Utah farm boy Dylan Rounds’ cause of death was revealed Wednesday as the “killer squatter” accused in the disappearance and death of the teen in 2022 pleaded guilty to murder.
James Brenner, appearing in Utah’s First District Court for a preliminary hearing, pleaded guilty to a felony murder charge and two counts of possession of a firearm by a restricted person related to Rounds’ disappearance on Memorial Day weekend two years ago.
During the preliminary hearing, Rounds’ cause of death was revealed as a gunshot wound to the head.
As part of a plea deal, Brenner’s first-degree felony aggravated murder charge was reduced to second-degree felony murder, and a second charge of desecration of human remains was ultimately dropped, the Box Elder County Attorney’s Office announced.
An unrelated aggravated assault charge was also dismissed.
“The plea deal also includes an agreement that the sentences for each individual charges run consecutively, and that prison is mandatory.”
Brenner, 60, had been squatting in a trailer on farmland near Rounds’ property in the small desert community of Lucin near the Utah-Nevada border.
Rounds went missing on May 28, 2022, after talking to his grandmother over the phone, telling her he was “putting the grain truck into shelter.”
The shelter was on a section of land owned by Box Elder Land and Livestock, and was adjacent to the property Brenner was squatting on.
During a search, law enforcement found the missing grain truck and a pair of bloody boots were found during the initial search for the missing teen, and a DNA analysis matched Rounds to the shoes, according to KSL.com.
County officials and the FBI later recovered several guns from Brenner’s property, of which he was in illegal possession because of his criminal history.
Investigators obtained Rounds’ phone records which were traced to the area near a Lucin pond, and a time-lapse video was found on the device, which captured Brenner with bloodstains on his arms and shirt as he was cleaning his gun, the outlet reported.
As part of the plea deal, Brenner was required to disclose the burial site of Rounds’ body.
“On April 9, 2024, skeletal remains presumed to belong to Dylan Rounds were recovered in the remote western Box Elder County area of Lucin,” the Box Elder County Sheriff’s Office announced at the time.
The suspected murderer has been in jail since June 2022 after he was arrested for firearms violations and was charged with Rounds’ death last year.
His guilty plea gave some form of closure to the grieving family who created a nonprofit in Rounds’ name.
“It doesn’t necessarily put it to rest, but this court part of it and the anxiety of the consistently waiting, ‘What’s going to happen? When’s it going to happen? What if it doesn’t happen?’ That part we can finally lay to rest,” Cooley said.
“While we had hoped for a different outcome, we have known since the start Dylan was no longer alive,” the family said on May 1. “This recent development means the investigation has gone full circle, and now we can finally bring Dylan home and close this chapter.”
Box Elder County Attorney Stephen Hadfield commended the work the detectives and law enforcement agencies put into solving the case.
“Being able to bring Dylan home and bring this prosecution to a successful conclusion is a great relief,” Hadfield said. “It has been amazing to see what tireless and unrelenting efforts of so many different people can accomplish. We wouldn’t be here today without each of their individual contributions.”
Prosecutor Blair Wardle worked with Rounds’ family to review the different options and sentencing outcomes to structure and finalize the plea deal before Brenner signed it on Wednesday.
A sentencing hearing is set for July 1.
“Only 1-15 is for murdering Dylan, the rest is gun charges,” Rounds’ mother, Candice Cooley said, according to Fox 13 Now.
“So constituents of Utah: think about it and who you vote for. These laws are made by our legislation and if you want them changed, this could be your kid and it could be a man serving more time for having the guns than for murdering your child with them.”
