Commissioner: Gregory C. Dozier

Director of Public Affairs: Joan Heath

October 29, 2017

FORSYTH, Ga. – The Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) is investigating the death of an inmate at Wilcox State Prison in Abbeville, Ga., as an apparent suicide.

A Correctional Officer found inmate James Wheeler (GDC#1148609) unresponsive in his cell at 5:25 a.m. on October 29.  Prison medical staff provided life saving measures to revive him and he was pronounced deceased at 7:50 a.m. by the Wilcox County Coroner. GDC is conducting an investigation into the death, as standard procedure.

Wheeler was sentenced in 2001, in Hall County, for Armed Robbery and Theft by Receiving Stolen Property. Further information and photographs can be found on the GDC website at https://gdc.georgia.gov.