Joshua Gardner’s Dark World | World’s Most Evil Prisoners | Forensic Files

[ominous music] NARRATOR: In the United States of America, some of the world's most infamous criminals
are behind bars. Ranked among them is the prisoner Joshua Dewayne Gardner. - He's not just an impulsive, violent person.
He also has the capability of being a calculated, premeditated, violent person. NARRATOR: High on a cocktail of drugs
and willing to kill for just $20, Gardner committed his first murder at the age of 24.
CHARLES VAUGHN: He was screaming, "please don't, please stop." He knew he was dying.
LINA HAJI: Gardner wanted to hurt him. This isn't just a murder. This is a heinous murder.
NARRATOR: Even behind bars, Gardner couldn't contain his rage. PATRICK KING: It was a brutal beating.
There was blood on the floors, the walls, toilet, and all over. Mr. Gardner killed without a reason and no apparent motive.
BRIAN SUDUL: There was really no witnesses. It's in a cell. The only person that knows the truth is just Gardner.
[tense music] [theme music] NARRATOR: Situated in the heart of Santa Rosa County
is one of the state's severest prisons. PATRICK KING: Santa Rosa Correctional Institution
is a higher level prison in Florida, known as one of the tougher prisons in Florida.
It houses about 3,000 inmates and a mixed classification, but it does offer closed management,
which is one of the highest level prison supervisions offered. NARRATOR: Designed for holding the most dangerous inmates
in a prison where many have committed the most serious of crimes. PATRICK KING: All types of felonies, from grand theft
to drug trafficking to violent crimes, aggravated assault or aggravated battery, murders, or sexual assaults,
those kind of things. NARRATOR: In Santa Rosa Correctional Institution, a notorious inmate has demonstrated
he needs the highest level of security, the ruthless killer, Joshua Gardner. [ominous music]
BRIAN SUDUL: He's violent. He's a dope fiend. People that snap like this are way dangerous.
There's no sign. There's no warning. There's no nothing. You always treat them like they're going to kill you.
You never let them get close to you. He should never be around other inmates. CHARLES VAUGHN: When I found out
about what he did to his cellmate, and putting that together with everything I already know about him, I believe that he would not stop.
PATRICK KING: Mr. Gardner has killed two people already. I definitely think he's capable of killing again.
[ominous music] NARRATOR: Born on March 3, 1992, Joshua Dewayne Gardner grew up in the state of Florida.
CHARLES VAUGHN: Josh Gardner was born in Dade City and the Pasco County area. Back then, it was pretty rural agricultural.
It's a laid back area of Florida. You can drive-through it and you don't meet too many people.
They had brothers and a half-brother. He had a mother, and as far as his father,
I don't believe the father was too much in his life, if at all. - Gardner's father denied that he was the father
and rejected Joshua Gardner as soon as he was born, if not before then. That can have a really horrible impact on a child.
It can affect them internally in terms of mood and depression and low self-esteem and feeling like they're unwanted right
from the very beginning. It can also result in externalizing behaviors such as poor emotional regulation, aggression,
inability to have proper relationships as compared to other individuals. CHARLES VAUGHN: Josh had grown up with his brothers and
his mother and his stepfather. Josh was small and he was given a hard time by his siblings
because of his being small. But he also had a bit of a temper. He got into fights with his siblings.
LINA HAJI: Bullying can have really long lasting effects, particularly when it's done by family members.
He's also physically smaller than his brothers. He's being picked on for that, which is something
that is out of his control. So we're seeing already that Gardner has a lot of risk factors in his life.
NARRATOR: Although Gardner's mother had a long-term relationship with the father
of her fourth child, it was a problematic one. CHARLES VAUGHN: Josh got in trouble in his teen years,
mainly because his stepfather and he would have arguments, and many times the stepfather would
have some physical confrontations and perform physical abuse on his mother. And that upset Josh, and his responses
were generally violent. LINA HAJI: It seems it wasn't just Gardner's mother who was the victim of domestic violence,
but also Gardner and his siblings. Physical abuse towards a child can be absolutely
detrimental in multiple ways. It can result in symptoms of depression, symptoms of anxiety.
