An owner of the Colorado burial company, which previously admitted, was stowed in almost 190 corpses in a dilapidated building and grieving families were sent to 20 years in prison for wire fraud.
Jon Hallford, owner of Return to Nature Funeral Home, was found guilty Customers cheat and cheated the federal government of almost 900,000 US dollars Covid 19 Help.
He Hallford is guilty of committing conspiracy to commit wire fraud in front of the Federal Supreme Court, but guilty in a separate case. He also omitted for abuse of corpses before the State Court and is convicted of these crimes in August.
At a hearing on Friday, the federal prosecutor requested a 15-year prison sentence and Hallford's lawyer asked for 10 years.
Judge Nina Wang said that the case, although the case focused on a single fraud, was concentrated, the circumstances and the scale of Hallfords crime and the emotional damage to the families justified the longer prison sentence.
“This is not an ordinary fraud,” she said.
In court before the conviction, Hallford informed the judge that he had opened the return to nature in order to have a positive effect on people's lives: “Then everything was completely out of control, especially me.”
“I'm very sorry for my actions,” he said. “I still hate myself for what I did.”
Hallford and his wife Carie Hallford were accused, the corpses kept between 2019 and 2023 and families sent fake ash.
Jon Hallford, left, the co -owner of Return to Nature Funeral Home, said guilty to commit conspiracy before a federal court in front of the federal court last year. He received a 20-year prison sentence. Ms. Carie Hallford is to be brought to trial in September in the cases of federal and the state
Your funeral home promised a more natural funeral and offered the burial of battles without embalming liquids or metal science if the families have not decided to do so
The investigators described
The investigators described that the determination of the corpses was stacked in 2023, which were stacked in a crouched building in Penrose, a small town about two hours south of Denver.
The bodies were to be rotten at room temperature. They were only found after the neighbors issued complaints about a “dead animal smell” that covered the area around the funeral home.
Some of the corpses had been in the buildings affected by maggots for years before they were discovered after reports on a bad smell.
Her funeral home promised a more natural funeral and offered the bodies without beaming liquids or metal boxes when the families have decided not to be underrusted.
Relatives pay over $ 1,200 for an environmentally friendly end, which was also accompanied by the promise of a tree in the Colorado National Forest.
The pathological discovery revealed many families that their relatives were not cremated and that the ashes they had spread out or estimated were fake. The supposed ash was supposedly “concrete dust”.
Relatives said they had raised their suspicion with the couple, but were ignored or wiped off by the couple every time.
When the family of the retired army officer Tanya Wilson received her ashes, her brother Elliot thought that they were unusually difficult and confronted Carie Hallford.
The couple's funeral home promised an environmentally friendly final for relatives who would pay for over $ 1,200 for amenities, including tree planting in the Colorado National Forest
The members of Fremont County guard the street, which leads to return to the funeral home in Penrose, Colorado, in October 2023
The forensic doctor of Fremont County, Randy Keller
When he brought her to a nearby burial entrepreneur, he was told that I had never seen anything that looks like it would normally look in the area of spreading the remains. '
Two families were so suspicious that they mixed the “ashes” with water and found that they strengthened.
According to court documents, the wrong body was buried in two cases.
Many families said that it did not distribute their grieving processes. Some relatives had nightmares, others have to struggle with guilt, and at least one wondered about the soul of their loved ones.
Among the victims who spoke during the conviction on Friday was a boy named Colton Sperry.
When his head pushed just above the Redner Prize, he told the judge of his grandmother, who said Sperry that it was a second mother for him and died in 2019.
Her body was in return to the natural building for four years until the discovery that Perry fell into depression.
He said he said to his parents at the time: “If I die too, I could meet my grandma in heaven and speak to her again.”
His parents took him to the hospital to get a mental health check that led to therapy and an emotional support dog.
Chystina Page, right, holds back Heather de Wolf when after a hearing in February 2024 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with his lawyers after a hearing in February 2024 in Colorado, Colorado, in Jon Hallford, left, the owner of Back to Nature Funeral Home
“I miss my grandma so much,” he told the judge through tears.
The federal prosecutor accused both Hallfords to cheat on pandemic aid, release the money and pay the customer's payments for a GMC Yukon and Infiniti worth over 120,000 US dollars together with $ 31,000 in cryptocurrency, luxury items such as Gucci and Tiffany & Co. and even laschruff.
Derrick Johnson told the judge that he had traveled 3,000 miles to testify how his mother “was thrown into a solemn sea of sea”.
“I lie awake and wonder, was she naked? Was she stacked on others like wood? 'Johnson said.
“While the corpses rotted secretly, they lived (the Hallfords), they laughed and they ate,” he added. “My mother's cremation money has probably contributed to paying a cocktail, a day in the spa, a first -class flight.”
Jon Hallford's lawyer, Laura H. Suelau, asked for a lower prison sentence of 10 years at the hearing on Friday and said Hallford knows that he was wrong, he admitted that he was wrong and offered no excuse.
His conviction in the state case is planned in August.
As a deputy US lawyer Tim Neff, a 15 -year prison sentence for Hallford asked, he described the scene in the building.
The investigators could not move into a few rooms because the corpses were stacked so high and in different decay states. FBI agents had to put on boards so that they could go over the liquid that was later pumped out.
Carie Hallford is to be brought to trial in the federal case in September, in the same month as her next hearing in the state case, in which she is also charged for abuse of corpses.