Smith, Tarmarshe A

Tenure Summary

Tarmarshe A. Smith's career with the Georgia Department of Corrections runs from a 2002 Correctional Officer post at Georgia State Prison through a series of facility leadership roles into regional administration. Smith served as Deputy Warden at Smith State Prison in 2016 and 2017 and at Calhoun State Prison in 2018, was promoted to Warden at Calhoun in 2019, then moved to Macon State Prison as Warden 1 in 2020 and Warden 3 from 2021 through June 30, 2023. Since July 1, 2023 Smith has held regional posts — Assistant Regional Director for the Southeast, then Assistant Region Director, then, from October 1, 2025, Southeast Regional Director. A Region Director entry is recorded for August 27, 2026. Smith's status is active.

Thirty-six deaths are attributed to Smith's facility leadership tenures, all of them at Macon State Prison. Court records list Smith as a defendant in ten federal civil cases filed between 2018 and 2026. The Georgia DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger (Open Records) shows multiple liability payouts tied to facilities Smith led, including two Macon payouts of $1,375,000 and $750,000, each linked to a documented death.

What happened on their watch

Georgia State Prison — Correctional Officer, 2002. Non-leadership post; records show only the role and dates.

Correction Administration — 2015. Statewide administrative post; no facility recorded.

Smith State Prison — Deputy Warden, 2016–2017. No deaths are attributed to this tenure. Event records show that in 2017 Ricky Dubose murdered two correctional officers on a prison transport bus and was prosecuted by DA Barksdale, receiving a death sentence; those records list Smith's role at Smith State Prison at the time as Deputy Warden.

Calhoun State Prison — Deputy Warden (2018), Warden 1 (2019). An event record dated September 27, 2018 notes Smith's promotion to Warden at Calhoun State Prison; the position records list the warden title in 2019. The GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger shows a $10,000 payout tied to Calhoun (incident 2018), when Smith's recorded role was Deputy Warden, and a $998,715.12 payout tied to Calhoun (incident 2019), when Smith's recorded role was Warden 1. In 2019, during Smith's warden tenure, Calhoun officer Temperess Johnson was caught attempting to smuggle eight cellphones and 2.6 pounds of methamphetamine in a GDC van and was sentenced to five years in federal prison, per event records.

Macon State Prison — Warden 1 (2020) and Warden 3 (2021–June 30, 2023). Thirty-six deaths are attributed to this tenure, all at Macon. The most recent 25 are:

• Henry Lee Mcbride died April 27, 2023, at Macon State Prison, age 62; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending.
• Carlos Sabino Ramos died March 22, 2023, at Macon State Prison, age 34; cause listed as Homicide.
• Willie Welch died March 13, 2023, at Macon State Prison, age 51; cause listed as Unknown/Pending.
• Anthony Gary Andrews died January 15, 2023, at Macon State Prison, age 58; cause listed as Unknown/Pending.
• James Cornelius Mcleroy died December 19, 2022, at Macon State Prison, age 26; cause listed as Homicide.
• Victor Louis Britt died December 18, 2022, at Macon State Prison, age 64; cause listed as Unknown/Pending.
• Lee E Johnson died December 7, 2022, at Macon State Prison, age 75; cause listed as Unknown/Pending.
• Clinton Vondell Jackson died October 19, 2022, at Macon State Prison, age 31; cause listed as Unknown/Pending.
• Kendrick Milike Brown died October 16, 2022, at Macon State Prison, age 25; cause listed as Homicide.
• Herbert Cornell Stephens died October 7, 2022, at Macon State Prison, age 53; cause listed as Unknown/Pending.
• Dan Brooks died August 21, 2022, at Macon State Prison, age 50; cause listed as Homicide.
• Antonio Sentelle Lee died August 13, 2022, at Macon State Prison, age 42; cause listed as Unknown/Pending.
• Joseph Walter Brown died July 26, 2022, at Macon State Prison, age 36; cause listed as Homicide.
• Larry Groeber died June 12, 2022, at Macon State Prison, age 70; cause listed as Unknown/Pending.
• Antwain Lacraig Miller died June 12, 2022, at Macon State Prison, age 49; cause listed as Unknown/Pending.
• Paul Dewayne Warren died April 8, 2022, at Macon State Prison, age 51; cause listed as Unknown/Pending.
• Ryan Weston Darville died December 29, 2021, at Macon State Prison, age 37; cause listed as Homicide.
• Larry Joe Butler died October 22, 2021, at Macon State Prison, age 62; cause listed as Natural/Medical.
• Roy Daniels died August 12, 2021, at Macon State Prison, age 57; cause listed as Natural/Medical.
• Carlos Maurice Fisher died May 10, 2021, at Macon State Prison, age 30; cause listed as Homicide.
• Walter Lee Faust died December 15, 2020, at Macon State Prison, age 70; cause listed as Unknown/Pending.
• Raul Villegas died December 13, 2020, at Macon State Prison, age 37; cause listed as Homicide.
• Melvin Wyatt Jenkins died November 29, 2020, at Macon State Prison, age 66; cause listed as Unknown/Pending.
• Robbie Lee Brower died October 4, 2020, at Macon State Prison, age 58; cause listed as Homicide.
• Jeffrey Allen Ferguson died July 18, 2020, at Macon State Prison, age 42; cause listed as Suicide.

