ATHENS, Ohio — A Glouster man was sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday in Athens County Common Pleas Court after pleading guilty to charges related to the September 2021 overdose death of Gary Gardner.

A co-defendant in the case was sentenced to six to nine years in prison in October.

Thomas Thomas, 46, of Glouster, pleaded guilty to third-degree felony charges of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of tampering with evidence. He also pleaded guilty to a fifth-degree felony count of gross abuse of a corpse.

Judge George McCarthy sentenced Thomas to 10 years in prison on the charges and allowed jail credit for time served while awaiting trial.

In October, co-defendant Zachary Stanley, 41, of Athens, pleaded guilty to complicity to involuntary manslaughter in addition to two counts of tampering with evidence and one count of gross abuse of a corpse. He was sentenced to a minimum of six years and a maximum of nine years in prison.

Gardner, 56, of Glouster, was found dead on Sept. 30, 2021, outside of a Glouster residence. A coroner’s report indicated the cause of death to be methamphetamine and amphetamine intoxication. Stanley and Thomas tampered with evidence in the case and moved Gardner’s body to a different location from which the death occurred, according to a release from the Athens County Prosecutor’s Office.