DENVER — One of the co-owners of a funeral home in Penrose accused of misspending nearly $900,000 in COVID-19 pandemic relief funds will spend 20 years in prison, a federal district judge in Denver ruled Friday.
Jon Hallford was charged with 15 federal offenses related to defrauding both the U.S. government and customers of the Return to Nature funeral home in April of last year.
The 240-month prison sentence handed down by Judge Nina Wang will run concurrently to however many years he is sentenced in his and wife's abuse of a corpse case in El Paso County Court. Hallford will then be under supervised release for 3 years.
As part of a plea deal he made last year, Hallford was looking at anywhere from six-and-a-half to eight years in prison, as prosecutors could ask for no more than 15 years in prison as a result of the plea.
But Judge Wang said in her ruling that while there was a threshold allowed under the law in these type of cases, "this fraud that you committed is inextricably connected” to the crimes Hallford is facing in state court.
Judge Wang described how Hallford failed to provide responsible cremation and burial services, failing to cremate decomposing bodies and as a result, collected $193,000 for services he never provided.
His wife, Carie Hallford, initially also pleaded guilty in the wire fraud case but withdrew her guilty plea in early March to fight the charges against her in trial, according to CPR News. Court documents show the Hallfords used the pandemic relief funds to buy expensive cars, trips and cryptocurrency.
Before sentencing, lawyers for the defense argued Hallford’s sentencing on the federal wire fraud charges should not be punished as equally as those he faces in a separate case in Colorado court, where he is accused of stashing roughly 200 decaying bodies inside the Penrose funeral home and sending grieving families fake ashes.
But Judge Wang wasn't convinced by that argument, saying that by looking solely through the lens of wire fraud and focusing on elements of deceit and fraud, what Hallford committed was "no ordinary case of wire fraud and it could never be."
Victim’s families take the stand, describe trauma Hallford’s actions left behind
Describing Hallford as a selfish opportunist who used one of their most painful moments to make money so he could live a lavish lifestyle with his wife Carie, one by one, families of the victims of Return to Nature spoke about the trauma Hallford left, which continues years after the gruesome discovery at the funeral home.
The first to speak was Crystina Page, whose son’s remains were left under the care of the Hallfords in the hope that his body would be treated with dignity.
No sentence “will ever fully balance the scales… I speak today not just for my son, but for every family … affected by Return to Nature Funeral Home,” Page said, as she demonstrated how many lives the Hallfords had impacted using marbles put into a plastic container.
“This is a community forever changed. It wasn’t just 191 people affected,” Page said. “Our community will forever be changed by the actions of Jon Hallford and there’s no sentencing that will ever be enough.”
Others, like Derrick Johnson, who thought he had cremated his mother and taken her ashes to plant a tree, described it as “a tree of lies now.” “While the bodies rotted in secret, [the Hallfords] lived, they laughed and dined. They traveled. My mom’s cremation money likely helped pay for a cocktail, a first-class flight. They didn’t use the money to help people. They used it to feed their appetite,” Johnson said. “[My mother] was not treated as a human being. She was treated like waste. They all were.”
State
Disposal site finalized for Return to Nature Funeral Home cleanup
Tanya Wilson, whose deceased mother was left in the care of the Hallfords, told the judge that while the federal case only dealt with wire fraud, the damage done by the Hallfords went beyond just money.
“The fraud was only the vehicle that allowed them to keep doing this to families,” Wilson said. “Every morning, the Hallfords made the calculated decision to lie to grieving families like mine. My mom deserved peace in death. She deserved dignity. She deserved more than just being dumped into a pile of bodies.”
Another one of the families impacted Hallford’s actions asked the judge to consider that while the federal case might seem like a regular white-collar crime, the pain caused to families like hers cannot be overstated.
“Jon stole our money and instead of using those payments, chose to let our loved ones decay in that doomed building in Penrose,” said Elizabeth Ostly. ”These acts are not mere negligence. They represent the betrayal of people at their most vulnerable moments.”
Another one of the victims, Krista Johnson, requested the judge hand down the maximum sentence against Hallford for not only desecreating her mother’s remains, but the Dayton National Cemetery in Ohio, where Johnston’s mother — the widow of a Korean War veteran — was to be buried along with her deceased husband.
“Like others, the Hallfords left my mom’s remains to rot and sent I-don’t-know-what to the national cemetery,” Johnson said. “My mom did not deserve this.”
