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Sales, Timothy Deshaun
Status: active
Profile written August 2, 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
Timothy Deshaun Sales began his career with the Georgia Department of Corrections in 2003 as a Sergeant at Dooly State Prison. After a stint as a Lieutenant at Rutledge State Prison in 2006, he spent the bulk of his career at Macon State Prison, rising from Chief of Security in 2013 to Unit Manager in 2016, and serving as Deputy Warden from 2018 through 2021. In 2022 he moved to Dooly State Prison as Deputy Warden, and in March 2023 he was promoted to Warden 1 there, remaining in that post through the end of the year. Sales later held the title of Warden 3 in 2024 and 2025, though the specific facility for those roles is not recorded in GPS data.Across his leadership-tenure posts — Deputy Warden and Warden — GPS records attribute a total of 33 deaths to the facilities under his oversight: 20 deaths at Macon State Prison during his Deputy Warden tenure (2018‑2021) and 13 deaths at Dooly State Prison while he served as Deputy Warden (2022) and Warden (March‑December 2023). No lawsuits name Sales personally as a defendant, but several civil actions and reported allegations implicate the conditions and incidents within the facilities during his watch.
What happened on their watch
Macon State Prison (Deputy Warden, 2018‑2021). During Sales’ years as deputy warden, 20 individuals died at Macon. GPS records and an Atlanta Journal‑Constitution investigation document a concentration of homicides in 2020. Among the decedents were Carrington Jwon Frye (stab wounds to neck and chest, March 2020), Rafael Becerra Blass (stab wounds to upper torso, March 2020), Bobby Edward Lee Jr. (ligature strangulation, July 2020), and David Travis Dennis (multiple sharp force injuries, May 2020). Lee’s death prompted a federal lawsuit alleging that officials placed him in a cell with a convicted murderer despite his pleas for protection and that no officers responded until after he was strangled. The AJC later reported that Macon was critically understaffed during that period, with a coroner noting only five to eight officers present in the entire facility when responding to deaths. A U.S. Department of Justice report described understaffing and routine violence across Georgia prisons; at Macon, the environment during Sales’ deputy warden tenure also saw the prosecution of inmate Devito Duran Young for directing a fentanyl‑trafficking scheme using a contraband cellphone.Dooly State Prison (Deputy Warden, 2022 and Warden, March‑December 2023). Thirteen deaths are attributed to Dooly while Sales held leadership roles there. As Deputy Warden in 2022, five inmates died; the sample records list all as non‑homicide causes. After Sales became Warden in March 2023, eight additional deaths occurred, including that of Chad Taylor Roadifer. The AJC’s prison‑homicide investigation identified Roadifer’s cause of death as delayed complications of blunt‑force head trauma sustained months earlier. The facility faced a string of gang‑related altercations and contraband incidents during Sales’ wardenship. One corrections cadet was caught attempting to smuggle 640 grams of methamphetamine into the prison. Reports from later years describe Dooly operating at 212% of its design capacity with pervasive officer vacancies, though it is unclear if all those conditions were in place during Sales’ tenure. A coroner separately alleged that another inmate may have been dead for more than 24 hours before his body was found, but GPS data cannot confirm whether that death fell within Sales’ watch.
Litigation
- No lawsuits name Sales as a personal defendant. During his Macon deputy‑warden tenure, however, a federal lawsuit was filed by the family of Bobby Edward Lee Jr., alleging that Macon State Prison officials exhibited deliberate indifference by housing Lee with a known violent cellmate, leading to Lee’s strangulation death in July 2020.
Sources
- Atlanta Journal‑Constitution — Georgia Prison Homicides Investigation, detailing cause‑of‑death findings for multiple Macon and Dooly decedents during Sales’ leadership tenures.
- Atlanta Journal‑Constitution — “Prison system failures cost Georgia taxpayers millions,” covering the Lee lawsuit and staffing deficiencies at Macon State Prison.
- GPS records — personnel positions, death totals, and decedent data.
- U.S. Department of Justice — report on Georgia prison conditions (October 2024), documenting systemic understaffing and violence.
- 13WMAZ — reporting on Devito Duran Young’s drug‑trafficking scheme coordinated from Macon State Prison.
- WGXA — reporting on a corrections‑officer cadet’s methamphetamine smuggling attempt at Dooly State Prison.
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| WARDEN 3 | 2024-01-01 → present | |
| WARDEN 1 | DOOLY STATE PRISON | 2023-03-01 → 2023-12-31 |
| DEPUTY WARDEN | DOOLY STATE PRISON | 2022-01-01 → 2022-12-31 |
| DEPUTY WARDEN | MACON STATE PRISON | 2018-01-01 → 2021-12-31 |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL UNIT MANAGER | AUTRY STATE PRISON | 2017-01-01 → 2017-12-31 |
| CORRECTIONAL UNIT MANAGER | MACON STATE PRISON | 2016-01-01 → 2016-12-31 |
| CORRECTION ADMINISTRATION | MACON STATE PRISON | 2015-01-01 → 2015-12-31 |
| Chief of Security | MACON STATE PRISON | 2013-01-01 → 2013-12-31 |
| Lieutenant | RUTLEDGE STATE PRISON | 2006-01-01 → 2006-12-31 |
| Sergeant | DOOLY STATE PRISON | 2003-01-01 → 2003-12-31 |
Lawsuits as defendant
| Case # | Court | Filed | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5:19-cv-00236 | GAMD | 2019-06-14 | terminated |
Deaths attributed during tenure
33 people died at facilities under Sales, Timothy Deshaun's leadership.
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