DENVER (AP) — A Colorado judge will consider on Monday whether to accept the latest plea agreements for two former funeral home owners accused of stashing nearly 190 decaying bodies in a bug-infested building.
The previous plea agreements that called for up to 20 years in prison for Carie and Jon Hallford were rejected by the judge earlier this year, with family members of the deceased saying the proposed punishments were too lenient.
Family members are again expected to protest the latest agreements before Monday's hearing in Colorado Springs. A statement by the group said they are seeking accountability and want the cases to proceed to trial.
"This case is not about convenience or efficiency,” said Crystina Page, whose son's body was among those found at the funeral home. “It is about human beings who were treated as disposable. Accepting a plea agreement sends the message that this level of abuse is negotiable. We reject that message.”
The latest plea agreements would have Jon Hallford sentenced to between 30 and 50 years and Carie Hallford to between 25 and 35 years. Victims' family members want each of them sentenced to 191 years — which would include one year for each victim.
The Hallfords, who owned Return to Nature Funeral Home, are accused of dumping bodies and giving families fake ashes between 2019 and 2023. Last year, both pleaded guilty to 191 counts of corpse abuse. Jon Hallford’s plea deal was rejected in August, after which he withdrew his guilty plea. Carie Hallford withdrew her guilty plea in early November after it was rejected by State District Judge Eric Bentley in a rare decision.
On Dec. 16, prosecutors announced that the Hallfords had separately entered new guilty pleas. If the judge approves of the latest agreements, Jon Hallford would be sentenced in early February and Carie Hallford would be sentenced in late April.
Investigators have described finding the bodies in 2023 stacked atop each other in a bug-infested building in Penrose, a small town about a two-hour drive south of Denver. The scene was horrific, officials said, with bodies stacked atop each other in various states of decay — some having been there for four years.
While Jon Hallford was accused of dumping the bodies, authorities said Carie Hallford was the face of the funeral home.
During a hearing in November, Bentley said he considered the need for deterrence in rejecting the plea agreement. Colorado, for many years, had some of the weakest funeral home industry regulations in the nation, leading to numerous abuse cases involving fake ashes, fraud, and even the illegal selling of body parts.
In August, authorities announced that during their first inspection of a funeral home owned by the county coroner in Pueblo, Colorado, they found 24 decomposing corpses behind a hidden door.
That investigation is pending as authorities have reported slow progress in identifying corpses that, in some cases, have languished for more than a decade.
The Return to Nature case has helped trigger reforms, including routine inspections.
The Hallfords also have admitted in federal court to defrauding the U.S. Small Business Administration of nearly $900,000 in pandemic-era aid and taking payments from customers for cremations the funeral home never performed.