Kailynn Page, whose deceased brother was also left under the care of the Penrose funeral home, spoke of how the case has affected her entire family, and how she didn’t believe Hallford “truly felt the weight” of what he had done.
“My brother’s decomposing body was dumped on others, left like trash to be dealt with later,” said Page. “You treated human beings as if they were trash to be hidden away and forgotten.”
She also spoke of how disgusted she was that Hallford made the choice to keep doing that day after day, living through the smell of the decomposing bodies.
“I don’t believe you truly feel the weight of what you’ve done, you only feel the weight of the consequences,” Page said. “You have been a stain on what it means to be human. No apology can ever undo what you did."
"This crime was a violation of all societal norms of decency"
In closing arguments, Tim Neff, an assistant U.S. attorney for the government, said the crime Hallford pleaded guilty to was deep on so many levels.
"Yes, this is a wire fraud case — it was lies and deceit — and people lost $193,000," Neff said, but there was also untold emotional trauma that hundreds of families have had to go through over the past several years. "The pain, the grief, the torment continues to this day. This crime was a violation of all societal norms of decency. All boundaries that allows for respect of the deceased was crossed year after year."
Neff said the U.S. government can make their case before the court, but ultimately, it is the impact statements from the victim's families that provide the strongest case for the punishment the judge had to consider.
"Ghoulish and depraved" does not even begin to describe the conditions inside the Return to Nature funeral home in Penrose, Neff said, as he described how teams of investigators found "so much decomposition, it was seeping out of all corners of the building," and how the strong stench of the organic material imprinted on paper and camera equipment that had to be replaced.
Neff described how Hallford continued to look people in the eye, promising he would take care of their family's remains, and collected payment to do so year after year in order to go on expensive trips and live a luxurious life.
"He could have brought a cremation machine with a fraction of that pandemic relief funding but decided not to do it," Neff said, arguing that using that money to actually fix the problems at Penrose would have begin to make up for the trouble he was getting into. "It's greed. It's simple greed."
"I was unstable in every way"
Hallford, who was given a chance to speak before sentencing, referenced a passage from the Epistle of James in the Bible, which states: "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways."
"That verse describes my time at Penrose," Hallford said, adding that no words coming from his mouth would be able to describe how the events at the funeral home that transpired for several years "turned into a nightmare for all of us. ... I have no idea how to express the amount of regret I feel."
He expressed remorse for his actions, and asked that people believe him when he said this was not him.
"I do not recognize who I was in those four years. I was unstable in every way. I have never been so lost. I still hate myself for what I've done. All I can offer is my deepest apology and assure that this will never happen again," he said.
In closing statements, Hallford apologized to the victims and to his children, whom he said were also victims of the decisions he made at Penrose.
"I will not disrespect or dishonor any victim by blaming someone else," Hallford said in court. "I wish I could undo the harm I have caused, but I do accept responsibility for the harm that I have caused."
"There's no sense of finality. I'm not sure that that will ever come"
Speaking outside the courthouse following the judge's ruling, several family members of the victims gathered outside to speak with Denver7 about the outcome of the case.
Johnson, who thought he had cremated his mother and taken her ashes to plant a tree in Hawai'i, said that even though he believes Hallford does have a little bit of regret, "he chose to treat our family and our loved ones like they weren't human beings."
He said he heard Hallford talk about being a father and a son as he pleaded for a bit of leniency, and added that it was good for the families to hear that, "but I'm sure any victim that you talk to would tell you that it was hollow words."
Johnson said that no matter how many times Hallford apologized, "I won't forget that I was lied to over and over."
"I was lied to right in my face constantly that my mom was being treated with respect, dignity and honor, and that was the furthest thing from the truth," Johnson said. "So the lies outweigh any sympathy I have."
Though the sentencing was vindicating for Johnson and several of the other victim's family members, Johnson said what happened to the remains of their deceased family members is not something he thinks families will ever be able to move past.
"There's no sense of finality. I'm not sure that that will ever come," Johnson said.
The Hallfords are accused in a separate case of stashing roughly 200 decaying bodies inside the Penrose Return to Nature funeral home and sending grieving families fake ashes.
More than 200 criminal counts are already pending against them in Colorado state court, including for corpse abuse and forgery.
Denver7's Danielle Kreutter contributed to this report.
Denver7 is committed to making a difference in our community by standing up for what's right, listening, lending a helping hand and following through on promises. See that work in action, in the videos above.