A hearse and van sit outside the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, Colorado, on October 6, 2023. David Zalubowski/AP Colorado Springs, Colorado AP —

A Colorado funeral home owner who acknowledged abusing 191 corpses withdrew his guilty plea Friday and will go to trial, after a judge rejected a plea agreement in a rare decision.

Family members of those whose bodies were found piled up and decomposing in a building in Penrose, Colorado, want a longer state prison sentence than the 20 years in the plea agreement.

Jon Hallford and his wife, Carie, for years ran a fraudulent scheme from their Return to Nature Funeral Home while maintaining a lavish lifestyle, according to authorities. Prosecutors say they took money from customers for cremations, only to stash the bodies

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