Watson, Kochelle

Tenure Summary

Kochelle Watson held multiple Georgia Department of Corrections roles beginning in 2015 as correction operations staff. Salary records show a progression to correctional lieutenant in 2016–2017, correctional unit manager in 2018, Deputy Warden at Johnson State Prison from 2019 through 2021, Correctional Superintendent at Emanuel Probation Detention Center in 2022, an unspecified 2023 Correctional Superintendent posting, and then Warden roles at Johnson State Prison beginning January 2024. GPS records attribute 67 deaths at Johnson State Prison across Watson’s leadership-tenure roles there. One lawsuit, Wade v. Morgan, is listed in GPS records with Watson as a defendant and remains pending. Settlement ledger entries also record major payouts tied to deaths at the facility, including $4,000,000 in the David Henegar case and $1,449,640 in the Jerry Brown case.

What happened on their watch

Johnson State Prison — Deputy Warden (2019–2021)

During Watson’s Deputy Warden tenure, GPS death records include Jerry Lee Brown, 61, who died Nov. 12, 2020, and David Lamar Henegar, 44, who died Oct. 16, 2021. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Georgia Prison Homicides Investigation listed Brown’s cause as stab wounds to the head and blunt force injury to the face, and Henegar’s as manual strangulation and blunt force trauma to the head. Lawsuits alleged that Henegar was housed with a mentally ill cellmate who had previously attacked him and that officers failed to intervene while neighboring prisoners screamed for help, according to the AJC. GPS records link a $1,449,640 state settlement to Brown’s death and a $4,000,000 settlement to Henegar’s estate. Other 2020–2021 deaths in the sample were classified in GDC data obtained by the UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project as natural, suicide, or undetermined.

Emanuel Probation Detention Center — Correctional Superintendent (2022)

GPS records show no deaths attributed to Watson’s 2022 Correctional Superintendent posting at Emanuel Probation Detention Center. A separate 2023 Correctional Superintendent salary entry lists no facility and carries no attributed deaths.

Johnson State Prison — Warden (2024–2026)

Watson returned to Johnson State Prison as Warden 1 in January 2024. The death records from this period include Kenneth Adam Robinson, 50, who died Aug. 10, 2024; the AJC identified his death as a homicide in incident report data. Multiple 2024–2026 records carry no stated cause. Several others contain allegations from prisoner or Telegram sources: Michael Elias Peschel, 36, died March 14, 2026, after allegedly receiving 20 stab wounds from a cellmate; Phillip Lamar Byrd, 46, died Jan. 18, 2026, with prisoner reports alleging gang violence and forced drugs; and Martrese Jamon McKay, 30, died April 18, 2026, with initial reports of suicide later contradicted by a report of sudden collapse. In 2025, Justin Brandon Hulett, 38, died Feb. 12, and Paul Russell Brewster, 48, died June 9, with a prisoner report describing the latter as a homicide. The sample also shows a dense cluster of deaths at the facility in July 2025.

Overlapping Watson’s warden tenure, GPS records show an April 2026 report alleging contaminated food trays at Johnson State Prison and illness among incarcerated people. Separately, former GDC CERT commander Tyler C. Ryals stated on his YouTube channel that in roughly spring 2024 the Johnson compound ran with only four staff on a Saturday and that a taser use-of-force incident was never entered into GDC’s system. These accounts are witness claims, not adjudicated findings.

Litigation

• Wade v. Morgan, No. 3:23-cv-00073 (S.D. Ga.), filed Aug. 31, 2023; status listed as pending, with no closing date or outcome amount. GPS settlement ledger records link the Wade plaintiff to the Estate of David Lamar Henegar.

Sources

• GPS records — personnel, mortality, intelligence reports, and settlement ledger
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Georgia Prison Homicides Investigation and 2026 Henegar settlement reporting
• UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project custodial mortality dataset — GDC coding obtained via open records, 2015–2021
• Georgia Department of Administrative Services Risk Management settlement ledger — via open records
• CourtListener docket — Wade v. Morgan, 3:23-cv-00073
• Tyler C. Ryals YouTube channel — staffing and use-of-force claims at Johnson State Prison, spring 2024
• 13WMAZ and Smalls Funeral Home obituary — Justin Brandon Hulett death record

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Aug 16, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.