Wilcox, Rickey W

Tenure Summary

Rickey W. Wilcox entered Georgia Department of Corrections service in the 2015 salary year as a corrections officer, according to state salary records, and advanced through correctional lieutenant (2016–2019) and correctional unit manager (2020–2022) before appearing as Deputy Warden at Telfair State Prison in the 2023 salary year. His Deputy Warden posting at Telfair continues through the 2025 records, with additional dated entries at the facility on Nov. 22, 2023, and Aug. 27, 2026. The records also list concurrent "CSM"-titled officer and sergeant positions in the same years with no facility named.

Telfair State Prison is the only facility where the records place Wilcox in a leadership-tier role, and it is the only facility to which deaths are attributed: 34 deaths during his leadership tenure, all at Telfair, per GPS's count. No lawsuit naming Wilcox as a defendant appears in the records reviewed.

What happened on their watch

Deputy Warden, Telfair State Prison (2023–2026). The sampled deaths during Wilcox's Deputy Warden tenure at Telfair span December 2023 into 2026, with the role-at-time recorded as Deputy Warden for each. Those named include Kwesi Jamal Stultz (24, Dec. 2023, multiple injuries to the head per incident records), Bobby Murray (51, Dec. 2023), Joey Lebron Kilgore (46, Feb. 2024, recorded as a homicide; death certificate not yet available at the time), Tochi Andre Leak (35, March 2024), Lamar Jarmaine Wilson (32, June 2024, died of injuries suffered in a fight per GDC), Zoumana Madiou Sarre (23, July 2024, multiple sharp force injuries to the neck and torso), Jerome Foster (65, July 2024), Anthony James Mulder (40, July 2024), Marc Avon LeFevre, Jr. (39, Aug. 2024), Henry Earl Crump (41, Sept. 2024, homicide shown in incident-report data), Eric Leigh Whitehead (29, Sept. 2024, died after a fight with another inmate per GDC), Aaron Joshua Smith (32, found stabbed in his cell), Guillermo Nava (33, Dec. 2024), and Deandre Moody (Jan. 2025, no age listed).

Later decedents in the sample include Ezra Dangelo Ford (21, March 2025), William Clinton Worley (49), Lester James Smith (45), Tony Morales Adame (32), Thaddeus Jovell Perry (50), Malindzo Eddy Hatcher (42), David Lane Campbell (44), Henry L. Gadson (60), Robert Wayne Messer (63), Gary Chad Thomason (53), Robert Baker (45), Preston C. Phelps (28, Dec. 2025), Elvis Noe Garcia-Nelasco (38), Kenneth George Hinton (41, Jan. 2026), Eric Bernard Haynes (51), Tavares Zavoyd Atwell (41), Timothy Wilson (48), Franciso Samuel Cruz-Castro (56), Antwane Shanfiel Robinson (46) and Kwame Conte McCombs (37, July 2026). Among sampled decedents, ages range from 21 to 65, with one age not recorded. Cause categories are stored as numeric codes in the source data; GPS does not restate those codes as causes of death.

Specific incidents documented during the tenure include the GDC Office of Professional Standards' homicide investigation into Phelps's death in an altercation with multiple inmates at Telfair (Dec. 2025), a GDC-confirmed killing after a fight with another inmate (July 21, 2025), and a March 25, 2024 incident in which the warden at Telfair was stabbed by an inmate during a contraband shakedown.

Two staffing allegations published by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution fall inside the tenure: a March 25, 2024 report stating Telfair was missing 76% of its essential workforce, leaving 36 correctional officers to supervise 1,400 prisoners, and a May 12, 2025 report stating that as of March, 79% of correctional officer positions were unfilled — 32 officers against a requirement of at least 153. The same March 2024 AJC commentary raised broader allegations of corruption, mismanagement and brutality across Georgia and neighboring prison systems and asserted that guards caught smuggling contraband are often young job jumpers with financial problems. A January 21, 2025 AJC report described a claim filed against the state alleging that De'ahmoz Oshmic Floyd had renounced his gang affiliation, making him a target of prior attacks, and was stabbed by several prisoners at a time when no prison staff were present in the dorm. A state Senate committee to study the prison system was authorized March 25, 2024, and on Aug. 21, 2025 the GBI identified Telfair inmate Kendall Alfonzo Stevens as the suspect in a bomb threat against an Atkinson County school. Separately, the Georgia Department of Administrative Services Risk Management settlement ledger records a $500 state liability payout tied to Telfair (2024) involving Deante Gholston.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Telfair State Prison staffing investigations (March 25, 2024; May 12, 2025); commentary on Georgia prison conditions (March 25, 2024); claim reporting on De'ahmoz Oshmic Floyd (Jan. 21, 2025)
• Georgia Department of Corrections — statements on inmate deaths at Telfair; Office of Professional Standards homicide investigation of Preston Cato Phelps
• Georgia Department of Administrative Services, Risk Management settlement ledger (open records) — $500 Telfair payout, Deante Gholston, 2024
• Georgia Senate / GBI — prison study committee authorization (March 2024); bomb-threat suspect identification (Aug. 2025)
• GPS personnel and incident records — position history and death records for Rickey W. Wilcox

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Sep 23, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.