DENVER (AP) — A Colorado judge on Monday rejected the plea agreement of a funeral home owner accused of stashing nearly 190 decaying bodies in a bug-infested building after family members of the deceased argued that the agreement's 15- to 20-year sentence was too lenient.

"The sentence negotiated by the parties does not adequately account for the harms that these crimes have caused,” said State District Judge Eric Bentley, describing his rare decision to forego an agreement reached by the prosecution and defense for funeral home owner Carie Hallford.

Carie Hallford and her husband, Jon Hallford, owned Return to Nature Funeral Home and are accused of dumping the bodies between 2019 and 2023 in a building in Penrose, Colorado, about a two-hour drive south of Denver, and giving families fak

See Full Page