It can result in a mistrust of the world, paranoia, an inability to have closeness in relationships,
understandably so because you are unlikely to have learned how to properly trust another human being.
NARRATOR: Gardner's anger towards his stepfather ultimately led to him being put behind bars for the first time
at the age of 18. WILLARD BRIAN STEPHENS: He was arrested in 2010 in Pasco County for an aggravated battery, that
was a domestic case against his stepfather, where he used a bat to either batter his stepfather
or at least assault him. And he spent roughly a year in prison for that one. CHARLES VAUGHN: He'd had some other incidences involving
violence early in life. Unfortunately, a lot of his early years he spent in prison.
LINA HAJI: Gardner is not just learning that people can come in and out of your life very easily.
He's also learning that people come into your life can hurt you and will hurt you.
This is not only traumatic for a young boy, but it's really conditioning him to believe that this is a normal relationship
between two adults. CHARLES VAUGHN: Josh was below average intelligence and suffered from some ADHD and some bipolar,
and he was on medication for that. He didn't always take these medications. NARRATOR: He moved on from prescription to illegal drugs.
CHARLES VAUGHN: Apparently he took cocaine, meth, marijuana, especially meth because he thought
that would cause him to focus or allow him to focus, which helped him with his bipolar
and helped him with his ADHD. NARRATOR: Under the influence, Gardner's criminal activities increased.
WILLARD BRIAN STEPHENS: He has had some arrests in Hernando County as well as Pasco County.
He had some grand theft cases, as well as domestic battery cases and aggravated battery cases.
LINA HAJI: Gardner starts to have multiple arrests throughout his adolescence and early 20s.
And not surprisingly, some of those arrests are for domestic violence and even strangulation.
Now, it's important to note that most victims of abuse do not go on to become abusers themselves.
That being said, Gardner had absolutely no examples of what a healthy relationship looks like.
Gardner's life up until early adulthood is really tragic, and it's easy to feel sorry for him at this point in his life.
NARRATOR: By the time Gardner was 24 years old, he was well-known to law enforcement
and had already served 66 days in prison for the assault on his stepfather. But in 2016, he was a free man, now living in Pasco County
and in a new relationship. CHARLES VAUGHN: Kayla Morrow was Josh's girlfriend at the time.
I don't know how exclusive it was, but that's my understanding that they were boyfriend and girlfriend.
LINA HAJI: According to Gardner's mother, Gardner would do anything for Morrow, but this didn't seem to be the healthiest relationship
and appeared to be a lot of manipulation and heightened emotions, and quite a toxic relationship
between Morrow and Gardner. NARRATOR: Gardner and Morrow were hanging out with two friends, Andrew Abbott and
Brandon Harrelson. - They were smoking meth and marijuana and doing cocaine. And apparently, Kayla got jealous
because she was thinking that Josh was on Plenty of Fish. NARRATOR: One of many dating websites, Plenty of Fish,
was designed for single adults to meet potential partners. CHARLES VAUGHN: So she went on Plenty of Fish to see if she
could find out if Josh was on Plenty of Fish, but apparently he wasn't. She couldn't find that.
But then Josh and the other males, they decided, well, let's pull a scam on Plenty of Fish.
Let's have Kayla see if she can find somebody that we could maybe cajole into coming to meet us
and we can rob them. We can get the drugs, we can get the money, and then we could do whatever we wanted to do with it.
LINA HAJI: This is where we start to see a little bit of a shift in Gardner and the criminal activity he's engaging in, because this is
calculated and a premeditated kind of crime, because he's catfishing. Essentially, what catfishing is,
is luring somebody online with the use of some kind of persona in order to get a goal met.
