The owners of the Return to Nature Funeral Home have been offered a plea deal in their state-level case, according to an email sent to affected family members and acquired by The Gazette.

Jon and Carie Hallford face 286 criminal charges stemming from the discovery in October of 189 bodies improperly stored at the funeral home in Penrose.

Return to Nature purgatory: At least 989 families remain without answers

According to the email sent out to family members, a plea deal has been offered to Jon and Carie Hallford. The offer — according to the email — would see both Hallfords plead guilty to 190 counts of abuse of a corpse. If accepted, Jon Hallford would serve a mandatory sentence of 20 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections while Carie Hallford would serve a sentence of 15 to 20 years.

Motion to have Return to Nature owners in joined trial is denied

Tanya Wilson said she was more than surprised to learn that the couple accused of lying about her late mother’s cremation, and allegedly presenting the family with fake ashes, had been offered a deal in the numerous state charges against them.

Victim families, she said, had been promised they would be notified if a plea deal was on the horizon. They were not.

“To find out one had already been extended was a shock,” said Wilson, whose 76-year-old mother’s remains were positively identified in late October. “It feels almost disrespectful to the families to not have included us in this discussion.”

Wilson said Tuesday that she also felt disheartened by the justice system that failed to reflect the gravity and vile nature of the crimes, or the harm to victim families — in the charges, and subsequent attempt at swift resolution, of the state charges against the Hallfords.

“It goes way beyond ‘counts 71-261 Abuse of a Corpse,’” Wilson said. “Despite having all of this evidence, they chose to offer a plea deal.”

If the Hallfords accept the plea deal, there won’t be a trial on the state charges.

Wilson said she had planned to travel from her Georgia home to Colorado Springs to see the justice process through, for her mom, Yong Anderson, and families such as hers whose loved ones were identified — and the many hundreds of families still waiting for answers that probably will never come.

“I feel like we deserve the chance to hear the truth and see justice served in court, so it’s very distressing, to say the least, that the DA’s Office has stripped that from us,” Wilson said. “This deal also eliminates the opportunity for us to get some answers, or even some sense of closure, through a trial. Now I’m finding out that there is a possibility they could accept the plea deal on [July 11] at the arraignment.”

Crystina Page, a victim whose son David was found among the bodies at the Penrose funeral home, expressed significant displeasure with the plea deal offered by the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, based in Colorado Springs.

“I haven’t slept yet; most of us got the news when we were on the Zoom call last night. We’re p—-d. I don’t know how we’re going to get through this,” Page said when speaking with The Gazette.

“I know for myself that I’m represented; my son is represented. I know one of those charges will represent him. If they decided to take the plea deals, we have over 1,000 families who won’t have representation.

“To be honest with you, I don’t care if he’s in jail or not. That doesn’t do anything for me, knowing where he is geographically, that doesn’t help me. What does have an effect on me is these families not having answers — Heather (DeWolf) needs to know what happened to her son.”

According to previous Gazette reporting, hundreds of families who are not listed as victims in the case remain without answers about what happened to their loved ones after they worked with Return to Nature.

Heather DeWolf, who used Return to Nature to cremate her son Zach, is one of the hundreds who are unsure if they actually have the correct remains. DeWolf also was unhappy with the plea deal offer.

“That was quite a bit of a shock to see that, and I think that’s the case for most folks. It came out of the blue,” DeWolf said. “It was a bit of a gut punch … Every time there is something that comes up like this it just starts everything all over again. The whole thing is ridiculous. At this point, I don’t feel like we have anyone on our side. I feel like our voice is being slowly taken away.”

The email sent to families notes that the plea offer could be accepted at the Hallfords’ upcoming arraignment hearing July 11. At the Hallfords’ previous hearing in June, where an El Paso County judge ruled that they could not be tried together, attorneys for Jon and Carie Hallford each informed the court their clients intended to plead not guilty at the next hearing and be scheduled for trial.

The offer will expire on Oct. 4, according to the email.

The maximum sentence faced by the Hallfords if their case were to go to trial remains unclear, due in part to the number of charges they face.

The Hallfords’ top charge in their state-level case is money laundering, a Class 3 felony, which carries a maximum sentence of 12 years. Jon and Carie Hallford each faces four counts of money laundering.

The Hallfords also face 86 counts of Class 5 forgery, which carries with it a maximum sentence of six years in prison.

Abuse of corpse, a Class 6 felony, carries a maximum sentence of 18 months. Abuse of a corpse makes up the bulk of the charges against the Hallfords, each facing 190 counts.

If the Hallfords were to be convicted at trial, it’s unclear how much of the sentence would run consecutively as opposed to concurrently.

Michael Stuzynski, an attorney representing Carie Hallford, said he was unable to comment on any potential plea negotiations.

“Court order prohibits us from making comments on this case as well as the rules of professional conduct,” Stuzynski said.

Kate Singh, a spokesperson for the District Attorney’s Office, also declined to comment, citing “ethical rules.”

The funeral home about 35 miles southwest of Colorado Springs came under a multiagency investigation in October after reports of a complaint about a foul odor in the area. Investigators said they found more than 180 bodies in various states of decomposition there that were not properly stored. The Hallfords were arrested in Oklahoma in November.

In addition to their state case, the Hallfords face charges at the federal level. In April, the Hallfords appeared in federal court in Denver and pleaded not guilty to 15 counts of wire fraud.

Tim Neff, the attorney prosecuting the Hallfords at the federal level, said that the Hallfords are facing about seven years in prison if convicted on the 15 wire fraud charges. The Hallfords’ attorneys said they believe a sentence on federal charges wouldn’t be as severe as the state’s.

At the Hallfords’ previous state-level hearing, prosecutor Rachael Powell told the court that the trial in the federal case is set for Oct. 22.

Jon Hallford is being held on a no-bond hold pending the outcome of his federal case, despite being released on a $100,000 bond in his state-level case.

Carie Hallford remains out on a $100,000 bond.