A Lee Arrendale State Prison inmate has been arrested and charged with murdering two other inmates at the correctional facility in Alto.
21-year-old Jeanni Maria Geuea of Clinch County is charged in the deaths of Hallie Marie Reed and Sherry Elaine Joyce. The women died earlier this year, eight days apart. Arrest warrants say they were strangled to death.
Habersham County sheriff’s deputies arrested Geuea at the prison on Friday, Sept. 27. They charged her with two counts each of felony murder, aggravated assault, and riot in a penal institution.
Reed feared for her life, sources say
Sources tell Now Habersham both victims were housed in the same mental health unit where another inmate was murdered two years ago. Joyce was killed on April 27 of this year. Reed died on May 5.
According to sources, Reed was aware Geuea had allegedly killed Joyce and informed a corrections officer. She reportedly stated in writing that she feared for her life and asked to be put in protective custody. The sources say higher-ups ignored her request.
Geuea was serving a 5-year sentence on a 2020 charge out of Clinch County for terrorist threats and acts. She had been in prison for just over two months when Joyce was killed.
At the time of her death, Joyce was serving a life sentence out of Toombs County for murder. Reed was serving a 5-year sentence out of Catoosa County for obstruction of a law enforcement officer.
Angela Anderson was murdered in the mental health unit at Lee Arrendale State Prison on September 11, 2022. A year later, authorities charged LASP inmate Leticia Land with her murder.
Prison slated to be closed
The prison, which has come under fire for alleged inhumane treatment in recent years, is slated to close under a plan approved by the Department of Corrections in 2023.
The plan calls for relocating approximately 1,000 Lee Arrendale inmates to a prison in McRae in Central Georgia. The Lee Arrendale Transitional Center will remain open.
The state has yet to release a date for the prison’s closure. The Department of Corrections has not responded to Now Habersham’s request for further comment regarding this year’s murders.
