A Colorado funeral home owner who hid 189 decomposing bodies in the building for four years while giving grieving families fake ashes was sentenced Friday to 40 years in state prison. During the sentencing, family members called defendant Jon Hallford a “monster.”
At the hearing, family members told Judge Eric Bentley they have had nightmares of rotting flesh and maggots since learning what happened to their loved ones. They asked that Hallford be given the maximum sentence of 50 years.
Judge Bentley told Hallford he had caused “unspeakable and incomprehensible” harm. “I personally believe that each of us, each human being, is fundamentally good. But we live in a world that puts that belief to the test every day, and your crimes, Mr. Hallford, test that belief,” Bentley said.
Convict’s apology
Hallford apologized before sentencing, saying he would regret his actions for the rest of his life. “I had so many opportunities to stop everything and walk away, but I didn’t. My mistakes will reverberate for generations. Everything I did was wrong,” he declared.
His attorney unsuccessfully sought a 30-year sentence, arguing that it was not a violent crime and that Hallford had no prior criminal record. His ex-wife and co-owner of the Return to Nature funeral home, Carrie Hallford, is scheduled to be sentenced on April 24 and faces 25 to 35 years in prison. In December, as part of a settlement with the prosecutor’s office, both of them pleaded guilty to almost 200 counts of abuse of human remains.
A crime of greed
According to court documents, while they were hiding the bodies, the Hallfords were spending money recklessly. They bought a GMC Yukon SUV and a luxury Infiniti with a total value of more than $120,000, invested $31,000 in cryptocurrencies and bought expensive goods at stores like Gucci and Tiffany, and spent the money on laser body contouring.
“It’s clearly a crime of greed,” said prosecutor Shelby Crow. She pointed out that the Hallfords charged their clients more than $1,200, and with the money they spent on luxury, they could cover the costs of cremating all the bodies many times over.
The couple also pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges for illegally obtaining nearly $900,000 in small business aid from the government during the pandemic. Jon Hallford was sentenced to 20 years in prison in that case, and the verdict for Carrie Hallford is still pending. Under the settlement, the state prison sentence will run concurrently with the federal one.
A gruesome discovery
The Hallfords stored the bodies in a building in the town of Penrose, south of Colorado Springs, from 2019 to 2023, when investigators responded to reports of a foul odor. Investigators said bodies were found throughout the building, some stacked on top of each other, with swarms of insects, while the floor was covered in decomposing fluid. The remains – including adults, infants and fetuses – were stored at room temperature.
Identification of the body took months, and fingerprints, DNA and other methods were used. Investigators believe that the Hallfords gave the families crushed dry concrete as ashes, writes Index.hr.
(TYPE/Photo: X)
