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

A Colorado judge rejected the plea deal of a funeral home owner accused of stashing nearly 190 decaying bodies in a bug-infested building Monday after family members of the deceased argued that the deal’s 15 to 20-year sentence was too lenient.

Carie Hallford and her husband, Jon Hallford , owned Return to Nature Funeral Home and are accused of dumping the bodies in a building in a rural town between 2019 and 2023, giving families fake ashes and defrauding the federal government out of nearly $900,000 .

Jon and Carie Hallford both pleaded guilty to 191 counts of corpse abuse last year, and State District Judge Eric Bentley has n

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