HARRISONVILLE, Mo.—A northwest Missouri man pleaded guilty Friday to killing two brothers from Wisconsin after they came to his farm in 2019 to collect a debt from a cattle contract.
Garland Nelson, of Braymer, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of 24-year-old Justin Diemel and 35-year-old Nicholas Diemel, of Shawano County, Wisconsin.
He was given two life sentences without parole, which will run consecutively.
In exchange for his plea, charges of abandonment of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, armed criminal action and tampering with a motor vehicle were dropped. the St. Joseph News-Press reported.
In 2020, one of Nelson’s defense attorneys said the state planned to seek the death penalty if Nelson was convicted in the killings. Despite that the Diemel family was “shocked” he pleaded guilty, but Brady Kopek, the Caldwell County prosecutor, said the deal had been on the table for a year….