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Wilcox, Rickey W
Status: active
Profile written June 21, 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
Rickey W. Wilcox rose through the Georgia Department of Corrections starting as a corrections officer in 2015, serving as a lieutenant and unit manager before being appointed deputy warden at Telfair State Prison in January 2023. During his tenure in that facility-leadership role, GPS records attribute 37 deaths at Telfair State Prison. No lawsuits name Wilcox as a defendant.Wilcox’s time as deputy warden coincided with a period of severe dysfunction at Telfair, which drew sustained media and legislative scrutiny. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that by early 2026, Telfair was missing 79 percent of its correctional officer positions, leaving as few as 32 officers to supervise roughly 1,400 prisoners. The same investigation documented a long string of homicides inside the prison, and a separate federal prosecution revealed a sergeant at the facility had pleaded guilty to smuggling methamphetamine for a white-supremacist prison gang for at least two years. The warden himself was stabbed during a contraband shakedown in March 2024.
What happened on their watch
Wilcox held the single leadership-tier posting of deputy warden at Telfair State Prison from January 1, 2023 through at least the end of 2025, with deaths attributed to his tenure extending into mid-2026. All 37 deaths recorded by GPS occurred during that stretch. The deaths reflect a range of causes documented in coroner records, GDC statements, and an AJC investigation: at least sixteen were homicides, predominantly by stabbing or sharp-force injury; additional deaths involved drug overdoses, suicide by hanging, a heart attack, and a death from environmental heat exposure. More than a dozen deaths were classified under causes that remain pending or unknown.Several fatalities drew public attention. On July 20, 2023, 27-year-old Juan Carlos Ramirez Bibiano died at Telfair after officers left him in an outdoor recreation cage for five hours with a heat index of 105 degrees; he arrived at a hospital with an internal temperature of 107°F, and GDC initially reported the death as “natural causes.” On April 18, 2023, De’ahmoz Oshmic Floyd, 29, bled to death from a stab wound to the neck; a claim filed against the state, cited by the AJC, alleged he was stabbed by multiple prisoners when no staff were present in the dorm. In December 2025, 28-year-old Preston C. Phelps was killed in what authorities described as a gang-related fight, and the GDC Office of Professional Standards opened a homicide investigation. Other deaths during Wilcox’s watch include Malindzo Eddy Hatcher, 42, stabbed in a common area; Kwesi Jamal Stultz, 24, killed by multiple head injuries; and Joey Lebron Kilgore, 45, stabbed in an open dormitory while asleep, according to GPS reports and coroner findings.
The violence unfolded against a backdrop of extreme understaffing and contraband infiltration. The AJC’s prison-homicides investigation noted that Telfair’s officer shortage left it unable to secure living units, and intel reports gathered by GPS describe visitation cancellations, lockdowns, and a stabbing that resulted in a prisoner losing a finger. In 2023, Sergeant Desiree Briley was sentenced for her part in a Ghost Face Gangsters drug network that moved meth into the prison. Although none of these systemic findings have been legally tied to Wilcox personally, they characterize the facility environment during the years he served as deputy warden.
Sources
- GPS personnel and death-tracking records (total deaths, dates, causes)
- Telfair County Coroner records (2023–2025), including pronouncement-of-death forms and autopsy orders
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Georgia Prison Homicides Investigation (confirmation of homicides, heat-related death, staffing data)
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporting on Telfair contraband and officer arrests (Desiree Briley case)
- 13WMAZ, WTOC, WGXA — reports on deaths of Preston Phelps, Malindzo Hatcher, Aaron Smith, and others at Telfair State Prison
- GPS research notes and intel reports citing GDC Office of Professional Standards investigations into multiple Telfair deaths
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| CSM CORRECTIONAL SERGEANT | 2024-01-01 → present | |
| DEPUTY WARDEN | TELFAIR STATE PRISON | 2023-01-01 → present |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 2 | 2020-01-01 → 2023-12-31 | |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL UNIT MANAGER | 2020-01-01 → 2022-12-31 | |
| CORRECTIONAL OFC 1 | 2019-01-01 → 2019-12-31 | |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL LIEUTENANT | 2016-01-01 → 2019-12-31 | |
| CORRECTIONS OFFICER (SP) | 2015-01-01 → 2015-12-31 |
Deaths attributed during tenure
37 people died at facilities under Wilcox, Rickey W's leadership.
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