Five inmates stabbed in fight at Baldwin State Prison

Published 5:26 pm Monday, December 12, 2022

An apparent fight at Baldwin State Prison near Milledgeville on Friday morning led to the stabbings of five inmates, multiple sources told The Union-Recorder.

One of the victims was seriously injured and taken to a Macon trauma center.

A source who asked not to be identified told the newspaper that a call was made to the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office 911 Center between 9 and 9:15 a.m. that indicated medical assistance was needed because multiple inmates had been stabbed.

At least three ambulances from Grady Emergency Medical Services as well as two other ambulances, one from the Putnam County Emergency Medical Services and another one from Wilkinson County, were dispatched to the prison.

Ambulance personnel treated all five prison inmates at the scene and then transported each of them to the emergency department at Atrium Health Navicent Baldwin hospital in Milledgeville. There at the hospital, each of them received further medical treatment.

One of them was later transferred from the local hospital to Atrium Health Navicent, The Medical Center in Macon. A source said this one suffered the most serious wound of those injured.

The stabbings are under investigation by the Georgia Department of Corrections Investigation Division.

Joan Heath, who serves as director of the Office of Public Affairs with the Georgia Department of Corrections, was emailed for comment about the incident.

“An isolated altercation occurred today (Friday) among five inmates at Baldwin SP,” Heath said. “The inmates involved are being treated for non-life threatening injuries.”

The prison, which is described as a medium security facility, has a maximum capacity of 700 inmates.

In recent years, there have been a number of violent crimes at Baldwin State Prison, which is located off Laying Farm Road and described as being in Hardwick, a community near Central State Hospital.

Back on June 15, three inmates there were arrested in connection with the stabbing death of another inmate. Those inmates were later jointly indicted on charges of malice murder, felony murder, and aggravated assault by a Baldwin County grand jury. They were identified as Kevonta Daykwon Daniels, Tarez Rashan Gordon, and Tyquerion Steed.

The trio are accused of killing Jose Garcia Ibrra with what was believed to be a makeshift knife, commonly referred to in prisons as a shank.

In August 2021, meanwhile, Jamari Charell McClinton of Decatur was murdered in a stabbing incident at the same prison. The victim was only 21.

Brandon Hill, who had been an inmate there with the victim, was later arrested and charged with the killing of McClinton.

In January 2020, Albert B. Glover was arrested on a charge of murder in connection with the strangulation death of an inmate there that happened on Dec. 25, 2019.

The victim in that case was identified as 34-year-old Michael Anthony Dawson Jr.

Glover was later convicted by a jury of murder in that case. And subsequently, Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Amanda S. Petty sentenced Glover to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The victim and his killer in that particular case had only shared a prison cell for three days.  

In the summer of 2019, meanwhile, two former inmates at Baldwin State Prison were arrested in connection with one of the brutal murders ever committed behind prison walls.

The two inmates were identified as Timothy Dunigan and Trinity Bussler are accused of having murdered David Michael Watson.

Dunigan and Bussler are accused of choking the victim, stabbing him about the face, neck and back and then placing Watson face down in his bunk before settling it afire, local and state authorities said.

Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney T. Wright Barksdale III is seeking the death penalty against Dunigan and Bussler now.

A trial date has not yet been set in those cases.