CHARLES VAUGHN: So that was their plan and made contact with Preston Talley. NARRATOR: Preston Talley was the 35-year-old single
man from Gainesville, Florida. CHARLES VAUGHN: Preston Talley was kind of a lonely guy,
from what I understand. And I think that may have been what Josh may have keyed into whenever
trying to connect with him and get him to come to Hernando County. NARRATOR: Within hours, Gardner, Morrow,
and their two friends began to put their plan into action. CHARLES VAUGHN: Apparently, there
was some sexual flirtation with Preston Talley, and we're going to have a party in the woods.
There was some indication that there may be something for everybody. There's going to be drugs, and they
just invited him to come down. But Preston Talley understood it to be that it was probably
going to be her and him connecting up, but there would be other people there that would be enjoying the same thing
that they would be wanting to do. NARRATOR: The plan was for Kayla to meet with Preston at a gas station.
From there, they would travel in their separate cars to a secluded location where Gardner, Harrelson, and
Abbott were already waiting. WILLARD BRIAN STEPHENS: Richloam Wildlife Management Area is an area that
is set aside by the state. It's owned by the state, and they have legal hunting out there during the seasons,
as well as hiking trails. Very wooded, mostly pines and swamp areas, but it's pretty secluded.
[ominous music] NARRATOR: When the two vehicles arrived at the designated meeting point,
they parked up and got out of their cars. CHARLES VAUGHN: Josh told Kayla to take the keys out
of the ignition, put it in the back seat, then get in the back seat. NARRATOR: Things immediately turned violent.
[ominous music] CHARLES VAUGHN: Josh allegedly started chasing Preston Talley with the baseball bat.
So they chased him down. And along the way, Josh Gardner had struck him several times, either in the head
or on the body. There was hitting and there was kicking. LINA HAJI: Gardner wanted to hurt him, make him suffer.
And beating somebody with a baseball bat is a very personal attack. It takes someone to be up close and personal.
This isn't like shooting them with a firearm. It's very gruesome. It's very heinous.
It's very hands-on. So now, we're seeing that Gardner is indeed full of rage, full of hate, full of anger.
Gardner is just incredibly violent. WILLARD BRIAN STEPHENS: After the attack concluded,
they removed the victim's clothing and took his cell phone, his wallet, his keys.
They got around $20 in cash and just a small amount of methamphetamine from him.
LINA HAJI: The idea was to rob Preston for money and drugs. Gardner actually meets with Preston
and immediately attacks him. That tells me that there may have been some forethought into Gardner simply
wanting to hurt somebody. Simply wanting to kill somebody. NARRATOR: The four friends then left Preston Talley for dead
and fled the scene, leaving behind Preston's car. WILLARD BRIAN STEPHENS: The suspects left the scene.
They responded back to Kayla Morrow's trailer. She lived in a camper in Dade City.
Once they got there, they used a hammer to smash Mr. Talley's keys as well as his phone.
And then they started a fire pit outside their camper and burned these items, or tried to burn them.
I'm Inspector Stephens with the Hernando County Sheriff's Office. So in 2016, I was working in the major case
section as a detective. I was relatively new to that area. That area handles homicides, rape cases, robberies,
and that type of crimes. The Sheriff's Office received a call on this morning, who advised that he
had found a subject that he believed to be deceased out in the woods. So the deputies on scene, when they made contact with him,
he led them to where the subject was, the deceased subject. I was scheduled to be on-call detective that day.
I received a call from our dispatchers. They requested that I contact the sergeant that was out
on the scene, and he advised that it looked like it was a homicide scene. Once we got to the scene, we walked roughly 100 yards east
from the main road, from McKinney sync road, which is unpaved, into this area. We found the vehicle.
We found the deceased body. At the time, we did not know his identity. There was no identification left at the scene.
He was nude, lying on his back, severe trauma to his face and head, and a broken right
arm, right about the forearm. Found a pair of broken glasses on the scene and some little blood spatter on the vehicle's bumper.
At the time, we did not know if he had been run over or what the cause of death was.
It was very difficult to tell. Fortunately, one of our first breaks is the vehicle was there, so we were
able to run the tag number on the vehicle and come up with a name of Preston Talley.
