Spencer, Gwendolyn A

Tenure Summary

Gwendolyn A. Spencer has worked for the Georgia Department of Corrections since at least 2015, holding progressively senior roles: correctional officer, lieutenant, captain, and unit manager before becoming deputy warden at Calhoun State Prison in 2024. GPS records show that during Spencer’s time as deputy warden—the only facility-leadership post she has held—14 people died in custody at Calhoun State Prison. Several of those deaths were homicides, and the facility was the subject of federal findings of systemic violence, understaffing, and failures to protect incarcerated people.

What happened on their watch

Spencer became deputy warden at Calhoun State Prison in 2024, a role she still held at least through early 2026, per incident records. During that period, GPS records attribute 14 deaths to the facility.

The deaths include multiple homicides. On May 4, 2024, Kenneth Scott Piper, 37, was killed in an inmate-on-inmate assault, according to an AJC investigation. On July 17, 2024, Gonzalo Colmenero, 54, died after an identical type of assault, per incident reports. On October 21, 2024, Willie Andrew Willis Jr., 27, suffered blunt-force trauma after being thrown from a balcony and stabbed in the neck; his family told WALB that nearly an hour passed before he was airlifted for treatment, and that nurses initially gave a conflicting account of his condition. In 2025, Theodore Roundtree died from multiple stab wounds in a homicide, and Matthew Len Nutt, 37, was killed in a homicide in the segregation unit, according to a user-submitted report. The remaining deaths are recorded under cause category 6, which can indicate undetermined or natural causes; those decedents range in age from 26 to 67 and include Tyler Jackson, Kent Tyrik Robinson, Tyler Jackson Blackwell, and others. One man, Jimmy McMullen, 67, died in January 2026 after a long battle with cancer.

Broader investigative findings align with the violence documented at Calhoun. A U.S. Department of Justice investigation found that Georgia systematically underreports prison homicides, that less than 10% of fights and less than 6% of weapons incidents were forwarded for investigation, and that staff at Calhoun specifically failed to follow housing classification rules, contributing to a 2022 homicide. The DOJ documented an incarcerated person at Calhoun who died of dehydration after staff shut off his water and blocked his food for two days. The investigation also noted that EMS response delays of 30 minutes on average endangered lives. These findings span years, but the facility’s homicide count continued during Spencer’s tenure.

Other incidents overlapped Spencer’s time as deputy warden. In 2025, two inmates were convicted of running a nationwide wire-fraud operation from Calhoun using contraband cell phones. The GDC deployed a $50 million Managed Access System to block illicit phones in mid-2025, after the fraud had already occurred. Previously, drug-smuggling cases against two Calhoun correctional officers were dismissed because evidence was never sent to the crime lab—a pattern the AJC reported had caused nearly two dozen cases to collapse. In early 2026, the prison carried out a mass transfer of 87 lifers to close-security facilities.

Litigation

• Jacobs v. Georgia Department of Corrections (No. 4:25-cv-00111, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, filed March 26, 2025). Pending. The nature of the allegations is not detailed in available records, but the case names the GDC as a defendant during Spencer’s deputy warden tenure.
• In Re Paragard Iud Products Liability Litigation (No. 1:20-md-02974, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, filed Dec. 16, 2020). Pending. Spencer is listed as a defendant; the case is a multidistrict product-liability matter unrelated to her corrections role.
• In Re Equifax Inc Customer Data Security Breach Litigation (No. 1:17-md-02800, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, filed Dec. 6, 2017, terminated Apr. 13, 2022). Spencer is listed as a defendant; the case is a multidistrict data-breach matter unrelated to her corrections role.

Sources

• GPS personnel and facility death records — 14 deaths attributed at Calhoun State Prison during Spencer’s deputy warden tenure (2024–2026)
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — investigation into Georgia prison homicides, including deaths of Kenneth Piper and Gonzalo Colmenero; DOJ findings on staff housing failures and underreporting
• WALB — family allegations regarding Willie Andrew Willis Jr.’s balcony fall and delayed medical care; DOJ findings on dehydration death, evidence mishandling, and systemic underreporting
• U.S. Department of Justice — findings of deliberate undercounts of homicides, failure to investigate violence, and denial of food/water at Calhoun State Prison
• CourtListener — case dockets for Jacobs v. GDC, In Re Paragard, and In Re Equifax

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on May 31, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.