Funeral home owner who stashed nearly 190 decaying bodies sentenced to 20 years in prison
Funeral home owner who stashed nearly 190 decaying bodies sentenced to 20 years in prison
A federal judge has sentenced a Colorado funeral home owner who stashed nearly 190 decomposing bodies to 20 years in prison on federal fraud charges.
A Colorado funeral home owner who stashed nearly 190 dead bodies in a decrepit building and sent grieving families fake ashes received the maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison on Friday, for cheating customers and defrauding the federal government out of nearly $900,000 in COVID-19 aid.
Jon Hallford, owner of Return to Nature Funeral Home, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in federal court last year. Separately, Hallford pleaded guilty to 191 counts of corpse abuse in state court and will be sentenced in August.
At Friday’s hearing, federal prosecutors sought a 15-year sentence and Hallford’s attorney asked for 10 years. Judge Nina Wang said that although the case focused on a single fraud charge, the circumstances and scale of Hallford’s crime and the emotional damage to families warranted the longer sentence.
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Just over 1 month prison for each family defrauded, including the body of their loved one discarded like trash.
If he did this to just one family, would he have only gotten a month?
The court has disrespected these families worse than he did.
It's the maximum possible sentence. The court can't do more. Also, this is just the sentence for COVID aid fraud. Sentencing for the corpse abuse charges is scheduled for August.
It's the maximum possible sentence. The court can't do more.
So, if they tried this as 190 individual cases, he'd only get a 5 weeks each? The courts really needed to do more.
Also, this is just the sentence for COVID aid fraud. Sentencing for the corpse abuse charges is scheduled for August.
I reread the article multiple times, and 20 years is the maximum for everything, including defrauding the government, to be confirmed in August.
I agree what happened is a travesty but here's the thing that gets me most ... it's an unregulated business, so the onus is on the state to get their act together and make the rules.
According to this legal site, mishandling of a corpse gets you a lot more than 5 weeks, with mention of funeral homes and hospitals:
The penalties for these crimes vary significantly by jurisdiction. Some states classify abuse of a corpse as a misdemeanor, which may result in fines and a jail sentence of up to one year. More serious acts can be charged as a felony, carrying stiffer penalties, including several years in prison and fines that can reach $10,000 or more.