NARRATOR: While forensics worked to confirm the deceased man's identity, Inspector Stephens and his team turned
their attention to hunting down the killer or killers. WILLARD BRIAN STEPHENS: We had utilized phone records
from the victim and was able to find out that he had been speaking to a Kayla Morrow.
[camera shutters] Once they did that, they did further phone records search and found that she had mapped in that location at some point
where the deceased was. [ominous music] As the investigation progressed, phone records tied her to Andrew Abbott.
And Facebook actually led us to the boyfriend, which was Joshua Gardner. [ominous music]
NARRATOR: Scrolling through hours of CCTV, police surveillance observed Andrew Abbott's car
on the night of the murder at the Circle K gas station. But it appeared that Kayla Morrow was driving
and alone in the car. WILLARD BRIAN STEPHENS: Once Ms. Morrow arrived at the Circle K, she pulled into the gas pumps.
She exited and walked inside. She requested to purchase $3 worth of gasoline, at which time the clerk advised her that the pumps were
not working. So Ms. Morrow said, "well, OK, that's OK." She went back to her vehicle, got in, moved from the pumps
out to the sign, which is close to the edge of Cordes Boulevard, or 50 out in that area.
From there, she sat. NARRATOR: At this point, a car pulled in and parked up. WILLARD BRIAN STEPHENS: Then we witnessed Mr. Talley arrive.
He got out of his car, was on his phone, and he walked directly underneath the cameras.
At that point, Ms. Morrow moved the silver or grayish colored blazer over to the diesel side of the pumps
next to the parking lot. Mr. Talley went over and spoke to her through the open window for a moment
and then went back to his vehicle. So we had the visual identification as well as the phone records.
We saw Mr. Talley. He pulled up. Walked right underneath the camera, so we had his identification.
They met and then they left the parking lot heading east. NARRATOR: At this stage, the police had identified
three potential suspects-- Morrow, Abbott, and Gardner. They had a vehicle registration plate,
but the individuals were nowhere to be found. WILLARD BRIAN STEPHENS: The next day,
the suspects apparently were worried about what had occurred. And they had some friends out in Missouri.
At that point, they decided it was best to flee to that area. They fled to Missouri.
NARRATOR: They were there for less than 24 hours until they decided to head back to Florida.
CHARLES VAUGHN: There was some discussions about, well, we need to go back, or one of them
said, I need to get back. And so they decided to turn around and come back. NARRATOR: A tip off to the police put them on high alert,
to be on the lookout for the car returning to Florida. WILLARD BRIAN STEPHENS: Once we learned
the suspects were on their way back to Florida, we got our special enforcement unit
who drive undercover vehicles, unmarked vehicles to dispatch to the area of 75, up around Ocala, to try to pick them up
while they were coming back. NARRATOR: But no sooner had the suspects made it back into Florida, they suddenly took a surprise turn.
WILLARD BRIAN STEPHENS: They then turned north and had decided that they were going to, I believe,
flee back to Missouri. Our special enforcement unit at that point had found the suspects and were following them.
Once they got into Alachua County, the Alachua County Sheriff's Office was able to stop the vehicle and take all three
suspects into custody. NARRATOR: Officers immediately began to interview the suspects, starting
with 25-year-old Kayla Morrow. WILLARD BRIAN STEPHENS: Once the interviews were conducted
with Kayla Morrow, we were able to find out that she was speaking to him through the text
application on the Plenty of Fish, as well as by phone. However, she also said that Joshua Gardner
was utilizing the text application to speak to Mr. Talley. Ms. Morrow said that it was all Joshua Gardner's idea
to do the robbery. She admitted to her part in it, but not knowing that it was going to end up being a homicide.
She did state, which is still kind of a haunting thing, that somebody at the scene said, "well,
Mr. Talley is not dead." And Mr. Gardner utilized the bat to hit him again and state,
"now he is." NARRATOR: When the police interviewed Abbott, he stated that he didn't have much to do with the attack,
denying he had ever struck Preston Talley. It was time to see what Gardner had to say.
