Watts, Patricia

Tenure Summary

Patricia Watts's GDC personnel record runs from 2015, when she appears as a BEH Health/Counselor (WL), through a sequence of behavioral-health counseling posts — Behavioral Hlth Counselor 2 in 2016 and 2017, then Behavioral Hlth Counselor 3 from 2018 through 2022. In 2023 she moved into human resources as HR Tech Spv (2023–2025); personnel records place an HR Tech Spv assignment at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison on Nov. 22, 2023, and again on Aug. 27, 2026. On Sept. 1, 2026, she became Deputy Warden of Care and Treatment at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison, the only leadership-tier posting in her record, and she remains listed there as active.

Two deaths are attributed to her leadership tenure, both at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison: Wendell Thomas Cochran and Dru Eggebrecht. The records show no lawsuits naming Watts as a defendant.

What happened on their watch

Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison — Deputy Warden of Care and Treatment (Sept. 1, 2026 – present). Two deaths in GPS's death registry fall inside this tenure:

• Wendell Thomas Cochran died September 22, 2026, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; GPS's death registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical. He was 68.
• Dru Eggebrecht died September 5, 2026, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison. GPS's death registry records the cause as Unknown/Pending — the registry does not yet show a cause — and lists her age as 39.

During the same period, records at the facility document a set of matters tied to the Deputy Warden of Care and Treatment role. A Sept. 17, 2026 witness-claim report published by the Human and Civil Rights Coalition of Georgia — a share of a video by former correctional officer Kerri-Ann Crumbley — relays Crumbley's account of a hiring and retention problem in the department and her statement that, while guarding an incarcerated patient at a hospital post, things she could have done for that person were refused to her as against policy. The report notes that GDC's personnel records carry no facility for Crumbley, that she has since left the department, and that accounts differ on whether she was fired or resigned; GPS asserts neither.

Also documented while Watts held the role: a WGXA report dated Sept. 11, 2026, relayed the allegation that Deivon Waller conspired to smuggle methamphetamine, marijuana and cell phones into multiple Georgia prisons using drones. On the same date, records show Waller sentenced to 240 months in federal prison, a $2,000 fine and three years of supervised release; inmate Asa James Ward sentenced to 56 months and a $1,500 fine; and inmate Tristahn Ash sentenced to 92 months and a $1,500 fine.

The facility's death-row calendar is also logged in this window. Stacey Ian Humphreys was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 7:00 p.m. on Sept. 16, 2026; a clemency hearing was set for Sept. 15, 2026, and the Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency that day. His attorneys filed a notice of appeal on Sept. 15, 2026, asking the Georgia Supreme Court to review a Sept. 10 Cobb County Superior Court decision denying a new trial. Earlier, per WRDW (Sept. 9, 2026) and The Georgia Virtue (Sept. 1, 2026), Humphreys' execution had been halted in December after his lawyers argued two Board of Pardons and Paroles members had conflicts of interest; a judge ruled that member Kimberly McCoy must recuse herself but found no conflict for the other member, and a December 2025 clemency meeting was postponed amid that litigation.

Sources

• GPS death registry — cause and date listings for Wendell Thomas Cochran and Dru Eggebrecht, Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison, September 2026
• Human and Civil Rights Coalition of Georgia (Facebook) — Kerri-Ann Crumbley witness-claim report, Sept. 17, 2026
• WGXA — drone-contraband allegation and sentencing coverage, Sept. 11, 2026
• WRDW — Humphreys clemency and appeal coverage, Sept. 9, 2026
• The Georgia Virtue — Parole Board conflict ruling, Sept. 1, 2026
• Georgia Department of Corrections scheduling records — Humphreys execution date and clemency filings, September 2026

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Nov 1, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.