Spencer, Gwendolyn A

Tenure Summary

Gwendolyn A. Spencer's GDC record begins with a year as a correctional officer (SP) in 2015, followed by three years as a correctional lieutenant (2016–2018), two as a correctional captain (2019–2020), and three as a correctional unit manager (2021–2023). On November 22, 2023 she entered facility leadership as Deputy Warden at Calhoun State Prison, a title she carried through 2024 and 2025; since July 16, 2026 she has served as Deputy Warden of Security at the same facility.

GPS's death registry attributes 14 deaths to her leadership tenure, every one of them at Calhoun State Prison: five recorded as homicides, one as natural/medical, and eight whose cause is listed as unknown/pending. She is a named defendant in one federal lawsuit, Jacobs v. Georgia Department of Corrections, filed March 26, 2025 and still pending. No news coverage in GPS's records names her directly.

What happened on their watch

Calhoun State Prison — Deputy Warden (November 22, 2023 – 2025)

Thirteen of the 14 deaths attributed to Spencer's leadership fall inside her Deputy Warden tenure. Five are recorded as homicides, eight as unknown/pending, one as natural/medical; the decedents ranged from 26 to 67 years old. Two of the homicides are described in GPS case records as inmate-to-inmate assaults — Piper on May 4, 2024 and Colmenero-Ayala on July 17, 2024 — and a third, Willis, is described in a GPS case record as suffering catastrophic injuries after reportedly being thrown from a balcony, with medical records listing sepsis as the cause and the family alleging it took nearly an hour before he was airlifted.

• Kenneth Scott Piper died May 4, 2024, at Calhoun State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 37.
• Tyler Jackson Blackwell died July 13, 2024, at Calhoun State Prison; Unknown/Pending, age 31.
• Gonzalo Colmenero-Ayala died July 17, 2024, at Calhoun State Prison; Homicide, age 54.
• Terry Paul Smith died July 20, 2024, at Calhoun State Prison; Unknown/Pending, age 62.
• William Dutton Maddox died August 1, 2024, at Calhoun State Prison; Unknown/Pending, age 62.
• Willie Andrew Willis died October 21, 2024, at Calhoun State Prison; Homicide, age 27.
• Kent Tyrik Robinson died November 5, 2024, at Calhoun State Prison; Unknown/Pending, age 26.
• Charles Owens died January 6, 2025, at Calhoun State Prison; Unknown/Pending.
• Theodore Roundtree died January 19, 2025, at Calhoun State Prison; Homicide.
• Gary Bernard Duncan died May 4, 2025, at Calhoun State Prison; Unknown/Pending, age 67.
• Tyler Jackson died June 28, 2025, at Calhoun State Prison; Unknown/Pending, age 30.
• Thomas Haugabook died September 25, 2025, at Calhoun State Prison; Natural/Medical, age 67.
• Matthew Len Nutt died December 21, 2025, at Calhoun State Prison; Homicide, age 37.

AJC reporting dated January 21, 2025, describing the DOJ investigation into Georgia prisons, alleged that staff at Calhoun failed to follow procedures when moving Lackey's assailant between segregation and general population, resulting in Lackey being housed with and killed by his cellmate; the same reporting alleged that prison staff cut off a prisoner's food and water as retaliation, leading to his death from dehydration and renal failure. Both are allegations attributed to that reporting.

Reporting on the contraband-phone economy at Calhoun also falls in this tenure. An AJC report of September 5, 2024 described prisoners directing drug distribution from inside the facility — including Edwin Murillo, later sentenced to life for directing a torture and murder, and Irvin Falcon, Pedro Barragan Valencia and Jonathan Alvin Pope, each sentenced in federal court for trafficking brokered from prison. AJC reporting of June 19, 2025 found that the GDC failed to submit drug evidence to the state crime lab in at least 11 dismissed cases involving 15 defendants, including five prison employees, and that the Calhoun County Sheriff's Department likewise failed to submit evidence in 12 dismissed cases; charges against officers Corlethia Lattimore and Imani Ferguson over a "Hot Pockets" package were dismissed in July 2023. That reporting also noted a June 2, 2025 grand jury heard 35 Calhoun-related cases while more than 300 remained pending. The GDC deployed a Managed Access System across 34 state prisons at $50 million in capital cost plus more than $15 million annually; GPS event records date Calhoun's installation to mid-2025, after the phone-based fraud schemes described here. GPS event records further note GDC payments of nearly $127,000 in the first three months of 2025 to Sheriff Josh Hilton and eight deputies for off-duty perimeter patrol at $45 an hour.

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

• Randy Walton died August 21, 2026, at Calhoun State Prison; Unknown/Pending, age 67.

GPS case submissions describe a 2026 lockdown at Calhoun amid a gang conflict reported to have spread from another state facility, and a September 17, 2026 fight after which two people were taken to the hospital. An AJC report of September 28, 2026 quoted a Florida sheriff describing a "huge scam" run out of Calhoun and Wheeler Correctional Institution, and named Annie Ashley as accused of participating in a scam network that took $15,000 from a woman near Daytona Beach. FOX 5 Atlanta reported October 17, 2026 that contraband cellphones were present at Calhoun — how they were smuggled in has not been confirmed — and that inmates used VOIP to spoof police numbers, posing as officers to tell victims they had warrants for missed jury duty; victims were instructed to undress in a Target restroom and film a self-conducted cavity search and later received lewd messages and violent threats. Lance Riddle was sentenced to 200 months and Joey Amour Jackson to 120 months in federal prison in that case.

Litigation

• Jacobs v. Georgia Department of Corrections, No. 4:25-cv-00111 (GAMD), filed March 26, 2025; status pending, no recorded outcome. Filed while Spencer held the Deputy Warden post at Calhoun.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — reporting on the DOJ investigation into Georgia prison conditions (January 21, 2025); the Calhoun smuggling-case dismissals and grand jury (June 19, 2025); prison-run drug trafficking (September 5, 2024); Florida sheriff's remarks on prison-based scams (September 28, 2026)
• FOX 5 Atlanta — jury-duty phone scam and contraband cellphones at Calhoun State Prison (October 17, 2026)
• GPS death registry and GPS case submissions (lockdown and fight reports, 2026)
• Federal court docket, Jacobs v. Georgia Department of Corrections, No. 4:25-cv-00111 (GAMD)

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Oct 18, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.