WILLARD BRIAN STEPHENS: Mr. Gardner looked like he'd been up for several days, and he did state that he messed up.
[ominous music] He confirmed that he struck the subject with a bat. He also demonstrated to the detective in the interview room
how he swung the bat at Mr. Talley. [ominous music] He gave a full confession that he did murder Mr. Talley.
He did try to minimize some of it. However, he did admit to swinging the bat that ultimately led to Mr. Talley being deceased.
[ominous music] LINA HAJI: I think the reason Gardner is able to confess to the police
and show him exactly how he killed Preston with the bat, is because Gardner has been desensitized from violence
since a very early age. This seems cold and psychopathic to most people, and it very well can be.
But also, Gardner has only understood violence as a way of life since he was a child.
NARRATOR: As Gardner was being interviewed, more information was coming in to the police.
WILLARD BRIAN STEPHENS: We were learning from our contact in Pasco County that there was a fourth suspect named Brandon Harrelson.
They had dropped off Mr. Harrelson at a gas station, and he was picked up by a relative.
After the interviews with the suspects, we develop probable cause for Mr. Harrelson as well.
And he was apprehended in Pasco County at a relative's home. NARRATOR: With all four suspects now in custody
and charged with murder, Gardner suddenly changed his version of the events. CHARLES VAUGHN: My name is Charles Vaughn.
I'm a criminal defense attorney. I first came into contact with the case when I was appointed to represent Josh Gardner,
and I went down to the Hernando County jail to talk to Josh about what was going on.
And initially, he decided to tell me that he didn't do anything. It was everybody else.
Josh was very resistant. Josh didn't want to talk. Josh didn't trust attorneys. He'd been in trouble before.
He'd been to prison before, and he didn't like attorneys. The biggest issue that I had with his defense
was he made a confession. And it was a confession that was video recorded, audio recorded.
He asked me, "can you get this suppressed?" LINA HAJI: If a forensic psychologist such as myself
can prove that the juvenile or the adult, in this case low IQ, didn't understand what it meant to waive your Miranda rights,
then the attorney can get it suppressed. So there are multiple ways to get confession suppressed.
Or if you can show that the cops used coercive techniques. CHARLES VAUGHN: I said, this is going
to be a real problem for a motion to suppress, because you have to have a willful and
consensual discussion with law enforcement, and it's not forced or coerced out of you.
And it doesn't look like there was any coercion whatsoever. It was actually calm.
And he didn't appear to be upset. He didn't appear to be threatened in any way. And I told him, there's nothing I
can do with your desire to suppress this because it looks willing and uncoerced.
NARRATOR: As the investigation progressed, Gardner's demeanor towards his defense counsel
started to become menacing. - Josh would become angry if I would disagree with him.
Many times, he would confront my disagreement and he would say nasty things. And then he would look like this
as he was going to come across the table at me. Many times I'd have to call one of the guards
and come in and take him out of my visitation room because he would get so upset.
He was psychologically evaluated to determine his intelligence and whether or not he was competent to proceed
and understood what the process was. And the findings were is that he understood the process.
He did give the impression to the forensic psychologist that he had lower intelligence.
And he did explain to the psychologist that he had a learning disability. LINA HAJI: This starts to explain so much
about Gardner's life and his history and the way that he's functioning. People with low IQs can sometimes
have what we call low frustration tolerance, and that means exactly what it sounds like.
This usually stems from the fact that they might have difficulty understanding or communicating
or expressing their want and needs due to the fact that they simply don't have the ability to do
so because of the low IQ. Maybe Gardner didn't actually have ADHD as a child. He had low frustration tolerance combined
with the trauma that he experienced as a child, and he was unable to express that.
[ominous music] NARRATOR: Almost one year after the murder, Kayla Morrow and Andrew Abbott agreed to a plea deal
and appeared in court for sentencing. Morrow was sentenced to 10 years for robbery,
and Abbott was given 15 years for second-degree murder and robbery. Both received reduced sentences for cooperating
and testifying against Brandon Harrelson in his trial. He was found guilty of first degree murder and robbery
and sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years. When it came to Gardner's turn, he
definitely wasn't cooperating. - Mr. Gardner pled not guilty to the charges, and we went to trial.
