Man Gets Four Life Sentences For Kidnapping, Raping Woman In Escambia County

March 12, 2020

Joshua James Edwards has been sentenced to four consecutive life terms as a prison releasee reoffender for kidnapping and raping a woman.

Joshua Edwards was convicted last month of sexual battery, kidnapping and two counts of carjacking. He is a member of a the “Aryan Brotherhood Gang”,  a white supremacist prison gang, leading law enforcement to believe the crimes against an African American woman were racially motivated.

The victim was kidnapped from a Circle K at the intersection of New Warrington Road and Jackson Street in March 2019. He forced the woman at gunpoint to drive into Lillian, Alabama, where he raped her. They returned to Escambia County where the woman intentionally crashed the vehicle into trees. Edwards raped her again on benches at Bill Dickson Park on Fenceline Road.

Edwards stole another car from a nearby home and was later spotted at the Walmart on Blue Angel Parkway. He was taken into custody in a wooded area behind a nearby Verizon store.

Edwards had been released from state prison on November 29, 2018, after serving three and a half years for burglary and theft related offenses. Because he committed the rape and carjacking within three years of his release, he was sentenced as a prison releasee reoffender, which requires the maximum statutory sentence be imposed.

There is no parole in Florida and he will be required to actually serve the remainder of his life in prison.

Comments

4 Responses to “Man Gets Four Life Sentences For Kidnapping, Raping Woman In Escambia County”

  1. Piece of reality on March 21st, 2021 3:28 am

    he was sentenced as a prison releasee reoffender, which requires the maximum statutory sentence be imposed….not because of the actual rape, but because he committed a “felony.” He would have gotten the same sentence for killing a puppy ( animal cruelty)…third degree..

  2. John on March 12th, 2020 2:50 pm

    @hmmm you obviously have seen too many movies and have no clue how the prison system actually works and especially here in florida. There are people walking around with no fear with far worse charges etc

  3. Hmmm on March 12th, 2020 12:37 pm

    He’s really messed himself up. There is nowhere in the system he will be safe. If they send him to a prison that has AB’s, they will attack him the day he hits the yard and he’ll be lucky to live through it. They will know his charges, and have absolutely 0 tolerance for sex offenders. If they send him to a place without AB, since he has the tattoos and other groups of inmates hate the AB’s, he’ll be in serious danger… again, especially as an AB with his charges.

    He’ll spend a large part of the rest of his life in Protective Custody, which is basically like solitary confinement, (he might have a celly) with only an hour of rec in a cage every day.

  4. NativeTongue on March 12th, 2020 9:33 am

    It’s truly sad we can’t just end it here for this individual. Someone with this level of depravity isn’t capable of rehabilitation.

    I’d rather spend my tax dollars on watching his victim heal than letting him rot.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News