DENVER — A Colorado judge rejected a plea deal for a funeral home owner accused of possessing almost 190 decomposing bodies in a building infested with insects on Monday after family members of the victim said the 15 to 20 year term specified in the agreement was too lenient.
Carey Hallford and her husband John Hallfordowned the Return to Nature funeral home and are accused of dumping bodies in a building in a rural town between 2019 and 2023, giving fake ashes to families and deception of the federal government from almost $900,000.
John and Carey Hallford pleaded guilty to 191 counts of abuse of corpses last year, and state District Judge Eric Bentley has now rejected both of their plea agreements after family members asked for a harsher sentence.
A judge rejecting a plea deal is a very unusual occurrence, and Carey Hallford can now either withdraw her guilty plea or continue without a deal, meaning she could receive a harsher sentence.
John Hallford has pleaded not guilty and will stand trial.
After the bodies were discovered, the families learned that their relatives' remains were not in the urn or ashes they had ceremoniously scattered, but languished along with nearly 190 other bodies. Some said they had nightmares about what their loved one must have looked like in that building; others were interested in the souls of their relatives.
