Judge rejects plea deal for funeral home owner accused of stashing nearly 190 decaying bodies
By JESSE BEDAYN, Associated Press
DENVER (AP) — A Colorado judge rejected the plea deal of a funeral home owner accused of stashing nearly 190 decaying bodies in a bug-infested building Monday after family members of the deceased argued that the deal’s 15- to 20-year sentence was too lenient.
Carie Hallford and her husband, Jon Hallford, owned Return to Nature Funeral Home and are accused of dumping the bodies in a building in a rural town between 2019 and 2023, giving families fake ashes and defrauding the federal government out of nearly $900,000.
FILE – This combination of booking photos provided by the Muskogee County, Okla., Sheriff’s Office shows Jon Hallford, left, and Carie Hallford, owners of Return to Nature Funeral Home. (Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office via AP, File)
Jon and Carie Hallford both pleaded guilty to 191 counts of corpse abuse last year, and State District Judge Eric Bentley has now rejected both of their plea deals after family members asked for a more severe punishment.
A judge rejecting a plea deal is very unusual, and Carie Hallford can now either withdraw her guilty plea or continue without the deal, meaning she could get a higher sentence.
Jon Hallford withdrew his guilty plea and is scheduled for trial.
After the discovery of the bodies, families learned that their relatives’ remains weren’t in the urn or the ashes they ceremonially spread, but instead were languishing with nearly 190 other bodies. Some said they had nightmares of what their loved one must have looked like in that building; others wondered about their relatives’ souls.
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