Utah man convicted of killing missing teen, burying him in remote area

BRIGHAM CITY, Utah (TCN) — A 60-year-old man will spend a maximum of 30 years in prison for killing a 19-year-old on whose farm he lived and worked.

KSL-TV reports that a judge sentenced James Brenner to one to 15 years in prison on two counts of murder, to be served consecutively, for killing Dylan Rounds in 2022. His conviction also includes two counts of possession of a firearm by a restricted person.

Rounds disappeared on May 26, 2022, after eating at a restaurant in Montello, Nevada, before returning to Utah. He reportedly made a phone call on May 28, 2022, but was not heard from again afterward. He was later reported missing to the Box Elder County Sheriff's Office. Several months after his disappearance, the FBI released a statement saying that investigators were “focused on the possibility that Dylan is the victim of a crime,” while also naming Brenner as a suspect in his disappearance. He was taken into custody on unrelated federal charges.

Brenner was arrested on March 3, 2023, in Box Elder County, on charges of aggravated murder and abuse or desecration of a corpse, though the teen's remains have not yet been found. KSL reports that Brenner revealed to law enforcement in April where he had buried Rounds' body.

Brenner eventually agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors in May 2024, and as part of it, he was required to reveal where he had buried Rounds' body. His remains were located and formally identified in April 2024. According to the Box Elder County District Attorney's Office, prosecutors reduced Brenner's aggravated murder charge to second-degree murder and dismissed the count of desecration of human remains. In addition, he pleaded guilty to the firearms charges.

One of the Missing in America family's attorneys spoke at Brenner's sentencing and called Rounds a “dreamer, a builder, a visionary.”

She said: “His spirit was as alive and enduring as the sunflowers he loved.”

The judge told Brenner that when he was ready to apply for parole, he would tell the parole board “they would keep him as long as they could.”

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