CHARLES VAUGHN: His defense was he didn't do it. He was there and he did not participate
in the actual beating and kicking of Preston Talley. NARRATOR: In May 2019, three years
after the murder, Gardner's trial took place at the Hernando County Courthouse. [tense music]
CHARLES VAUGHN: During the trial, he had no clothes. His family didn't bring him any clothes,
so I loaned him clothes. He was about the same size as me, so I loaned him clothes for every day of the trial,
and we had to cover up as many of his tattoos as we could. He actually looked good.
I told him, you cannot be disrupted during the trial because the jury is going to dislike that.
And he was well-behaved during the trial. WILLARD BRIAN STEPHENS: When I was in the trial with Mr. Gardner, I did not
observe any signs of remorse. He was relatively calm. He came across as very cold and very heartless.
The evidence presented at the trial was the forensic evidence that was collected at the scene.
The phone records, the Plenty of Fish data, as well as the witnesses. CHARLES VAUGHN: The trial took about two days and
the jury deliberated, I think, about an hour, maybe an hour and a half. That's not a real long time.
But it was hard to argue against the evidence. There was an awful lot of evidence.
Brandon Harrelson testified against him at the trial, and Kayla Morrow testified against him at the trial.
NARRATOR: Gardner was found guilty. - Knowing Josh like I did after spending many, many hours with him in prep and through the discovery
process, when he heard the verdict, he didn't really react or respond. He just acted like he accepted it.
NARRATOR: Gardner was sentenced to life without parole, a sentence that did not please many.
CHARLES VAUGHN: It seemed to me to be premeditated, cold, calculated, heinous, atrocious and cruel because they ran him
around and beat him as he was screaming, "please don't, please stop." And then screaming and gurgling whenever he was dying
and they still beat him. He knew he was dying. He knew they were going to kill him.
I thought that it should have been a death penalty case, but the state attorney chose not to do it.
That's their decision. LINA HAJI: A death penalty is usually determined by what we call aggravating factors and
mitigating factors. When you look at Gardner, there were aggravating factors. I mean, the premeditation, the fact
that he used the app to lure his victim, the fact that he has violent history, those
are all aggravating factors. But he also did have a lot of mitigating factors. He had such a traumatic childhood,
that combined with the low IQ, it doesn't surprise me that ultimately, he was not given the death penalty.
NARRATOR: Gardner was sent back to Santa Rosa Correctional Facility, where he had been held since being charged
with Preston's murder in 2016. PATRICK KING: Santa Rosa CI is one of the toughest
prisons in Florida. It offers closed management, which is like the highest level of prison can offer,
other than one tougher prison in the state of Florida, which is Florida State Prison that houses death row inmates.
JAMIE MORGAN KANE: Sharing a cell with a person is a balancing act in a lot of cases.
The first thing they tell you, never ask a man how much time he's doing. So usually, you don't talk, you stare at each other,
and then you go to sleep. NARRATOR: Four years passed where it appeared Gardner kept his head down and toed the line.
In early 2020, he was housed in a cell with fellow inmate Jose Aparicio-Becerra.
[tense music] PATRICK KING: Jose Aparicio-Becerra, he was also serving a life sentence
for second-degree murder. As far as we can tell, there doesn't appear to be any issues between Jose Becerra and Gardner.
He thought he was a cool guy. They got along. There was no beef between them. BRIAN SUDUL: It doesn't really matter what your crime is.
You can be bunked with anyone. Murderer with robber or robber with a robber, their crime
really doesn't have issue why they're celled together, it's usually their custody level.
NARRATOR: One of their shared pastimes was drug-taking. PATRICK KING: Drugs come into the prison
primarily externally. Most of our cases, we get a lot of introduction of contraband cases, come from visitors or staff members.
