This afternoon, Brant Dustin Kelling was sentenced to life in prison for second degree murder. He was convicted in December, for the murder of a man in St James City, following a five-day jury trial in Lee County.
Assistant State Attorneys Brenda Wade and Leena Marcos of the State Attorney’s Office Homicide Unit
prosecuted the case.
The crime was discovered on Aug. 10, 2023, when the Lee County Sheriff’s Office responded to a
911 call from a home in St. James City. A woman there had found her friend, bloody and
unresponsive, laying on the lanai of the home. He died at the scene.
There was a large amount of blood in the driveway of the home and visual injuries of trauma on the
victim, who was not clothed. He had been beaten to death.
Deputies began an investigation that led them to the defendant as the person responsible for the
crime.
Kelling, 35, was a former resident of Curlew Drive in St. James City.