Colorado judge rejects plea deal for funeral home owner in corpse abuse case | Colorado

On Friday, a judge rejected a defense agreement for the owner of a Colorado funeral house that agreed to abuse the 191 corpses after explaining the pain and embarrassment they have carried since the family members learned the bodies of their loved ones.

The decision to reject the defense agreement, which called for a 20 -year imprisonment, watched the grieving statement of family members looking for a more serious penalty.

Among them was Crystina Page, who was killed by the police during a mental health crisis in 2019, David Jaxon Page 20 and his son. His body stopped in his funeral home for years for years because he had carried a urn, which he thought had contained his son’s burned ashes.

“I loved it, I cried, I kept it close on sleepless nights. I kissed him, Page said Page. “He was never herself.

For four years, Jon Hallford and his wife Carie made a fraudulent plan because they returned to the Nature Funeral House in Colorado Springs, while maintaining a generous lifestyle. They received money from customers for creams, just to store bodies and give families dry concrete that resemble ashes.

Page and others said the defense agreement would erase crimes committed against 191 people discovered in a building in Penrose in 2023, colorado in 2023. The agreement said that Hallford’s state penalty would be carried out simultaneously with a 20 -year federal punishment, that is, years before the penalties can be released years ago.

Colorado fought to effectively control the funeral homes and had for years some of the country’s weakest arrangements. This week, there were a number of abuse cases, including a estimated 20 bodies discovered in a funeral home in Pueblo.

Jon Hallford is already attached to prison after being found guilty of federal fraud charges. The rejection of the claim agreement effectively resets the separate state criminal case. Hallford can now withdraw the criminal appeal and send the case to the trial. It may also protect the guilty objection and allow the judge to be punished without any guarantee. He returns to court on September 12th.

Some of the victims who filled the court supported themselves to accept the agreement and then applauded when they announced their decision.

Bentley said that he had never rejected a defense agreement on the counter in nine years and called it a özen excessive action by the court ”. He claimed that he was swinging after hearing the statement on Friday.

Bentley, “I felt an overwhelming perception that justice between lawyers is justice that does not correctly reflect the truth of the experiences of the victims,” ​​Bentley said.

Prosecutor Rachael Powell argued that the abuse of a corpse was at least a serious crime under laws that a 20 -year sentence was appropriate, and a possible sentence from probation to up to 18 months imprisonment.

Defense lawyer Adam Steigerwald said that a hearing would not fulfill what family members want: answers.

“Unfortunately, the answers that people seek are not satisfactory and do not exist to a large extent,” he said.

A year after the body of the grandmother died, Samantha Naranjo, who was in the funeral house, said that the families of 191 people whose ruins were identified by Bentley accepted the experiences of the relatives of approximately 1,000 additional people who were discussed by the funeral house. Although Bentley was not prosecuted for how the ruins of Hallfords were handled, these people were accepted as potential victims.

Orum I feel that I feel, ”he said, tears in his eyes.

Carie Hallford is accused of the same crimes with her husband and was also found guilty. Corpse was not planned for abuse charges.

The couple were accused of allowing 189 bodies to rot. In the other two cases, the wrong bodies were buried. Regional Prosecutor’s Office said that four remains have not yet been identified this week.

In 2017, Hallfords received a license for funeral homes, and the authorities said the bodies began to accumulate until 2019. Some of them were different beyond recognition. Others were not explained in the inch of objects or on the ground.

As the terrible census grew, Jon and Carie Hallford were also defrauding the federal government of about $ 900,000 in Pandemik aid.

With the money from families and the federal government, Hallfords acquired a crypto currency worth $ 120,000 and $ 31,000 from GMC Yukon and Infiniti.

In 2023, a rotten fragrance spilled from the building and the police appeared. Inspectors drove the building, Hazmat wearing suits and carefully took out the bodies. Hallford and his wife were arrested in Oklahoma, where Jon Hallford had more than a month after a month.

Families learned that spreading the ashes of a mother to Hawaii or finding a son’s urn in a rocking chair – that moments of grief were stained with a deception. It was as if these signs of the mourning process were torn, and for months and years, he was solved by working throughout the deaths of his loved ones.