BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
STARKE— A Keystone Heights man who was released from prison last year after spending 14 years behind bars was sent back to the Department of Corrections for another 12 years after violating probation.
Joshua Antonio Dell, 34, was sentenced in 2008 for attempted second-degree murder and for shooting into an occupied structure.
According to an arrest report, on Sept. 14, 2007, Dell got into an argument with another person and fired four rounds from a semi-automatic SKS rifle into a home where the victim had fled. The shooting occurred near the Bradford-Clay County line, west of Bradford County Road 21B, north of Silver Lake.
Dell pleaded to the charges and was sentenced to 14 years in prison and three years’ probation.
The defendant was released on July 1, 2021, and was eight-and-a-half months into his three-year probation term when Starke Police said he sold $40 worth of crack cocaine near the Orangewood Apartments on South Water Street to a confidential source on March 10. The following week, Starke Police Detective Hunter Redding supervised a second controlled $60 purchase from the defendant, also known as “Leatherface.”
Dell’s April 5 arrest related to the two drug deals triggered a probation violation related to his 2008 sentence.
A probation officer wrote in a violation report that Dell also left the county of his residence: Clay without permission and failed to pay monetary obligations.
In a May 25 hearing at the Bradford County Courthouse, Dell pleaded to the probation violations and to charges related to the first drug deal. The State Attorney’s Office dropped charges related to the second cocaine sale.
Circuit Judge James M. Colaw sentenced Dell to 25 years in prison for the probation violation, and one year for charges related to the drug sale. He gave Dell credit for prison time already served and left it to the Department of Corrections to calculate the defendant’s credit for previous time served.
According to court papers, Dell’s attorney and the State agreed that he previously served and should be credited for 13 years, 10 months and 29 days.
