Stokes, David

Tenure Summary

David Stokes entered the Georgia Department of Corrections in 2013 as a correctional officer at Coastal State Prison, the facility where his career began and where he now serves as Warden. He held sergeant and lieutenant posts at Coastal from 2016 through 2019, then moved to Long Unit as a lieutenant, and served as Long Unit's Assistant Superintendent from January 2019 to February 2024. He held facility-lead titles at Long Unit through 2024, and on December 16, 2024 became Warden at Central State Prison, a post GPS records show him holding until May 31, 2026. Commissioner Tyrone Oliver reassigned him back to Coastal State Prison as Warden effective June 1, 2026, per a GPS-recorded appointment event.

GPS attributes 18 deaths to his facility-leadership tenures: 11 at Central State Prison, 5 at Coastal State Prison, and 2 at Long Unit. He is listed as a defendant in one federal lawsuit, Pugh v. Fleming (N.D. Ga., filed June 21, 2024). GPS's own provenance notes state that GDC has published cause of death for only one month of mortality data (January 2025), which is why most records below carry no official cause. Counts below are GPS's attributed totals; the named decedents are drawn from GPS's most-recent capped sample.

What happened on their watch

Long Unit — Assistant Superintendent (Jan 2019–Feb 2024) and Superintendent (2024): 2 deaths. Charles E. Daniels, 51, died August 24, 2020. GDC's own coding, obtained by UCLA Law's Behind Bars Data Project through an open-records request, classified the death "Natural" — GPS notes this is the Department's classification, not an autopsy finding. Cameron Ryan Paquette, 43, died February 13, 2024, after collapsing on a GDC work detail at the Ben Park/Bill Morris Park complex in Long County. The Long County Coroner's death-investigation report (case 91-010-24) and GBI Coastal Lab autopsy (case 2024-6000957) found hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, manner natural; those records were obtained through a GPS open-records request.

Central State Prison — Warden (Dec 16, 2024–May 31, 2026): 11 deaths. Decedents listed in GPS records range in age from 36 to 77. Matthew Maddox died January 28, 2025; the cause "Cerebral Herniation due to Extremely High BP" comes from GDC's January 2025 mortality release (GDC# 804966). Joseph Hamm, 36, died October 8, 2025; a GPS case report states he was being transferred out of segregation, notified at 11 p.m. to pack, and found at 1 a.m. with a balloon of opiates that had burst — an accidental overdose. Miguel Angel Duran, 44, died March 1, 2026 in the segregation unit; a Telegram message classified by GPS reported a suicide, with identity "being determined." Ricky Eugene Rogers, 68, died April 21, 2025; a GPS report notes C-building and "Natural/Drug OD." Others — Brandon Jamal Pool (38), Lamancha Ware (48), Travis Jamal Gaither (41), Ricky D. Ring (56), James Theodore Miller (64), Ronald Goss (60), and Michael Lane Brooks (77) — carry no published cause in GPS records. Facility incidents during the same window include three former Central State guards accused of beating an inmate and covering it up (March 2025) and a guard charged with falsely imprisoning four DFCS employees (December 2025), both per 13WMAZ, plus a January 2026 inmate fight GDC said it was investigating.

Coastal State Prison — Warden (June 1, 2026–present): 5 deaths. GPS records these as Bobby Clinton Biggs (77, June 25, 2026), Ronald Tyrone Waller (57, June 10, 2026), Corey Marcel Mitchell (50, July 15, 2026), and Phillip Alexander George (66, July 16, 2026), none with a published cause, plus Sheldon Leroy Burns, whose death surfaced in a public Facebook post and is dated approximately August 30, 2026. Per that post, Burns had complained of health issues staff ignored; an Officer Flowers left her post; and dorm residents beat on doors and windows for 30–40 minutes before staff arrived. GPS resolved "Flowers" to Mariah Flowers, a Coastal CO2 on the August 27, 2026 roster; these are unverified allegations, and no official GDC mortality entry had appeared as of GPS's last review. Four earlier Coastal deaths (February 12, February 15, February 26, and two on March 3, 2026) appear in GPS intel events but fall before Stokes's June 1 arrival. A February 12, 2026 WTOC report described workers and inmates alleging a human rights crisis at Coastal, and an April 23, 2026 state health inspection scored the prison 70 for roaches, a dead mouse in mop water, mold, and improper food temperatures — both predating his tenure.

Litigation

• Pugh v. Fleming, No. 1:24-cv-02733 (N.D. Ga.), filed June 21, 2024, terminated August 9, 2024, no outcome amount recorded. Stokes is listed among the defendants per GPS records; position records place him at Long Unit in a facility-lead role at the time of filing.

Sources

• GPS mortality records and case reports (Central State, Long Unit, Coastal State tenures, 2020–2026)
• Long County Coroner report 91-010-24 and GBI case 2024-6000957 cause-of-death letter (Paquette)
• UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project, GA-Individual custodial mortality dataset (Daniels)
• GDC January 2025 mortality release (Maddox)
• Telegram relay message classified by GPS (Duran, March 1, 2026)
• Public Facebook posts (Burns death; Coastal witness accounts, August–September 2026)
• WTOC — human rights crisis reporting at Coastal State Prison (Feb. 12, 2026)
• 13WMAZ — Central State guard incidents (March 2025, December 2025)
• Georgia Public Broadcasting — Georgia prison violence and staffing reporting (Dec. 2023)
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Georgia prison homicide list (Bryant, Johnson, Parks, Lee)
• The Georgia Virtue — Coastal State Prison health inspection findings
• CourtListener docket — Pugh v. Fleming, 1:24-cv-02733
• GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger (open records) and GDC appointment/reassignment record (June 1, 2026)

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Sep 13, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.