Idaho Killer Who Dismembered, Microwaved And Ate Victim's Body Parts Gets Life Imprisonment

A man in Idaho was sentenced to life in prison Monday after he killed a man and ate parts of the victim's remains.

James David Russell, 40, brutally murdered David M. Flaget, the 70-year-old caretaker of his grandfather's property in Clark Fork, Idaho, in September 2021.

First District Judge Barbara Buchanan ordered Russell to serve a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole after he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, authorities confirmed to Law&Crime.

Russell was arrested in September 2021 after a brief standoff after deputies discovered the body of Flaget wrapped in plastic and placed upside down into the passenger seat of his car. According to autopsy results, Flaget died due to blunt force trauma to his head, KREM reported.

The medical examiner also discovered evidence of postmortem mutilation in several areas of Flaget's body, indicating that flesh had been removed.

Russell was initially charged with first-degree murder and one count of cannibalism. However, Buchanan dismissed the latter charge last summer due to lack of evidence.

In November 2022, Russell reached a deal with prosecutors, who agreed to dismiss the first-degree murder charge on the condition he pleads guilty to second-degree murder.

Buchanan noted that all sides agree that Russell suffers from significant mental illness, including schizophrenia, and that he suffers from delusion and psychoses. The judge added that Russell's delusions are "violent and uncontrollable" and resulted in something horrible.

"This court cannot fathom a way that society can be protected except for Mr. Russell to be confined," Buchanan said, according to a report from the Coeur d'Alene Press.

"In this case, as Mr. Marshall said, mental illness is in a way a mitigating factor, but it is also an aggravating factor," the judge said of imposing a fixed life sentence. "Because the court has no certainty ... that society can be safe unless Mr. Russell is confined, no way that Mr. Russell can be safe."

Buchanan said her decision to impose a fixed life sentence was due to her focus on the "protection of society," one of the state's four sentencing objectives, according to Coeur d'Alene Press.

In his court address, Russell apologized for his actions and said he wished technology existed that could bring Flaget back to life, according to the newspaper.

An affidavit submitted in court stated that Russell was the "sole resident" of a nearby loft where investigators found "human flesh, latex gloves, bloody newspapers, bloody duct tape pieces, cutting implements with suspected blood, [and] several areas of blood."

During the search of Russell's apartment, a bowl and microwave containing apparent blood and tissue were seized. These items, along with the tissue recovered at the same scene, were sent to the Idaho State Lab for testing.

The state lab confirmed that both the bowl and the outside of the microwave contained Flaget's DNA.

Authorities alleged that Russell believed he could "cure his brain" by eating Flaget's remains.