Sanford, Paul Anthony

Tenure Summary

Paul Anthony Sanford entered the Georgia Department of Corrections in 2015 as a correctional officer, then served as a correctional lieutenant (2016–2018), captain (2019–2020) and correctional unit manager (2021–2022) before moving into facility leadership as a deputy warden at Hancock State Prison in 2023. He held deputy warden posts at Hancock in 2023, 2024 and 2025, and was named Deputy Warden of Security there effective July 16, 2026. A single dated record also places him as deputy warden at Washington State Prison on November 22, 2023. State salary records show pay rising from $35,385 in 2015 to $85,894.80 in 2025.

GPS's death registry attributes 13 deaths to his leadership tenures, all of them at Hancock State Prison: six listed as homicides, one as a suicide, and six whose cause is recorded as unknown or pending. No lawsuit naming Sanford as a defendant appears in the records reviewed. His personnel status is active, with no sourced status notation attached.

What happened on their watch

Hancock State Prison — Deputy Warden (2023). Three deaths fall in this first year.

• Roland Lamont Phillips died June 28, 2023, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as multiple sharp-force injuries, including 11 puncture wounds to the front torso and one to the neck. A murder warrant was served against his cellmate, per the AJC.
• Francisco Melgar-Saldivar died August 12, 2023, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists homicide, age 26, by strangulation and blunt force. 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 died August 22, 2023, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists suicide, age 37.

Washington State Prison — Deputy Warden (November 22, 2023). A single dated record places Sanford in the deputy warden role at Washington State Prison on that date. No deaths are attributed to that posting.

Hancock State Prison — Deputy Warden (2024).

• Ralph Thompson died October 8, 2024, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as unknown/pending, age 53.
• Travon Montrell Walthour died October 13, 2024, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists homicide, age 29. GDC incident report data cited by the AJC states four other prisoners were involved.

Records obtained by the AJC also show seven prisoners disciplined over a gang-related assault on another inmate at Hancock in September 2024. A U.S. Department of Justice report published in 2024 described violence, sexual assaults and gang-run prisons in Georgia.

Hancock State Prison — Deputy Warden (2025).

• William Holeman died January 30, 2025, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists homicide.
• Prince Porter died January 30, 2025, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists homicide.
• John T Childree died April 9, 2025, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as unknown/pending, age 60.
• Corey Jose July died June 17, 2025, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists homicide, age 33. A Hancock County jury later convicted Vershaun Smith of malice murder for the fatal yard stabbing, per the district attorney's office as reported by WGXA and 41NBC; he was sentenced to life without parole.
• Brian Smith died July 24, 2025, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as unknown/pending, age 30.
• Andre Rashad Weems died September 9, 2025, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists homicide, age 36.

AJC reporting on January 31, 2025 described two prisoners found dead in the same dorm about 15–20 feet apart after gang-related violence, with the coroner leaning toward homicide in at least one case, and recorded that Hancock had one of GDC's highest officer vacancy rates — 73.5% vacant, 49 officers for over 1,100 prisoners. The same coverage cited consultants who found vacancies at 20 of 34 prisons at "emergency levels," broken cell locks, and $600 million in emergency funding proposed by Gov. Brian Kemp. A January 27, 2025 Hancock County conviction of Cleveland Gary for killing Charles Tristen McKee with a 17-inch homemade machete was also reported; a separate 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 move, while a DOJ investigation found McKee was chased and stabbed after jumping through stair railings.

Hancock State Prison — Deputy Warden of Security (from July 16, 2026).

• Albert Chapa died July 30, 2026, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as unknown/pending, age 57.
• Devin Cole Edwards died October 30, 2026, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as unknown/pending. Press reporting states he was found in his cell with signs of a recent fight and pronounced dead at a hospital.

Intel reports from this period include a tactical team operation of roughly 100 officers targeting multiple housing units and the annex (September 15, 2026); a stabbing message circulating on Telegram (September 10, 2026); an IRT use-of-force against a prisoner suspected of possessing a weapon (August 4, 2026); and an October 9, 2026 account of an incarcerated person with untreated mental illness stabbing a sleeping prisoner, who was hospitalized. Monitored communications dated July 17, 2026 indicated a violent conflict in 2025 between Muslim incarcerated individuals and a gang, with staff working to contain it.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — homicide and gang-violence reporting on Hancock State Prison, 2024–2025; vacancy, staffing-consultant and DOJ findings; the Melgar-Saldivar medical-care claim and the McKee lawsuit
• WGXA — Vershaun Smith malice-murder conviction in the death of Corey Jose July
• 41NBC — account of the July 2025 yard stabbing
• U.S. Department of Justice — 2024 report on violence and sexual assault in Georgia prisons; investigation into the death of Charles Tristen McKee
• GDC and Georgia salary records; GDC incident report data
• Georgia death certificate data (cause determinations for the Hancock deaths)
• GPS case submissions and monitored-communications records from Hancock State Prison, 2025–2026

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Nov 1, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.