Man asks for new judge, venue in Wisconsin brothers’ deaths

Listen to this article

KINGSTON, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man is seeking a new new judge and a change of venue for his trial on charges that he killed two brothers from Wisconsin.

An attorney for Garland Joseph Nelson, of Braymer, Missouri, filed the motions Monday during a hearing that was held using Zoom. His defense attorney and the prosecutor did not return calls seeking more information about the hearing.

Nelson faces two counts of first-degree murder and several other charges in the deaths of Nick Diemel, 35, and Justin Diemel, 34, of Shawano County, Wisconsin.

Jack Diemel, the brothers’ father, said the two went to Nelson’s northwestern Missouri farm to collect a $250,000 debt, according to a court records. The father reported his sons missing July 21 after they failed to show up for a flight home and did not answer their phones.

According to a probable cause statement, Nelson shot the brothers, put their bodies in 55-gallon barrels and used a skid loader to move them one at a time from a barn to a pasture. There, he allegedly burned them using diesel fuel and an unknown liquid. Nelson told investigators he then dumped the remains on a manure pile and hid the barrels elsewhere on his property, about 70 miles northeast of Kansas City, Missouri.

Their remains were found in Missouri and Nebraska.