigation and allegations of medical neglect at Dooly State Prison.
• Solitary Watch — reporting on conditions and prisoner strikes at Macon State Prison.
• WALB — reporting on fraud schemes and allegations of staff awareness at Dooly State Prison.

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Jul 12, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.