Georgia prison warden arrested on RICO charges

The GBI has arrested Georgia Department of Corrections Warden Brian Dennis Adams, age 48, of Waycross, and charged him with Conspiracy to Violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (Georgia RICO Act), Bribery, False Statements and Violation of Oath by Public Officer.  Adams was terminated prior to his arrest on Wednesday, February 8, 2023 and is currently in the Tattnall County Jail.  

Adams is the former Warden at Smith State Prison in Glennville.

On Tuesday, May 31, 2022, the Georgia Attorney General's Office requested the GBI to investigate corruption at Smith State Prison based on evidence discovered while conducting a murder investigation. On Monday, April 25, 2022, Nathan Weekes, a current Georgia Department of Corrections inmate, along with three other people, were indicted on numerous charges to include Conspiracy to Commit Murder and the Georgia RICO act in relation to this murder investigation in Glennville. 

Weeks and his co-conspirators, one of whom, Chris Sumlin, was also an inmate at Smiths State Prison at the time, are charged in a murder for hire plot to kill a guard at Smiths State Prison. However, the hitman went to the wrong house and killed the guard’s next door neighbor, 88-year-old Bobby Kicklighter, instead.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Weeks and Sumlin. 

The murder investigation showed that Weekes was involved with contraband smuggling inside Smith State Prison. The two investigations are related, and active and ongoing.

Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the GBI regional investigative office in Statesboro at 912-871-1121.  Anonymous tips can also be submitted by calling 1-800-597-TIPS(8477), online at https://gbi.georgia.gov/submit-tips-online, or by downloading the See Something, Send Something mobile app.