Santa Rosa inmate sentenced for brutally beating, killing his cellmate

SANTA ROSA COUNTY, Fla. ( WKRG ) — A Santa Rosa Correctional Institute inmate has received a consecutive life sentence after he brutally beat and murdered his cellmate.

According to a news release from State Attorney for the First Judicial Court of Florida Ginger Bowden Madden, Circuit Judge J. Scott Duncan handed Joshua Gardner a consecutive life sentence in state prison after Gardner was convicted of second-degree murder.

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The sentence stems from an incident that occurred on Feb. 1, 2020, when Gardner brutally beat his cellmate, Jose Aparicio-Becerra.

The release from Madden said prison guards found Aparicio-Becerra unresponsive with injuries such as several facial fractures and a deformed skull.

One prison official said it was the most gruesome thing she had ever seen during her 19 years of working in the state prison system.

Aparicio-Becerra was taken to a local hospital and died due to blunt-force trauma.

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Gardner was already serving a life sentence for murder when he beat Aparicio-Becerra to death in 2020.

The release said Gardner was ineligible for the death penalty.

Assistant State Attorney Patrick King prosecuted the case on Madden's behalf.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement's special agents investigated the case.