PENROSE, Colo — Prosecutors in southern Colorado have offered a plea deal to a couple accused of improperly storing 190 bodies in their Penrose funeral home, according to an email sent to victims.
In the email obtained by 9NEWS Investigates, prosecutors told victims that plea offers have been extended to Jon Hallford and Carie Hallford.
In October, law enforcement found 190 bodies inside Return to Nature funeral home. Families had hired the funeral home to cremate or bury the bodies.
The Hallfords, who owned the funeral home, were arrested in Oklahoma on Nov. 8. The couple are each charged with 190 counts of abuse of a corpse, five counts of theft, four counts of money laundering and more than 50 counts of forgery.
According to the email, if the suspects were to accept the plea deal, each would plead guilty to nearly 200 counts of abuse of a corpse, which is a felony.
If Jon Hallford accepted the plea deal, he would be sentenced to 20 years in prison, the email says. Carie Hallford would be sentenced to 15-20 years in prison if she were to accept the deal.
Sheila Canfield-Jones, a victim in the case, said she wasn't surprised the two had been offered a deal.
"This is kind of disappointing, but it's not unexpected," she said.
Her daughter, Marella Canfield-Jones, died at age 38. Her body was left inside the funeral home for years.
"I mean, these people's families were in this building for up to four years," Canfield-Jones said. "My daughter was there for four years. Piled on top of somebody else, decaying. And she's only worth one and a quarter months worth of jail time for these monsters? I don't get that at all. I don't understand that at all."
A spokesperson for the Fourth Judicial District Attorney's Office told 9NEWS they could not comment on the case.
The Hallfords' next court appearance is set for 8:30 a.m. on July 11. In the email, prosecutors said they anticipate the suspects will enter not-guilty pleas at that court date. However, the email said, the suspects could potentially accept the plea on July 11.
In the months leading up to the discovery of the bodies, the Hallfords missed tax payments, were evicted from one of their properties and were sued for unpaid bills by a crematory that had quit doing business with them, according to public records and interviews with people who worked with the couple.
From January: Colorado funeral home owners apparently sought to cover up money problems by abandoning bodies
Prosecutors said in a February court hearing that the suspects took payments from families that were meant for cremations and burials and instead bought vehicles, cryptocurrency, a $1,500 dinner in Las Vegas and other personal items.
From February: Couple accused of abandoning nearly 200 bodies spent cremation money on vehicles, $1,500 dinner, prosecutors say
In a separate case, the couple is accused of fraudulently obtaining nearly $900,000 in pandemic relief funds from the U.S. government. A trial in that case is scheduled to begin Oct. 15.
From April: Funeral home owners charged with COVID fraud
The Environmental Protection Agency began demolishing the funeral home in April. Before the first break, dozens of family members and local officials convened for a memorial service to honor the victims.
In May, Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill into law that requires funeral directors, cremationists, mortuary science professionals and embalmers to pass background checks and have certain educational requirements and time spent on the job.
The new regulations came months after Denver Police discovered boxes of cremated remains and a woman’s decomposing body inside a hearse during the eviction of a former funeral director. It was months before that discovery that investigators found the bodies at Return to Nature. And in 2018, the FBI raided Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, and the funeral directors there were convicted on federal charges after selling body parts.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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