Home › Intelligence › Personnel Accountability › Warren, Willesha
Warren, Willesha
Status: active
Profile written July 12, 2026
This profile reflects positional accountability — this individual held the leadership roles shown during the dates shown, during which the listed deaths or lawsuits occurred. Inclusion does not constitute a legal finding of personal culpability for any specific incident.
Tenure Summary
Willesha Warren began her career with the Georgia Department of Corrections in 2015 as a behavioral health counselor and rose to a supervisory role before being appointed Deputy Warden at Smith State Prison in 2022. She has remained in that facility-leadership post through at least the end of 2025, and GPS records show her status as active. During Warren’s tenure as deputy warden—a period that spans from 2022 to the present—GPS records attribute 26 deaths to Smith State Prison. The facility also drew intense scrutiny for homicides, suicides, systemic contraband operations, chronic understaffing, and the 2023 arrest of its warden on racketeering and bribery charges.What happened on their watch
Warren’s leadership responsibility at Smith State Prison began in 2022. That year, GPS records show five deaths: Juan Orduna (suicide), Nathan Mahan (homicide by stab wounds, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution), Manuel Villagomez (suicide), Jerome Tisdol (suicide), and Michael Turner (suicide). The case of Tisdol attracted attention when the Tattnall County coroner requested an autopsy that the GBI medical examiner declined, a pattern documented by investigators. By early 2023, then-Warden Brian Adams was arrested on felony charges of bribery, attempted RICO violation, and making false statements—allegations that would later become central to a civil suit accusing him and others of facilitating a criminal enterprise inside the prison.In 2023 the death toll rose sharply to 13 fatalities, eight of them homicides documented by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Randy Wynn (homicide), Anthony Zino (asphyxia from neck compression; his body was badly decomposed and likely undiscovered for days), Calvin Denson (stab wound), Shaquan Boykins (blunt impact head injuries), Justin Smith (epidural hematoma from blunt force), Quenton Mayo (stab wounds to the neck), James Adams (blunt force trauma to the head and neck), and Donquerius Mahone (homicide). The remaining deaths that year were suicides. News reports from The Georgia Virtue and the AJC described rampant contraband cell phones, gang activity, and a correctional officer staffing crisis—by August 2023, 70% of officer positions were vacant at some state facilities. A lawsuit filed in 2025 later alleged that inmates had repeatedly warned staff about a gun on the premises before a deadly shooting.
The violence escalated in 2024. The GPS list includes homicides such as Mahone’s, and suicides including those of Jaydrekus Hart, Calvin Craft, Orlando Jordan, and Richard Williams. Most prominently, on June 16, 2024, inmate Jaydrekus Hart used a firearm that investigators believe was smuggled in by drone to shoot and kill Aramark food service worker Aureon Grace in the prison kitchen; Hart then shot and killed himself. Correctional Officer Robert Clark was fatally stabbed by an inmate five days later. The AJC reported that the prison had only 53 correctional officers out of a budgeted 160, a vacancy rate of roughly two-thirds. Governor Kemp announced a system-wide assessment, and the U.S. Department of Justice’s ongoing scrutiny of the GDC, which began in 2021, remained active.
In 2025, the sole death recorded is that of 77-year-old John Jacobs, who died of cardiorespiratory arrest due to sepsis from pre-existing peptic ulcer disease, according to a Tattnall County coroner’s report. The deputy coroner, Daniel Bennett, stated on the record that every in-custody death should receive independent third-party review. By 2026 three additional deaths had already occurred: Dreeonnie Lee Hart (suicide), Dwayne Eric Albritton (cause category unknown), and Nicholas Shafer—whose death was described in a user-submitted GPS report as a homicide in which his hands and feet were bound with an object stuffed in his mouth.
Litigation
- Daker v. Ward (7:20-cv-00113, GAMD, filed June 11, 2020, terminated Nov. 3, 2021): named Warren as a defendant during her pre-leadership counselor years; the case was terminated.
- Hamilton v. Beasley (6:25-cv-00057, GASD, filed July 22, 2025, pending): filed during Warren’s deputy warden tenure, the suit involves allegations related to prison conditions and contraband at Smith State Prison (source: CourtListener).
- Daker v. Oliver Filing Restriction Per 59 Order (1:25-cv-03191, GAND, filed June 6, 2025, terminated March 30, 2026): pending during Warren’s tenure, then terminated; claims details are not specified, but the filing restriction order suggests a related pattern of litigation over prison policy.
Sources
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution — investigative reporting on Georgia prison homicides, contraband schemes, and the Smith State Prison shooting
- The Georgia Virtue — reporting on the Tattnall County grand jury indictment of former Warden Brian Adams and civil lawsuits linking him and others to a criminal enterprise
- WTOC — coverage of a former Smith State Prison employee charged with sexual assault
- Georgia Public Broadcasting — reporting on drone-delivered contraband and staffing testimony before the state Senate committee
- The Marshall Project — reporting on extreme understaffing, decomposing bodies, and excessive force linked to officer shortages
- In These Times — reporting on prisoner strike allegations regarding conditions, medical neglect, and the sale of contraband by correctional officers
- GPS records — death counts, cause categories, and internal notes for 26 deaths attributed during Willesha Warren’s tenure as deputy warden
- CourtListener (PACER) — docket records for Hamilton v. Beasley, Daker v. Oliver Filing Restriction, and Daker v. Ward
- Tattnall County Coroner’s Office — death investigation report for John Jacobs, including GBI autopsy refusal documentation
- GBI Medical Examiner’s Office — records documenting declination to perform an autopsy on Jerome Tisdol
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| DEPUTY WARDEN | SMITH STATE PRISON | 2022-01-01 → present |
| BEHAVIORAL HLTH COUNSELOR SPV | 2021-01-01 → 2021-12-31 | |
| BEHAVIORAL HLTH COUNSELOR 3 | 2018-01-01 → 2020-12-31 | |
| BEHAVIORAL HLTH COUNSELOR 2 | 2016-01-01 → 2017-12-31 | |
| BEH HEALTH/COUNSELOR (WL) | 2015-01-01 → 2015-12-31 |
Lawsuits as defendant
| Case # | Court | Filed | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6:25-cv-00057 | GASD | 2025-07-22 | pending |
| 1:25-cv-03191 | GAND | 2025-06-06 | terminated |
| 7:20-cv-00113 | GAMD | 2020-06-11 | terminated |
Deaths attributed during tenure
26 people died at facilities under Warren, Willesha's leadership.
Submit a correction
If you are the named individual or an authorized representative and dispute information on this page, submit details below. Substantiated corrections are applied promptly. Disputes that remain unresolved are flagged on the profile.