Warren, Willesha

Tenure Summary

Willesha Warren held Georgia Department of Corrections positions as a behavioral health counselor from 2015 through 2021, advancing from counselor to behavioral health counselor supervisor, according to GPS position and salary records. In 2022, she became deputy warden at Smith State Prison; GPS records list deputy warden entries through 2025 and an additional 2026 record, with active status.

GPS records attribute 26 deaths at Smith State Prison to Warren’s deputy-warden tenure. The death records during that period include homicides documented by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, suicides by hanging later confirmed in GBI medical examiner records, natural deaths, an accidental drug toxicity, a GPS medical-neglect determination, and cases where no cause is specified in the supplied record. The same period drew reporting about severe understaffing, contraband smuggling, and criminal allegations against the facility’s warden.

What happened on their watch

Smith State Prison — deputy warden, 2022 onward

GPS records count 26 deaths at Smith State Prison during Warren’s tenure as deputy warden. Among the earliest in the structured sample, Michael Lewis Turner’s death was later recorded by GBI as accidental methamphetamine and synthetic cannabinoid toxicity complicating coronary atherosclerosis. Jerome Tisdol’s case is documented in GPS records as a coroner-requested autopsy that GBI declined to perform; GPS records state no state forensic examination was conducted. Manuel Villagomez and Juan Miguel Orduna were later recorded by GBI as suicides by hanging, and Nathan Michael Mahan was listed in the AJC homicide investigation as a stabbing death.

The 2023 records show a dense homicide cluster: Randy Wynn, Anthony Joseph Zino III, Calvin Darrell Denson Jr., Shaquan Jahrel Boykins, Justin Tyler Smith, Quenton George Mayo, and James Adams Jr. are listed in the AJC investigation with causes including blunt-force trauma, stab wounds, and asphyxia. Boris Ignacio Mejia was later recorded by GBI as suicide by hanging. Walter Russell Wright’s death was natural, per GBI. Lawrence Leon Woods died of acute peritonitis from a probable perforated gastric ulcer; GBI ruled the manner accident, while GPS records carry a separate medical-neglect determination. Separately, GPS event records note the October 2023 killing of correctional officer Robert Clark.

In 2024, the records include Donquerius Lamonte Mahone, listed by AJC as a homicide; Richard Jermine Williams, later recorded by GBI as accidental toxic effects of MDMB-4en-PINACA; and Gineli Antoine Gray, Jaydrekus Cartez Hart, Orlando Jordan, and Calvin Bernard Craft, whose causes are not specified in the record. GPS-tracked events also describe Jaydrekus Hart fatally shooting Aramark food service worker Aureon Shavea Grace in the prison kitchen before shooting himself, followed by a system-wide GDC lockdown and Gov. Kemp’s announced assessment.

In 2025, John Jacobs died at East Georgia Regional Medical Center; a Tattnall County coroner record lists natural manner from sepsis and multiorgan failure following abdominal surgeries. In 2026, the records include Nicholas Shafer — whose notes contain a user-submitted report that he had been beaten and his hands and feet were tied with an object in his mouth — and Dwayne Eric Albritton and Dreeonnie Lee Hart, with no cause specified.

Across this period, news and intel reports collected by GPS described severe understaffing at Smith State Prison. The AJC reported about two-thirds of correctional officer positions unfilled, and The Marshall Project reported staff so overstretched they failed to notice a decomposing body for days. The Georgia Virtue and AJC also reported allegations that Warden Brian Adams and a former officer took part in a contraband and RICO enterprise; GPS events record Adams’s 2023 arrest and later indictment. Those reports name other officials, not Warren. GPS records also note a $450,000 state liability payout tied to Smith State Prison in 2023, per the Georgia DOAS settlement ledger.

Litigation

• Hamilton v. Beasley, No. 6:25-cv-00057 (S.D. Ga., filed 2025-07-22) — pending.
• Daker v. Oliver Filing Restriction Per 59 Order, No. 1:25-cv-03191 (N.D. Ga., filed 2025-06-06) — terminated 2026-03-30.
• Daker v. Ward, No. 7:20-cv-00113 (M.D. Ga., filed 2020-06-11) — terminated 2021-11-03.

None of the case captions name Warren directly.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Georgia Prison Homicides Investigation; Smith State Prison contraband, understaffing, and fatal shooting coverage.
• The Georgia Virtue — reporting on former Smith State Prison warden RICO indictment and civil suit allegations.
• GBI Division of Forensic Sciences — autopsy and declination records obtained via open records requests.
• Tattnall County Coroner — death record for John Jacobs.
• The Marshall Project — reporting on understaffing and failure to discover a body.
• CourtListener — dockets for Hamilton v. Beasley, Daker v. Oliver, and Daker v. Ward.
• Georgia DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger — $450,000 Smith State Prison payout.

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Sep 6, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.