KANSAS CITY, MO (WTAQ-WLUK) – Garland Nelson was sentenced Monday to 30 years in federal prison on mail fraud and firearm possession convictions, in the case related to the deaths of two Shawano County brothers.
Nelson was also placed on supervised release for three years after the sentences are done. In reality, that doesn’t matter as the 30-year federal term will run consecutively to the back-to-back state sentences of life in prison for the 2019 murders of Nick and Justin Diemel.
Nelson was also ordered to pay $260,925.07 in restitution, federal court records show.
The brothers’ father reported them missing July 21, 2019, after they didn’t return from a visit to Nelson’s farm, where they had gone to collect a $250,000 debt. Nelson was supposed to be caring for cattle for the brothers, according to court records.
The Diemel family sent livestock to Nelson’s farm to be cared for and sold between 2018 and 2019. The animals were neglected and many died but Nelson charged the family full price, according to court documents.
When the Diemels asked for their money back, Nelson intentionally sent a damaged check to Nicholas Diemel, which prompted the brothers’ visit to his farm.
Prosecutors said Nelson shot the brothers and drove their pickup truck off of his farm. He told authorities he put the men’s bodies in 55-gallon barrels and burned them. Nelson told investigators he dumped the remains on a manure pile and hid the barrels on his property, about 70 miles northeast of Kansas City, Missouri.
The remains were later found in Missouri and in a livestock trailer in Lincoln County, Nebraska, that had been purchased in Missouri.
In 2020, the families of the victims reached a $2 million settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit filed against Nelson, his mother, Tomme Feil, and the family’s cattle business, J4S Enterprises.
At the time of the brothers’ deaths, Nelson was on parole after serving 17 months in federal prison for an October 2016 conviction for cattle and insurance fraud. Prosecutors said he sold more than 600 head of cattle that did not belong to him, causing more than $262,000 in losses.
