Families react to plea deal offered to Return to Nature funeral home owners

COLORADO SPRINGS — Some families affected by the Return to Nature Funeral Home case said they are disappointed by the plea deal on the table for the funeral home’s co-owners.

Jon and Carie Hallford are accused of improperly storing more than 190 bodies at their Penrose funeral home. Investigators said the bodies were left to rot without refrigeration and some were found stacked on top of each other. The Hallfords are each charged with more than 250 counts, including abuse of a corpse, money laundering, theft and forgery.

On Monday, family members of the relatives identified inside the funeral home were notified by the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office of a plea deal offered to the defendants. The plea deal stipulated that Mr. Hallford would serve 20 years in the Department of Corrections after pleading guilty to 191 counts of abuse of a corpse. The deal stipulated that Ms. Hallford would serve 15 to 20 years in the Department of Corrections if she pleaded guilty to the same charges.

Samantha Naranjo, whose grandmother was identified inside the funeral home, said she still wants this case to go to trial to hopefully learn more about what happened inside the funeral home.

“I think it will help give closure to a lot of families on some of the details that happened in the business or throughout this situation,” Naranjo said.

Austin Lux, a criminal defense attorney in Colorado Springs, said the plea agreement provides the benefit of certainty to both sides in the case.

“If you have a plea deal, the prosecutor knows he’s not going to have to risk an acquittal at trial. He’s got a guaranteed sentence,” Lux said. “It’s the same thing for the defendant. The defendant knows he’s not going to have to risk being convicted at trial and risking a harsher sentence.”

He said it was highly likely the Hallfords would not serve their full sentences behind bars and would instead be released on parole since they do not face violence charges.

“Someone can end up on parole after a 21-year sentence after about seven years if it’s a nonviolent offense,” Lux said.

Lux said the district attorney’s office is required to notify victims in all cases of a plea deal offered to defendants. However, he added that the district attorney’s office has the final say on whether a plea deal is offered. Lux said 90 to 95 percent of cases end with a plea deal.

Lux said there was still a chance the victims in the case could persuade the judge to overturn the plea deal.

“It happens more frequently than you might think when a judge decides that a plea deal is inappropriate, and a lot of times it can be based on feedback from victims,” Lux said.

Naranjo said the idea of ​​the funeral home’s co-owners being released from prison was troubling.

“They will have a life after this and that’s what bothers me the most,” she said.

Jon and Carie Hallford are scheduled to return to court next Thursday for a resentencing hearing. Prosecutors told family members in an email that they expect the Hallfords to plead not guilty at the hearing, which will set the stage for a jury trial. However, prosecutors said there is a chance the defendants will accept the plea deal at the hearing. The Hallfords have until Oct. 4 to accept the plea deal.
___

____

Watch KOAA News5 on your own schedule, anytime, with our free streaming app available for your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV, and Android TV. Simply search for KOAA News5, download, and start watching.