A Utah man confessed to the murder of missing teen Dylan Rounds, one month after revealing the location of his remains.
James Brenner, 61, struck a deal and pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree felony murder and two counts of possession of a firearm by a restricted person, in the slaying of the 19-year-old farmer, according to the Box Elder County Attorney's Office. He also agreed to show investigators where he buried Rounds' remains near Lucin, Utah. In exchange, the prosecution agreed to drop the desecration of remains charge.
The plea deal also includes an agreement that the sentences for each of the individual charges run consecutively and that prison is mandatory.
Brenner will be sentenced July 1.
Rounds disappeared from his farm in northwest Utah May 28, 2022, after speaking with his grandmother on the phone.
Authorities determined Brenner was squatting in the trailer where Rounds parked his grain truck and was "mad that Dylan put his truck in the shed that day. That's it, just mad," his mother, Candice Cooley, said, according to KSL-TV. "It was absolutely shameful that that's what it is over, and then that's probably all we'll ever get out of him. There's no legal arrangement that can make him tell us exactly what happened that morning."
"While we had hoped for a different outcome, we have known since the start Dylan was no longer alive," Rounds' family said in a statement. "This recent development means the investigation has gone full circle, and now we can finally bring Dylan home and close this chapter."
