FRANKLIN — A judge on Wednesday sentenced a man to 16 years in prison for stabbing a fellow inmate at the Johnson County Jail with a broken broom handle on Christmas Day 2019.
According to the Johnson County Prosecutor's Office, Joshua Medcalf, 31, appeared via Zoom from the Wabash Correctional Facility and pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated battery.
The prosecutor's office said Medcalf was captured on video during the early morning hours Dec. 25, 2019, in the common area of his cell block approaching a fellow inmate from behind. The other inmate was on a video call at the time.
Prosecutors said Medcalf could be seen removing an object from his waistband and then repeatedly striking the other man with it in the upper body and head areas. It was later determined to be a broken piece of a broom handle. The victim was able to get the object away from Medcalf.
The victim suffered multiple lacerations to his head, neck and shoulders.
According to prosecutors, Medcalf said he didn't know the victim personally but targeted him as a means to get himself sent back to prison. Medcalf also allegedly said he had considered targeting corrections officers to accomplish the same goal.
The 16-year prison sentence will be served consecutive to prison sentences he is currently serving for escape and violating his probation in a burglary case, the prosecutor's office said.
"The sheriff and his administration do an exemplary job working to maintain a jail environment as safe as possible for both offenders and jail staff," Johnson County Prosecutor Joe Villanueva said. "When an inmate like Medcalf commits a violent crime of this magnitude I will do everything within my legal authority to hold such a person fully accountable. Mr. Medcalf wanted to go back to prison, and I am happy to have done my part to help fulfill that wish."
