A US judge has rejected a plea deal granting shorter jail sentences to two funeral home owners accused of stashing nearly 190 decaying bodies in a bug-infested building.

US authorities say Carie Hallford and her husband Jon Hallford dumped the bodies between 2019 and 2023 in a building in Penrose, Colorado, about a two-hour drive south of Denver, and gave families fake ashes.

They both pleaded guilty to 191 counts of corpse abuse last year.

However, Colorado State District Judge Eric Bentley has now rejected both of their plea agreements after relatives of the dead said the pair's jail sentences of 15 to 20 years were not enough, with one describing the agreements on Monday as a "slap in the face".

"The sentence negotiated by the parties does not adequately account for the harms that t

See Full Page