Clearfield man who murdered grandparents sentenced to at least 30 years in prison
Sep 16, 2024, 3:00 PM
FARMINGTON — A Clearfield man who murdered his elderly grandparents in his family’s garage in November 2022 could potentially spend the rest of his life in prison.
Jeremy Dwayne Belt, 28, was ordered Monday to serve two consecutive terms of 15 years to life in prison after pleading guilty in July to the killing of Thomas Walker, 87, and Janice Walker, 85.
As part of a plea deal, Belt pleaded guilty to two reduced counts of murder, a first-degree felony. He had been charged with two counts of aggravated murder, a capital offense. Charges of possession of a gun by a restricted person, a third-degree felony; drug possession, a class A misdemeanor; plus assault and criminal mischief, class B misdemeanors, were dismissed in exchange for his pleas.
Belt was also sentenced to a year in jail for assault, reduced from a second-degree felony to a class A misdemeanor, as part of a plea deal in a separate case. He was on pretrial release at the time of the murders, according to court records, after attacking his life-in girlfriend and choking her until she was unconscious.
On Nov. 23, 2022, Belt got into an argument with his mother, saying he believed his grandparents were trying to hurt him.
Belt told his mother “that he could feel an electrical current in the room and asked her if she could feel it. During that discussion, he became upset with his mother and (he) kicked her in the face,” court documents state.
Belt had smoked meth the night before, and took marijuana and Xanax earlier in the day, according to the plea, and officers found marijuana and mushrooms in his room …
