Wilcox, Rickey W

Tenure Summary

Rickey W. Wilcox entered the Georgia Department of Corrections in 2015 as a correctional officer, then served as a lieutenant from 2016 through 2018 and as a correctional unit manager from 2020 through 2022, according to state salary records. In 2023 he moved into facility leadership as Deputy Warden at Telfair State Prison, a post the records show him holding through 2025, and from July 16, 2026 he has served as Deputy Warden of Security at the same facility. His personnel record lists him as active; no other sourced status is recorded.

GPS attributes 28 deaths at Telfair State Prison to his leadership tenure there — the entirety of the deaths credited to his career. No lawsuit naming him as a defendant appears in the records. The deaths span a facility the Atlanta Journal-Constitution described in March 2024 as missing 76% of its essential workforce, with 36 correctional officers supervising 1,400 prisoners, and in May 2025 as having 79% of correctional officer positions unfilled — 32 officers for a facility requiring at least 153.

What happened on their watch

Telfair State Prison — Deputy Warden (2023–2025); Deputy Warden of Security (from July 16, 2026)

Twenty-eight deaths are recorded at Telfair during Wilcox's leadership there. GPS's death registry names the following decedents:

• Kwame Conte Mccombs died July 25, 2026, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending.
• Elvis Noe Garcia-Nelasco died December 29, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending.
• Preston C Phelps died December 13, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide.
• Robert Baker died October 12, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Suicide.
• Gary Chad Thomason died September 14, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending.
• Robert Wayne Messer died September 11, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Overdose.
• Henry L Gadson died September 10, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending.
• David Lane Campbell died July 22, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Overdose.
• Malindzo Eddy Hatcher died July 21, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide.
• Thaddeus Jovell Perry died July 17, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending.
• Tony Morales Adame died June 26, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Overdose.
• Lester James Smith died June 2, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide.
• William Clinton Worley died April 12, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending.
• Ezra Dangelo Ford died March 25, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide.
• Deandre Moody died January 28, 2025, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide.
• Guillermo Nava died December 27, 2024, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending.
• Aaron Joshua Smith died December 19, 2024, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide.
• Eric Leigh Whitehead died September 18, 2024, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide.
• Henry Earl Crump died September 2, 2024, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide.
• Marc Avon Jr Lefevre died August 29, 2024, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending.
• Anthony James Mulder died July 7, 2024, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Suicide.
• Zoumana Madiou Sarre died July 5, 2024, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide.
• Jerome Foster died July 3, 2024, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending.
• Lamar Jarmaine Wilson died June 1, 2024, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide.
• Tochi Andre Leak died March 9, 2024, at Telfair State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Accident.

Homicide is the most frequent recorded category among these. GDC's Office of Professional Standards investigated the December 2025 death of Preston Cato Phelps as a homicide after an altercation with multiple inmates; the GBI Crime Lab was to determine cause of death. Zoumana Madiou Sarre, 23, died in July 2024 from multiple sharp force injuries to the neck and torso, and Kwesi Jamal Stultz, 24, died in December 2023 from multiple injuries to the head, per GDC statements reported at the time.

A claim filed against the state, reported by the AJC in January 2025, alleged that De'ahmoz Oshmic Floyd was stabbed by several prisoners at a time when no staff were present in the dorm, and that his renunciation of gang affiliation had made him a target of earlier attacks.

Other reports tied to his tenure: the AJC reported in March 2024 that Telfair's warden was stabbed by an inmate during a contraband shakedown; that same month the state Senate authorized a study committee on the prison system. GPS also logs a $500 state liability settlement tied to Telfair (Deante Gholston, incident year 2024), per the Georgia DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger.

In 2026, inmate reports logged while Wilcox was Deputy Warden of Security described a large fight between rival groups in a dorm that continued as officers deployed chemical agents, an altercation producing at least three injuries and at least one fatality, and a further report that a regional director visited the facility after a death. A separate record notes an inmate death in an altercation at the facility on July 21, and a September 2026 gang-related fight confined to one dorm that injured three inmates; GDC placed all facilities under lockdown afterward. A GPS allegation logged in July 2026, attributed to no named publication, stated that multiple people were killed at Telfair in a 2025 conflict between the Bloods and Muslims that triggered a statewide lockdown. Separately, the GBI identified Telfair inmate Kendall Alfonzo Stevens as the suspect in an August 2025 bomb threat against an Atkinson County school, per a Yahoo.com report.

Sources

• Georgia Prisoners' Speak death registry — 28 deaths at Telfair State Prison during Wilcox's leadership tenure
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Telfair staffing (March 2024; May 2025), warden stabbed during shakedown (March 2024), claim in the De'ahmoz Oshmic Floyd matter (January 2025)
• Georgia Department of Corrections statements — deaths of Preston Cato Phelps, Zoumana Madiou Sarre, Kwesi Jamal Stultz, Eric Whitehead, Henry Crump, Lamar Wilson
• Georgia Bureau of Investigation / 13WMAZ — bomb threat traced to a Telfair inmate (August 2025)
• Yahoo.com — bomb threat allegation against Kendall Alfonzo Stevens
• Georgia DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger (Open Records) — $500 Telfair settlement, Deante Gholston
• GPS case submissions — inmate and Telegram-sourced reports from Telfair dated 2024–2026

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Oct 25, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.