Stokes, David

Tenure Summary

David Stokes joined the Georgia Department of Corrections in 2013 as a correctional officer at Coastal State Prison and rose steadily through the ranks — sergeant (2016), lieutenant (2017–2022), assistant superintendent (2023), and superintendent at Long Unit (2024) — before being appointed Warden at Central State Prison on December 16, 2024, a post he continues to hold. GPS records show ten distinct individuals died at facilities during Stokes's tenure in facility-lead roles: one at Long Unit during his time as superintendent and nine at Central State Prison since he assumed the warden role. Two lawsuits in which Stokes appears as a named defendant are pending in federal court as of the time of this writing.

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What Happened on Their Watch

Long Unit — Correctional Superintendent (2024-01-01 to 2024-12-15)

GPS records show one death attributed to Long Unit during Stokes's tenure as superintendent: Cameron Ryan Paquette, 43, on February 13, 2024 (cause category 6; no additional notes in the record). No lawsuits naming Stokes in connection with Long Unit have been identified in GPS records.

Central State Prison — Warden (2024-12-16 to present)

Stokes became Warden at Central State Prison on December 16, 2024. GPS records attribute nine deaths to the facility during his tenure there. Brandon Jamal Pool, 38, died December 29, 2024. In 2025, deaths recorded include: Matthew Maddox (age not recorded, January 28, 2025; notes list cause as cerebral herniation due to extremely high blood pressure); LaMancha Ware, 48 (March 2, 2025); Travis Jamal Gaither, 41, and Ricky Eugene Rogers, 68 (both April 21, 2025 — Rogers's notes indicate "Natural/Drug OD (C-bldg)"); Ricky D. Ring, 56 (July 16, 2025); James Theodore Miller, 64 (September 22, 2025); Joseph Hamm, 36 (October 8, 2025); and Ronald Goss, 60 (October 23, 2025). A GPS AI-classified Telegram relay report (GPS-260301-CFA0ED) further records a death by suicide in the segregation unit on March 1, 2026, identified as Miguel Angel Duran, 44; GPS notes that identity was still being determined at the time of the report.

Regarding Joseph Hamm's death, a GPS case report (GPS-DEATH-2025-E7CD5) sourced to a dorm resident alleges Hamm was being transferred from segregation, was notified at 11 p.m. to pack his belongings, and was found at 1 a.m. with a balloon of opiates in his mouth that had burst open; the report states the official cause of death would likely be listed as heart attack caused by opiate overdose.

Broader conditions at Central State Prison during Stokes's tenure have drawn outside scrutiny. According to 13WMAZ, three former prison guards faced accusations of beating an inmate and attempting a cover-up in March 2025, and a guard at the facility faced charges after allegedly falsely imprisoning four DFCS employees over child support payments in December 2025. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a DOJ report documented two homicides at Central State Prison in December 2023 — Hollis Alan Bryant, 28, stabbed to death on December 17, with three prisoners criminally charged, and Marquis L. Johnson, 26, stabbed in the prison barbershop on December 8 and dying on December 18 after cardiac arrest secondary to the stabbing — predating Stokes's warden appointment but establishing a documented pattern of violence at the facility he now leads. Georgia Public Broadcasting has reported that severe staff shortages have allowed gang members to effectively run Georgia state prisons, contributing to rising violence and deaths, and that families of people who die in Georgia prisons are routinely left without information about what happened to their loved ones.

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Litigation

• Emerson v. Clayton County Georgia, No. 1:24-cv-04843 (N.D. Ga.), filed October 23, 2024 — pending per court records.
• Pugh v. Fleming, No. 1:24-cv-02733 (N.D. Ga.), filed June 21, 2024 — terminated August 9, 2024; no outcome amount recorded.
• Pugh v. Fleming, No. 2:24-cv-00074 (S.D. Ga.), filed June 10, 2024 — terminated June 21, 2024; no outcome amount recorded.
• Robert M. Taylor III v. Piedmont Healthcare Inc, No. 1:24-cv-00019 (S.D. Ga.), filed February 16, 2024 — pending per court records.
• Taylor v. University Health Services Inc, No. 1:23-cv-00047 (S.D. Ga.), filed April 19, 2023 — terminated December 14, 2023; no outcome amount recorded.
• Stuart, No. 1:17-cv-00107 (S.D. Ga.), filed August 28, 2017 — terminated December 6, 2018; no outcome amount recorded.
• Duckwitz v. Gibson Technical Services Inc, No. 1:12-cv-00114 (N.D. Ga.), filed January 12, 2012 — terminated September 27, 2013; no outcome amount recorded.
• Redus Georgia Commercial LLC v. Athens Area ENT LLC, No. 1:11-cv-04320 (N.D. Ga.), filed December 13, 2011 — terminated June 8, 2012; no outcome amount recorded.

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Sources

• GPS records — deaths-during-tenure table; positions table; intel reports (GPS-260301-CFA0ED; GPS-DEATH-2025-E7CD5; GPS Case Management report 2026-04-13)
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — homicide reports at Central State Prison (Bryant, Johnson) and Coastal State Prison (Parks, Lee); DOJ report findings
• 13WMAZ — guard assault allegations (March 2025); guard false-imprisonment charges (December 2025), Central State Prison
• Georgia Public Broadcasting — systemic staff shortage and gang-control reporting; family notification failures
• CourtListener / federal court records — all eight docketed cases listed under Litigation

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on May 10, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.