Stokes, David

Tenure Summary

David Stokes began his career with the Georgia Department of Corrections as a correctional officer at Coastal State Prison in 2013 and advanced through a series of supervisory roles before entering facility-leadership posts. In early 2024 he became Correctional Superintendent (later Superintendent) at Long Unit, and by year’s end he was promoted to Warden at Central State Prison, where he served until mid-2026. He was then reassigned as Warden of Coastal State Prison in June 2026. GPS records attribute a total of 12 deaths to the facilities where Stokes held a leadership-tier position: one death at Long Unit and 11 at Central State Prison. A federal civil rights lawsuit naming him as a defendant was filed and terminated during his Long Unit tenure.

What happened on their watch

Long Unit (Superintendent, 2024)
Stokes assumed leadership at Long Unit in January 2024. On February 13, 2024, Cameron Ryan Paquette, 43, collapsed during a GDC work detail at a county park and later died. The Long County coroner’s death-investigation report and a GBI Coastal Lab autopsy determined the cause of death as hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease; the manner was classified as natural. This is the sole death GPS records attribute to Stokes’ tenure at the facility. During this same period, Stokes was named as a defendant in the lawsuit Pugh v. Fleming, filed on June 21, 2024, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia; the case was terminated on August 9, 2024, with no outcome amount reported.

Central State Prison (Warden, December 2024 – May 2026)
Stokes became Warden at Central State Prison on December 16, 2024. Over the next 17 months, GPS records document 11 deaths inside the prison, spanning a range of causes.

The first death occurred on December 29, 2024, when 38-year-old Brandon Jamal Pool died of an unclassified medical cause. In 2025, multiple additional deaths were recorded: Matthew Maddox (cerebral herniation due to extremely high blood pressure) on January 28; Lamancha Ware (48) on March 2; two deaths on April 21—Travis Jamal Gaither (41) and Ricky Eugene Rogers (68), the latter listed as natural or a drug overdose in C-Building; Ricky D. Ring (56) on July 16; James Theodore Miller (64) on September 22; Joseph Hamm (36) on October 8, whose death was attributed to an accidental opiate overdose after he was found with a burst balloon of drugs; and Ronald Goss (60) on October 23. In 2026, Miguel Angel Duran (44) died by suicide in the segregation unit on March 1, and Michael Lane Brooks (77) died of a medical cause on April 19.

Stokes’ tenure at Central State coincided with several reported incidents of violence and staff misconduct. According to 13WMAZ, in March 2025 three former prison guards were accused of beating an inmate and attempting a cover-up; in June 2025 three inmates were charged with stabbing another inmate; and in December 2025 a guard was arrested for falsely imprisoning four Department of Family and Child Services employees. Georgia Public Broadcasting and other outlets have documented severe staffing shortages and rising violence across Georgia prisons, including Central State, though the specific role of any systemic conditions in the 11 deaths is not established.

Litigation

• Pugh v. Fleming, Case No. 1:24-cv-02733 (GAND), filed June 21, 2024, and terminated August 9, 2024. Stokes was listed as a defendant while serving as Superintendent at Long Unit. No disposition details are available.

Sources

• GPS records — death logs, position histories, and intel submissions for David Stokes
• Long County Coroner death-investigation report (case 91-010-24) and GBI Coastal Lab autopsy (GBI case 2024-6000957) — Cameron Ryan Paquette
• CourtListener — Pugh v. Fleming, docket 68877534
• 13WMAZ — reports on guard misconduct and inmate stabbing at Central State Prison (2025)
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — DOJ report on prison homicides (ref. intel reports)
• Georgia Public Broadcasting — reporting on prison violence and staffing shortages (2023)

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Jul 12, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.