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, later rising through the ranks to sergeant, lieutenant, and correctional assistant superintendent. According to GPS records, during the periods in which Stokes held facility-level leadership positions — first as Correctional Superintendent at Long Unit in 2024 and then as Warden at Central State Prison from December 2024 through May 2026 — a total of 12 deaths are attributed to the facilities under his command: 1 at Long Unit and 11 at Central State. Stokes is also named as a defendant in multiple civil lawsuits spanning commercial, medical, and other matters, though none are known to be tied directly to the custodial deaths recorded during his leadership tenures.

What happened on their watch

Long Unit — Correctional Superintendent (January 2024 – December 2024)

Stokes assumed the top supervisory role at Long Unit in early 2024. On February 13 of that year, incarcerated man Cameron Ryan Paquette, 43, collapsed while on a GDC work detail at a Long County park complex and was pronounced dead later that morning. The Long County Coroner’s death-investigation report and a GBI Coastal Lab autopsy, obtained by GPS through an open-records request, list the cause of death as hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease; the manner was ruled natural. No further deaths are attributed to Stokes’s tenure at Long Unit.

Central State Prison — Warden (December 16, 2024 – May 31, 2026)

Stokes became warden of Central State Prison in mid-December 2024. Over the next seventeen months, GPS records show that eleven incarcerated men died at the facility.

The earliest death occurred on December 29, 2024, when Brandon Jamal Pool, 38, died (GPS cause category 6). In 2025, deaths continued: Matthew Maddox (age not recorded) died on January 28 from cerebral herniation due to extremely high blood pressure (category 6), followed by Lamancha Ware, 48, on March 2 (category 6). On April 21, two deaths occurred: Ricky Eugene Rogers, 68, with notes indicating “Natural/Drug OD (C-bldg)” (category 5), and Travis Jamal Gaither, 41 (category 6). Ricky D Ring, 56, died on July 16 (category 6), James Theodore Miller, 64, on September 22 (category 6), and Joseph Hamm, 36, on October 8. According to an inmate-reported tip gathered by GPS intelligence records, Hamm was found with a burst balloon of opiates in his mouth during a facility transfer; the death was logged as an accidental overdose (category 5). Ronald Goss, 60, died on October 23 (category 6).

In 2026, Miguel Angel Duran, 44, died on March 1 — a death that GPS intelligence records, relying on a Telegram relay, classify as a suicide in the segregation unit (category 2). The final death listed during Stokes’s tenure is that of Michael Lane Brooks, 77, on April 19, 2026 (category 6).

While Stokes served as warden, Central State was also the scene of multiple violent and administrative incidents documented by news reports. In March 2025, three former guards were accused of beating an inmate and attempting a cover-up, per 13WMAZ; three inmates were charged with stabbing another prisoner in June 2025; a guard was arrested in December 2025 for falsely imprisoning DFCS employees; and a fight between two inmates in January 2026 sent one to the hospital, with the GDC launching an investigation. During this same period, a 2024 U.S. Department of Justice investigation had concluded that Georgia prisons system-wide were failing to protect incarcerated people from violence and unconstitutional conditions, allegations of severe understaffing allowing gangs to exert control were raised by Georgia Public Broadcasting, and a federal judge scolded the GDC commissioner for flouting court orders — a broader environment that overlapped Stokes’s tenure at Central State.

Litigation

Court records list multiple civil suits in which David Stokes is named as a defendant, including several filed during his years as a correctional supervisor:

• Emerson v. Clayton County Georgia, No. 1:24-cv-04843 (N.D. Ga., filed Oct. 23, 2024) — pending.
• Pugh v. Fleming, No. 1:24-cv-02733 (N.D. Ga., filed June 21, 2024; terminated Aug. 9, 2024).
• Pugh v. Fleming, No. 2:24-cv-00074 (S.D. Ga., filed June 10, 2024; terminated June 21, 2024).
• Robert M Taylor Iii v. Piedmont Healthcare Inc, No. 1:24-cv-00019 (S.D. Ga., filed Feb. 16, 2024) — pending.
• Taylor v. University Health Services Inc, No. 1:23-cv-00047 (S.D. Ga., filed Apr. 19, 2023; terminated Dec. 14, 2023).
• Stuart, No. 1:17-cv-00107 (S.D. Ga., filed Aug. 28, 2017; terminated Dec. 6, 2018).
• Duckwitz v. Gibson Technical Services Inc, No. 1:12-cv-00114 (N.D. Ga., filed Jan. 12, 2012; terminated Sept. 27, 2013).
• Redus Georgia Commercial Llc v. Athens Area Ent Llc, No. 1:11-cv-04320 (N.D. Ga., filed Dec. 13, 2011; terminated June 8, 2012).

None of these lawsuits are linked in the available records to the deaths that occurred during Stokes’s facility-lead tenures.

Sources

• Georgia Department of Corrections employment and death records (GPS data set) — career timeline, total deaths attributed (12), per-facility totals, and individual decedent logs.
• Long County Coroner’s Office / GBI autopsy report (case 91-010-24) — cause and manner of Cameron Paquette’s death.
• GPS intelligence records (Telegram relay) — classification of Miguel Angel Duran’s death as a suicide in segregation and inmate-reported circumstances of Joseph Hamm’s overdose.
• 13WMAZ — reporting on guard misconduct, inmate fight, and arrest at Central State Prison.
• Georgia Public Broadcasting — reporting on staffing shortages and violence in Georgia prisons.
• CourtListener docket records — filings and dispositions in the lawsuits naming David Stokes.

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Jun 7, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.