ST. GEORGE — A local man who was paroled following a murder conviction was sentenced to federal prison for illegally possessing weapons, including the same caliber handgun he used to shoot a woman to death in 1990.
Joseph Charles Gardner, 65, of St. George, appeared before District Judge Robert J. Shelby on Tuesday to face one federal count of felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. He was sentenced to 102 months in federal prison.
The defendant was indicted on the charge on Dec. 7, 2022, in a case filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Dent, who was also tasked with prosecuting the case.
According to a statement released Wednesday by U.S. Attorney Trina A. Higgins of the District of Utah, Gardner was indicted for possessing a firearm after his conviction in the 1990 murder of a woman who was shot and killed while in her home.
The 1990 murder in St. George
The 1990 case was filed after the defendant broke into Janice Fondren’s apartment through a window and shot her to death. Gardner then transported her lifeless body to the desert where he left her to decompose. The evidence also suggested that Gardner sexually assaulted the victim after he killed her, as outlined in a federal motion filed in the weapons case.
The following year, the defendant pleaded guilty to the aggravated murder charge, and in exchange for the guilty plea, the prosecution agreed to drop the aggravated burglary charge and not seek the death penalty. Instead, Gardner was sentenced to serve life in prison.
In 1993, Gardner filed an appeal that made its way to the Utah Supreme Court, which ultimately upheld the trial court’s sentence of life in prison. He was paroled in 2020 after spending nearly 30 years in prison and returned to St. George.
Federal weapons case
Two years later, and while he was still on parole, Gardner was arrested in October 2022 in St. George after investigators determined that in the fall of 2022, Gardner conspired with a coworker to conceal and dispose of the stolen firearms.
At the time of the arrest, the defendant was found with a 9 mm handgun, the same caliber he used to shoot the woman to death, and officers also discovered thousands of bullets in three different calibers. Investigators also learned that Gardner previously owned other firearms, including an AR-15-style rifle, Higgins stated in the release.
Gardner was charged in 5th District Court with four counts of being a restricted person in possession of a weapon, a third-degree felony, as reported by KSL news on Oct. 29, 2022.
The case went federal when the gun crossed state lines, thus affecting interstate commerce, and the state charges were dismissed.
On July 27, 2023, Gardner pleaded guilty to the federal charge and was sentenced to serve nearly nine years.
The case was part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, which is a program that brings together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence aimed at making neighborhoods across the state safer for everyone.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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