Box Elder County Release of Records from the Brenner Case

October 1, 2024

Box Elder County Release of Records from the Brenner Case

Three months have passed since James Brenner was sentenced in the First District Court in Brigham City on July 1, 2024,
for the second-degree felony murder of Dylan Rounds and subsequent charges on three pending court
cases, including murder charges in the death of Dylan Rounds. Brenner changed his plea to guilty in exchange for a
reduction from first-degree felony murder to second-degree felony murder along with resolutions on the other two cases.

Box Elder County has received numerous GRAMA/FOIA requests for records related to these cases. The records were all
classified as protected until the appeal period on Brenner’s sentencing expired. The appeal period ended October 1, 2024.

To satisfy the numerous requests for records, the County has decided to publicly post access to all records that are
available under guidelines of the Utah Code Annotated 63g-2, the Government Records Access and Management Act,
Utah’s laws regarding Freedom of Information Requests.

Over 3,000 records were analyzed for duplication, classification, redaction of privacy information, and protection for the
privacy of the family. An index has been created to list the number, file name, file type, and whether it is available for release.
If it was deemed unavailable for release, the last column lists the reason for protection.

The numbering of the files may show gaps, this is due to the deletion of duplicate and triplicate copies of records.
Although an attempt was made to remove duplicates, some may still exist. Some records have been marked as not
available for release and as confidential, this is likely due to the classification of the record by a different agency such as
the FBI, Medical Examiner’s Office, etc. Those agencies would need to be contacted for access to those records.

The County has chosen to redact and not include pictures of Dylan’s remains as a courtesy to his family. This exception to
not releasing the pictures is supported under Utah’s GRAMA code, as the County has classified these records as private,
as the privacy interests of the family outweigh any public interest/value the records would provide.

Now that the appeal period has run, the Box Elder County Sheriff’s Office and Attorney’s Office are open to requests for
interview or quotes. You can contact the Sheriff’s Office at 435-734-3800 or the County Attorney’s Office at 435-734-3329.
Or BEattorney@boxeldercountyut.gov.

Box Elder County again wishes to share its deepest condolences to the family of Dylan Rounds, and immense gratitude to
the friends, volunteers, Sheriff’s Office, and the multitude of agencies that assisted in bringing closure to this difficult
case.