Sanford, Paul Anthony

Tenure Summary

Paul Anthony Sanford began his career with the Georgia Department of Corrections as a correctional officer in 2015, progressing through the ranks of lieutenant, captain, and unit manager before his appointment as Deputy Warden at Hancock State Prison at the start of 2023. GPS records attribute 15 deaths to Sanford’s leadership tenure, all at that facility. During the period covered — January 2023 through at least April 2026 — homicides accounted for the majority of the deaths, and the prison was the subject of repeated reporting by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other outlets documenting severe understaffing, gang dominance, and a surge in violent incidents that mirrored findings of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the state’s prison system.

What happened on their watch

Hancock State Prison — Deputy Warden (2023–present, including 2026)

The 15 deaths on Sanford’s watch at Hancock State Prison include a series of inmate-on-inmate killings that drew intense media scrutiny. Among them: Roland Lamont Phillips, 33, died on June 28, 2023 from multiple sharp-force injuries (per AJC investigation, the cellmate was later served a murder warrant); Francisco Melgar-Saldivar, 26, was killed by strangulation and blunt force injuries on August 12, 2023 — a state claim later alleged he was not given appropriate medical care; Travon Montrell Walthour, 29, was stabbed to death on October 12, 2024, with four other prisoners involved, according to GDC incident data. Two prisoners, William Holeman and Prince Porter, were found dead in the same dorm following gang-related violence on January 30, 2025; Andre Rashad Weems, 36, was fatally stabbed on September 9, 2025, prompting charges against eight individuals (later no-billed by a grand jury, per 13WMAZ and the Union-Recorder). The violence continued into early 2026: Jerrod Johnson, 27, was stabbed to death on February 18; Jaylin Bell, 32, killed by his cellmate on February 6; and Steven Monroe Wood, 54, died after a beating in his cell on January 25. Jacorey Derrelle Pearson, 36, died on April 7, 2026 under still-unreleased circumstances, with the GDC’s Office of Professional Standards investigating.

The homicides unfolded amid what the Atlanta Journal-Constitution described as one of the highest correctional officer vacancy rates in the state — 73.5% of positions unfilled as of October 2024, leaving only 49 officers for over 1,100 prisoners. A 2024 DOJ report had already condemned Georgia prisons for “stunning violence,” sexual assaults, and gang-run facilities. The AJC also detailed that consultants found emergency-level staffing gaps at 20 of Georgia’s 34 prisons, broken cell locks that allowed prisoners to roam unsupervised, and a culture in which staff failed to act on repeated pleas for protection. In January 2026, a mass brawl at Hancock left at least five inmates stabbed, two airlifted to hospitals, and the facility reeling. Several deaths from Sanford’s tenure — including Holeman, Porter, Weems, Walthour, and Johnson — were explicitly linked in press reports to gang-related conflict.

Notably, a prior homicide — that of Charles “Tristen” McKee in 2022, before Sanford’s posting — resulted in a $424,710 state liability settlement and a federal DOJ investigation highlighting systematic failures that persisted into the years Sanford oversaw the facility as deputy warden.

Sources

• GPS death records and facility-tenure data for Paul Anthony Sanford
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — multiple homicide investigations, staffing vacancy data, DOJ findings, and litigation claims tied to Hancock State Prison
• 13WMAZ, Union-Recorder, 41NBC, FOX 5, WGXA — reporting on individual homicides at Hancock (Phillips, Melgar-Saldivar, Walthour, Holeman/Porter, Weems, July, Bell, Wood, Johnson)
• Human & Civil Rights Coalition of Georgia — documentation of Travon Walthour’s death
• U.S. Department of Justice — 2024 report on violence, sexual assault, and gang control in Georgia prisons
• Georgia Department of Administrative Services Open Records — settlement ledger for the 2022 McKee death
• GDC incident reports and Office of Professional Standards investigation announcements

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Jul 19, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.