Earlier Macon deaths recorded in that tenure include James Philpot (June 6, 2020), Calvin Lorraine Moore (May 15, 2020), Robert Lee McDowell (May 10, 2020), Joseph T Johnson (January 23, 2020) and Tavoris Terrell Charleston (January 4, 2020).

Aggravating findings attached to individual deaths: the DOJ report states that on March 22, 2023 four gang members ran past an officer to the kitchen area and fatally stabbed a prisoner, with eleven prisoners ultimately stabbed. Kendrick Malik Brown's mother said he was due for release in a month but was placed in a cell with a prisoner known to be dangerous, per event records. A federal lawsuit alleges that Bobby Edward Lee Jr. was strangled by his cellmate, a convicted murderer. Carrington Juwon Frye's mother told Georgia lawmakers he bled for more than half an hour before help arrived, per event records.

Settlements tied to Macon during this tenure, per the GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger: $32,500 (Robin Kimbrel, incident 2022), $6,250 (Bavarious Nelson, incident 2022), $450 (Frank Gillis, incident 2021), $98,000 (Javante Harris-Evans, incident 2021), $1,375,000 (Bobby Edward Lee, incident 2020) and $750,000 (Coty Silvers, incident 2020).

Regional posts — from July 1, 2023. Assistant Regional Director for the Southeast from July 1, 2023; Assistant Region Director in 2024 and from January 1 to September 30, 2025; Southeast Regional Director from October 1, 2025. These carry no facility assignment in the records.

Litigation

Court records on CourtListener list Smith as a defendant in the following cases:

• Mckenzie v. Oliver, 4:26-cv-00108, GAND, filed April 28, 2026 — pending.
• Daker v. Oliver Filing Restriction Per 59 Order, 1:25-cv-03191, GAND, filed June 6, 2025, closed March 30, 2026 — terminated.
• Tucker v. Holt, 5:24-cv-00360, GAMD, filed October 16, 2024, closed June 11, 2025 — terminated.
• Tucker v. Wellpath Llc, 5:24-cv-00215, GAMD, filed July 3, 2024 — pending.
• Clark v. Troutman, 5:22-cv-00253, GAMD, filed July 12, 2022, closed September 5, 2023 — terminated.
• Gillis v. Saldana, 5:22-cv-00177, GAMD, filed May 9, 2022, closed December 26, 2024 — terminated.
• Cox v. Ward, 5:22-cv-00008, GAMD, filed January 5, 2022, closed August 10, 2023 — terminated.
• Whiting v. Tarmarshe Smith, 1:21-cv-00973, GAND, filed March 8, 2021, closed September 2, 2021 — terminated.
• Clayton v. Ward, 1:21-cv-00025, GAMD, filed January 29, 2021, closed February 11, 2022 — terminated.
• Gilmore v. Georgia Department of Corrections, 6:18-cv-00115, GASD, filed November 20, 2018, closed January 20, 2023 — terminated.

No outcome amounts are recorded for these cases.

Sources

• CourtListener federal dockets — ten cases listing Smith as a defendant, 2018–2026
• Georgia DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger (Open Records) — liability payouts tied to Macon State Prison and Calhoun State Prison
• U.S. Department of Justice report — description of the March 22, 2023 multiple stabbing at Macon State Prison
• GPS death registry — dates and cause listings for deaths attributed to Smith's tenure
• GDC incident and event records — death circumstances, the 2019 Calhoun smuggling arrest, and the 2017 prison transport bus murders

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Sep 25, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.