Sanford, Paul Anthony

Tenure Summary

Paul Anthony Sanford entered the Georgia Department of Corrections in 2015 as a correctional officer at an annual salary of $35,385, then moved up the custody chain — lieutenant (2016–2018), captain (2019–2020), correctional unit manager (2021–2022) — before taking his first facility leadership post as Deputy Warden at Hancock State Prison in 2023. GDC personnel records list him in that role at Hancock for 2023, 2024 and 2025, with a further Hancock entry dated Aug. 27, 2026; a single record also places him as Deputy Warden at Washington State Prison on Nov. 22, 2023.

Per GPS's compilation of GDC records, 16 deaths are attributed to his leadership tenures, all of them at Hancock State Prison — three in 2023, two in 2024, six in 2025 and five in 2026. No lawsuit naming Sanford as a defendant appears in these records; the litigation that does surface was filed against the state or the department. Hancock's acute staffing shortage, a 2024 U.S. Department of Justice finding of "stunning violence" and "rampant sexual assaults" in Georgia prisons, and a run of AJC-documented homicides all overlap his tenure there. The deaths span ages 26 to 60, and include stabbings, strangulation and blunt-force trauma.

What happened on their watch

Deputy Warden, Hancock State Prison — 2023 through 2026 (one personnel record also places him as Deputy Warden at Washington State Prison on Nov. 22, 2023; no deaths are attributed to that posting).

The first death attributed to his Hancock tenure is Roland Lamont Phillips, 33, who died June 28, 2023 of multiple sharp-force injuries — 11 puncture wounds to the front torso and one to the neck; a murder warrant was served on his cellmate, per AJC reporting based on GDC incident data. On Aug. 12, 2023, Francisco Melgar-Saldivar, 26, died of strangulation and blunt-force injuries; a claim filed against the state alleges he was not provided appropriate medical care after being attacked by another prisoner, according to the AJC. Timothy Dale Hicks, 37, died Aug. 22, 2023. In 2024, Ralph Thompson, 53, died Oct. 8, and Travon Montrell Walthour, 29, was killed Oct. 13, with four other prisoners involved per GDC incident report data.

2025 was the deadliest year in the records. On Jan. 30, William Holeman, 34, and Prince Porter, 38, were found dead in the same dorm, 15 to 20 feet apart, after what the AJC described as gang-related violence; Porter had a single puncture wound to his upper back and Holeman had no visible marks, and a third prisoner was hospitalized. The AJC separately reported that seven prisoners were disciplined for a gang-related assault at Hancock in September 2024. John T. Childree, 60, died April 9, 2025; Corey Jose July, 33, was stabbed multiple times in the prison yard on June 17, 2025 — prosecutors said surveillance video showed Vershaun Smith chasing July, cornering him at a locked gate and stabbing him. Brian Smith, 30, died July 24 and Andre Rashad Weems, 36 on Sept. 9. In 2026, the records list Steven Monroe Wood, 54 (Jan. 25), Jaylin Bell, 32 (Feb. 6), Jerrod Johnson, 27 (Feb. 18), Jacorey Derrelle Pearson, 36 (Apr. 7) and Albert Chapa, 57 (July 30).

AJC reporting tied to this period describes the conditions surrounding those deaths. As of October 2024, more than 70% of correctional officer jobs at Hancock were vacant — later reported at 73.5%, leaving 49 officers for more than 1,100 prisoners, one of the highest vacancy rates in the system. Consultants cited by the AJC found vacancies at 20 of Georgia's 34 prisons had reached "emergency levels," with broken cell locks letting prisoners roam, and reported that 28 major drug-trafficking cases were filed from inside Georgia prisons between 2015 and 2024. A federal indictment announced Jan. 29, 2025 charged dozens of people in a prison-run drug conspiracy; the facilities named were Wilcox, Telfair, Macon, Georgia Diagnostic and Correctional, Wheeler and Jenkins — Hancock was not among them. Gov. Brian Kemp proposed an additional $600 million over 18 months for prison staffing and infrastructure in January 2025.

AJC and DOJ accounts referenced in the records also describe Hancock deaths that do not appear among the 16 attributed to Sanford. The DOJ investigation into the death of Charles "Tristen" McKee found he tried to escape gang members beating and stabbing him by jumping through stair railings, and that another prisoner who intervened was seriously wounded; a Hancock County jury convicted Cleveland Gary on Jan. 27, 2025 of striking McKee six times in the head with a 17-inch homemade machete after a fight had already ended. A lawsuit alleges McKee was placed in a dorm with known gang members hostile to LGBTQ inmates, and that staff failed to act on his requests to be moved the day before he was killed. The AJC also describes a claim that Amanuel Selassie Geberyesus was placed in a regular cell contrary to a counselor's advice after he expressed suicidal thoughts, and subsequently hanged himself. A lawsuit by the parents of Rashad Bolton claims he was stabbed to death at Hancock on Jan. 4, 2021 — before Sanford's Hancock tenure began.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — homicide, gang-violence and staffing-vacancy reporting on Hancock State Prison (Jan. 21, Jan. 31 and Mar. 31, 2025)
• U.S. Department of Justice — 2024 report on violence and conditions in Georgia prisons; investigation into the death of Charles "Tristen" McKee
• Georgia Department of Corrections — incident report and death-certificate data cited in AJC coverage
• Hancock County jury verdict, Jan. 27, 2025 (conviction of Cleveland Gary)
• GDC personnel and salary records, 2015–2026 (positions and postings)
• Georgia Governor's office — $600 million prison staffing and infrastructure proposal, January 2025

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Sep 23, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.