Scott, Tracey

Tenure Summary

GPS records attribute 29 deaths to Calhoun State Prison during Scott’s tenure as Deputy Warden. Those deaths span 2020 to 2026 and include multiple homicides and a high-profile dehydration fatality in solitary confinement that resulted in a $3.25 million state settlement. While no lawsuits name Scott personally as a defendant, the period of Scott’s leadership overlaps with a U.S. Department of Justice investigation that identified systemic violence, understaffing, and classification failures at the prison.

What happened on their watch

The next year saw five deaths. Among them was Daquavious Lackey, a 21-year-old who was killed by his cellmate on May 16, 2022. A coroner’s death certificate obtained by GPS lists the manner as homicide from a stab wound to the neck and multiple blunt force injuries. A DOJ investigation later alleged that staff failed to follow classification and housing-assignment procedures, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, moving Lackey’s assailant between segregation and general population in a way that placed him in the same cell. The year also included a suicide—Christopher Oliva, 43, died by hanging, per a GBI autopsy—and three other deaths.

Six more deaths occurred in 2023. The most heavily documented is that of Reginald Jacobs Jr., a 24-year-old who died in a restrictive-housing cell on February 6. The Calhoun County coroner’s death certificate, obtained by GPS, lists the cause as dehydration with renal failure. A verified federal lawsuit, Jacobs v. GDC, alleged that a GDC employee disabled the water supply to Jacobs’s cell around January 27, that no 30-minute segregation rounds or alternate drinking water were provided, and that he was found emaciated and dead seven to eight hours later. The case settled, with the Georgia DOAS recording a $3,250,000 liability payout. The year also included the homicide of Martel Dorsey, 32, stabbed by other prisoners, per the AJC and coroner records.

In 2024, GPS records document seven deaths. Two are confirmed homicides: Kenneth Piper, 37, killed in an inmate-on-inmate assault on May 4, and Gonzalo Colmenero-Ayala, 54, who died July 17 from multiple blunt force injuries and neck compression, according to coroner records. In October, Willie Andrew Willis Jr., 27, died from blunt force trauma. WALB reported his family alleges he was thrown from a balcony and that nearly an hour elapsed before he was airlifted.

The count for 2025 includes four men, among them Theodore Roundtree, whose death certificate lists homicide by sharp force abdominal trauma, and Matthew Len Nutt, 37, whose death certificate lists homicide by blunt force trauma from an assault. Two more deaths occurred in early 2026: Jimmy McMullen, 67, who died from pancreatic cancer per coroner records, and Freddie Lee Patterson, 51. By the end of Scott’s documented deputy warden tenure, the total deaths attributed reached 29.

Broader patterns documented at the facility during Scott’s tenure include a DOJ finding that Georgia’s prison homicide rate is nearly triple the national average and that less than 10% of prison fights were forwarded for investigation, per WALB. The DOJ also identified chronic understaffing with officer vacancy rates above 50% since mid-2021.

Litigation

Sources

• GPS records — personnel positions and fatalities attributed to the Calhoun State Prison deputy warden tenure
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Georgia Prison Homicides Investigation; reporting on DOJ findings and the Daquavious Lackey homicide
• WALB — reporting on the death of Willie Andrew Willis Jr. and systemic DOJ findings
• Calhoun County coroner death certificates — obtained via GPS open-records requests, documenting causes and manners for multiple decedents
• GDC official mortality data — CY2024 mortality report, January 2025 monthly report
• GBI Division of Forensic Sciences autopsy report — Christopher Oliva (2022)
• Federal court records — Jacobs v. GDC, First Amended Complaint and settlement documentation (M.D. Ga.)
• Georgia DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger — payouts tied to Calhoun State Prison incidents

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Aug 2, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.