BRIGHAM CITY, Utah, April 11, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — The hearing for prosecutors to present the evidence against the man accused in Dylan Rounds‘ murder is set for three days in May.
Rounds’ remains found Tuesday near his Lucin ranch in west Box Elder County have been positively identified by the state medical examiner’s office, the Box Elder County Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday evening.
James A. Brenner, 60, was first identified in July 2022 as a suspect in Rounds’ disappearance two months earlier. He was arrested on unrelated charges at the time and has been held in jail without bail ever since.
In March 2023, Brenner was formally charged with aggravated murder and abuse or desecration of a human body in the 19-year-old’s death. Aggravated murder carries the death penalty.
At Brenner’s arraignment in the homicide case in April 2023 in Brigham City’s 1st District Court, prosecutors indicated they would not be seeking the death penalty, according to court records. That does not preclude them filing their intent to seek capital punishment at a future date.
Last November, after numerous pretrial motions involving Brenner’s two court-appointed attorneys as expected in a homicide, his preliminary hearing was set May 15-17.
At such a hearing, prosecutors present the case to demonstrate minimum evidentiary standards have been met to warrant charges.
Amid media reports that Brenner may have led officials to the site of Rounds’ body, the hearing may be a mere formality if a plea bargain has been negotiated.
Among the pretrial motions was a request in May 2023 from the East Idaho News to allow electronic media coverage of the proceedings. Rounds’ family is from Rigby, Idaho. Judge Brandon Maynard granted the motion the same day it was filed.
Brenner was squatting in a trailer on property near Rounds’ farm in Lucin and had contact with him, according to court documents. He has a rap sheet that includes malicious wounding, malicious shooting, and multiple convictions of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
