DA’s office reportedly offers plea deals to Penrose funeral home owners accused of mishandling remains

The 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office has reportedly offered plea deals to southern Colorado funeral home owners accused of mishandling hundreds of remains, according to an email to impacted families obtained by Denver7.

Jon and Carie Hallford, the owners of the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, are accused of improperly storing 191 bodies since at least early October 2023 after reports of a horrific odor coming from the building along Highway 115 in Fremont County were first made public. The Hallfords were arrested in connection with the horrifying discovery in Oklahoma around a month later.

The couple also faces 13 federal counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

According to the email, under the offered plea deal, Jon Hallford would plead guilty to 191 counts of abuse of a corpse, a Class 6 felony. He would then serve 20 years in the Department of Corrections concurrent to — or at the same time as — the federal sentence he receives.

Carie Hallford, under the offered plea deal, would plead guilty to 191 counts of abuse of a corpse, a Class 6 felony, according to the email. She would then serve 15 to 20 years in the Department of Corrections concurrent to the federal sentence she receives.

The email states the offers will expire on October 4 — exactly one year since the remains were discovered by authorities.

The Hallfords are expected in court at 8:30 a.m. on July 11. The DA’s office anticipates that the couple will plead not guilty, according to the email, and the case will be scheduled for a jury trial. However, the Hallfords could potentially accept the plea deal at the court date, the email states.