Maybe a nurse, maybe a guard smuggles drugs into the prison. Sometimes people use drones or camouflage outfits
near the prison wall and they'll try to throw drugs over, but the most common is probably a conduit from a staff
member or a visitor. JAMIE MORGAN KANE: Inmates take drugs in prison as an escape.
Same reason people take them on the streets. It's the same reason why inmates brew alcohol
in prison as an escape. It's a way from thinking about where. If you're not getting letters from the outside,
if you don't get visits from the outside, prison can become a very, very lonely, lonely place.
[ominous music] BRIAN SUDUL: On February 1, 2020, both inmates decided they were going to use meth and
some ecstasy at the same time. That was not a good idea. They probably were both like, "oh, let's experiment.
Let's take this drug and this drug and see what happens." It probably turned them both into a monster.
LINA HAJI: When you have regular use and distribution of drugs in prison, it makes the environment
that much scarier and that much more dangerous. When people use drugs, they tend to become disinhibited.
They can become more impulsive. It's really a recipe for disaster, which is why correctional facilities are
such dangerous environments. PATRICK KING: The early morning hours, lights out there in the dorm.
The guards make rounds, I think, about every 30 minutes. BRIAN SUDUL: In the general housing unit,
each cell doesn't have a camera. They're just-- they're just scattered out through the institution.
Cells that have cameras are for SAMs, Special Administrative Measures. And they were usually like al-Qaeda terrorists
or something like that. But normally, cells don't have cameras. PATRICK KING: Around 1:00 AM, you can hear on the fixed wing
video a man screaming, who we believe is Mr. Becerra, screaming in pain, and you hear several loud thuds.
There's a pause. Then about a minute later, you can hear more screaming and more loud thuds.
The fixed wing video doesn't show the actual murder because of where it's fixed.
It can only show the exteriors of the cells, but you can hear a lot of commentary
and hear what's going on. Joshua Gardner ends up talking to several other prisoners.
They're saying things like, "what are you doing to that man?" And "you need to save his life."
BRIAN SUDUL: In Florida, killing an inmate is like killing a free person, you know.
People get killed on the street, the same laws apply. That's what this inmate was trying to tell him.
Listen, man, you're going to get hung. You know, they're going to hang you out there
because you're committing homicide, and you're going to get punished just like you did it on the street.
PATRICK KING: Joshua Gardner responds with things like, "I think he's dead, bro."
"He's gone, bro." The other prisoners eventually get to the point where they kick and slam on their doors
extremely loud, like hundreds of prisoners doing that. And that draws the guards.
When the guards looked into the cell, they saw Mr. Becerra laying on his back with his feet
toward the door. Almost like in a cross position, with his arms kind of out to his sides.
There was blood everywhere on both Mr. Becerra and Mr. Gardner. And Mr. Becerra had extensive wounds to his head,
you know, bleeding profusely, fractured face. And then the most notable thing is
he had a deformed skull, like a concave indentation on his skull. And he was not responsive.
He was unconscious. NARRATOR: Miraculously, Mr. Aparicio-Becerra was still alive.
He was rushed to the hospital. At the prison, an investigation was immediately launched.
Captain Latoya Brown, the supervising officer on duty, recounted what she had witnessed.
- This was an unusual prison murder in the sense that it was a brutal beating where there's blood everywhere.
Typically in our area, when we have like prison assaults and murders, it's more focused.
So someone may use like a lock on a pillowcase as a weapon to hit them in the head.
Or they may use like a homemade knife and stab someone or strangle them even like while they're sleeping,
that kind of thing. Because normally when you attack someone, you're trying to accomplish a person trying to kill them.
And so you may want to do that in an overpowering way, so they're not going to hurt you.
It's more rare to have a beating death because like that person could fight back against you.
It's less certain. So it was strange in that sense than just the amount of blood
on the scene. NARRATOR: As soon as Mr. Aparicio-Becerra had been removed from the cell, the captain
spoke directly to Gardner. But when Gardner is formally interviewed, he told a different story.
PATRICK KING: Originally, the case was handled by the inspector general's office for the Department of Corrections.
