Sentencing scheduled for a man who pleads guilty to the murder of a Milcreek woman

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — The man responsible for killing a mother and grandmother as she tried to leave her friend’s Millcreek home in 2020 will be sentenced Thursday afternoon in Third District Court – just a day before his 28th birthday.

James Dekota Brunson was a parolee when he shot Linda Nemelka in a botched carjacking.

A previous 2News investigation found that shortly after Brunson was granted his parole, he left Fortitude Treatment Center on Jan. 31, 2020, to complete an orientation with a temporary employment agency but never returned.

Adult Probation and Parole waited 16 hours before trying to find him, and by then he went on a five-week crime spree before being caught.

MORE about the death of Linda Nemelka

On March 10, 2020, Brunson and his girlfriend Anika Celeste Thorpe, also a parolee, stole a cache of weapons from a guest at Thorpe’s mother’s home in Orem.

Among the weapons was the gun used to kill Nemelka the next day, March 11. On March 12, the duo was caught with the weapons outside a Salt Lake County apartment complex and taken into custody by the Utah County Major Crimes Task Force.

It took more than a year for UPD homicide detectives to announce that Brunson and Thorpe were suspected of the murder. In February 2021, a confidential informant contacted the police.

In July of that year, both were in state prison for probation violations when Salt Lake County prosecutors charged them with murder and aggravated robbery.

In October 2024, the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office granted Brunson, who has an extensive criminal record for violent crimes including a previous car theft, a plea deal and pleaded guilty on October 11, four years to the day of the murder.

Murder charge reduced

Assistant District Attorneys Vince Meister and Abby Brinkerhoff reduced the charge of first-degree murder with a weapon enhancement to second-degree murder and reduced first-degree aggravated robbery to a second-degree felony.

They dismissed count three, a second-degree felony of purchase, transfer, possession or use of a firearm by a restricted person. Both prosecutors recommended to Judge James Blanch a set sentence for Brunson: 2 to 20 years in prison for murder and 1 to 15 years in prison for aggravated robbery.

When Brunson entered his guilty plea, Judge Blanch made it clear that he was not bound by the parties’ agreements regarding the recommended sentence.

Nemelka’s family members are expected to give victim impact statements before his sentencing, including her daughters Jessica Nemelka, Amanda Wood and son Cory.

Thorpe is scheduled to stand trial in January 2025.

AP&P’s 2News investigation:

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