The mother of a Georgia prison food service worker shot and killed by an inmate last year said officials knew there was a gun inside the Glennville facility for more than a year but failed to act.
Deshonda Hagins is now raising her two grandchildren, ages 5 and 2, but she said her oldest daughter would still be alive had protocols been followed at the maximum-security Smith State Prison.
“Her main priority was her children,” Hagins said in an interview Friday after filing a lawsuit against the Georgia Department of Corrections. “Now they’re all I have left of her.”
Aureon Shavea Grace, 24, was a Statesboro High School graduate who worked as an Aramark food service employee in the prison’s kitchen. She had been there less than five months, when — in a massive security breach — officials said prisoner Jaydrekus Hart shot and killed her in June 2024. He then killed himself.
Credit: Lewis Levine
Credit: Lewis Levine
Hagins’ lawsuit, filed in Fulton County State Court, alleges prison staff was told repeatedly there was a gun on the premises but did nothing about it.
“These warnings came from inmates and were provided directly to multiple GDC officials, including during official investigations,” the complaint states. “No lockdown was initiated. No extensive search was conducted. No protective measures were put in place.”
A GDC spokesperson declined to comment on the pending litigation.
The lawsuit seeks a jury trial and an unspecified amount of compensation.
Hart, 34, was serving 20 years for voluntary manslaughter out of Carroll County with a maximum release date of June 2043, the GDC said. According to published reports, he was convicted in the fatal shooting of a Villa Rica man at a Memorial Day party in 2013.
Authorities have said Grace and Hart had a “personal relationship” and that they discovered a suicide note that appeared to have been left by Hart. After her death, the GDC accused Grace of helping Hart get the gun inside the prison, according to the lawsuit. Grace’s mother denied that her daughter took the gun to the prison, saying it was there before she started the job.
She said Hart wasn’t even authorized to be in the kitchen at the time of the early morning shooting, but that he was “favored by GDC staff” and “permitted to violate rules with impunity.”
Hagins said she didn’t learn of her daughter’s shooting from prison staff or the company Grace worked for, but instead from inmates who apparently called one of her other children using a contraband cellphone.
It’s unclear exactly how the gun got into the prison or what led to the fatal shooting.
Georgia’s prisons are rife with violence and homicides, but even correctional officers are prohibited from carrying guns inside the facilities.
“It’s awful. They had no guards in the area when she was shot to death,” said attorney Brent Savage, who represents Grace’s family. “It’s horrifying to think what’s going on in these prisons.”
Attempts to keep contraband out of Georgia’s state prisons are often hindered by the extreme shortage of correctional officers at GDC facilities, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported, based on interviews with former employees.
Hagins, who previously worked for the GDC herself, said the deadly shooting of a civilian should serve as a wake-up call for prison officials tasked with keeping inmates and employees safe.
The oldest of six children, Grace helped look after her siblings from a young age and always ensured they had everything they needed, her mother said.
Credit: Courtesy of Deshonda Hagins
Credit: Courtesy of Deshonda Hagins
Hagins, who had her first child at 19, said Grace taught her how to be a mother. But as her daughter grew up, the two became more like best friends, she said.
“She was a wonderful mother to her kids, she was a great sister and she was a great daughter to me,” Hagins said, crying. “I don’t wish this pain on anyone.”
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