When this first happened, they weren't aware it was going to become a murder. Jose didn't pass away until March 16 of 2020,
so about six weeks later, he died of complications to blunt force trauma. [ominous music]
NARRATOR: Four years later, Gardner stood trial for the murder of his cellmate. PATRICK KING: We're outside the Santa Rosa County Courthouse
here in Milton, Florida, where Joshua Gardner was tried on September 18. He had pled not guilty.
Mr. Gardner was arguing for a lesser included offense manslaughter versus second-degree murder.
He acknowledged he killed Mr. Becerra but he was saying that he was less culpable than murder.
The atmosphere of the trial was pretty calm. The courtroom wasn't too full. There was just the jurors, court security personnel,
and then the lawyers. What stood out to me the most was how the jury reacted to the audio of Mr. Becerra being
killed, when they could hear his screams and they could hear the long pauses and thuds.
You could see the jury visibly reacted. NARRATOR: The jury found him guilty of second-degree murder.
He was given another life sentence without parole. PATRICK KING: This trial highlighted
for me the senselessness of the killing of Mr. Becerra. Mr. Gardner never provided any kind of reasonable explanation
for why he did it. He didn't even seem to know based on his audio recorded interview.
It was completely unprovoked, and he even said Mr. Becerra and him were on good terms.
They were good buddies. He was a cool guy. So it was just a completely senseless killing.
It was very disturbing to me, especially seeing Mr. Becerra's physical condition,
you know, like his skull and his face. Even to this day, he's never said there was any motive, any purpose.
It just was totally unnecessary and random. So it's possible we may see Mr. Gardner again in the future.
LINA HAJI: Gardner had no disciplinary reports in prison for four years, which is a very long time.
He went right from zero disciplinary reports for four years to gruesomely murdering his cellmate.
So that really does lend to the theory that the methamphetamine probably played a role in what happened here.
Because, again, Gardner is somebody who has been a victim of violence and a perpetrator of violence essentially his entire life.
You take that, combined with a drug like methamphetamine, and this is what you get.
CHARLES VAUGHN: When I found out about what he did to his cellmate and put that back together with everything I
already know about him, I believe that he would not stop. I think if given an opportunity,
he would probably do it again. PATRICK KING: Mr. Gardner was returned back to Florida State Prison in Raiford, Florida, the highest
level prison in Florida, and then he was subsequently transferred back here to Santa Rosa County and
Santa Rosa Correctional Institution, where he's currently housed. LINA HAJI: It's pretty shocking that Gardner is not
in solitary confinement because he's done this once in society. He's done it once in prison.
He has two life sentences. What is to stop him from doing it again? Nothing. [ominous music]
[theme music]

Willing to kill for just $20 and drugs, Joshua Gardner commits his first murder at 24. Even behind bars, he can't contain his rage, brutally beating a fellow inmate to death.

World’s Most Evil Prisoners is a chilling exploration of the terrifying offenders sentenced to a lifetime behind bars. Locked away, yet still driven by their twisted desires, these inmates delve into acts of torture, abduction, and homicide. Prepare to confront the criminals from the darkest facets of humanity.

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Brief Summary

Joshua Gardner's violent history leads to two murders, revealing a pattern of aggression fueled by drugs and a troubled upbringing.

Key points

Joshua Gardner: A Calculated Killer. Joshua Gardner, a notorious inmate, committed heinous acts fueled by rage and drugs.
The Brutal Attack. Gardner's violent attack on Preston Talley reveals his deep-seated rage and lack of remorse.
The Confession. Gardner confessed to the murder, demonstrating a chilling desensitization to violence.
Gardner's Trial Begins. In May 2019, Gardner's trial commenced, where he pled not guilty to murder charges.
Brutal Prison Murder. In February 2020, Gardner killed his cellmate in a brutal attack, leading to another trial.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This isn't just a murder. This is a heinous murder.

Describing the brutality of Gardner's actions.

0:49WatchJan 23, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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