Jon and Carie Hallford will not see 2026 trials after all, as an El Paso County judge ruled to accept the most recent plea agreements for the pair Monday, despite heavy opposition from families who used their funeral services. 

The Hallfords came under a multi-agency investigation in October 2023 after an inquiry into their Penrose Return to Nature Funeral Home site, 35 miles southwest of Colorado Springs, resulted in the discovery of over 190 decomposing bodies. The pair faced both state and federal charges. 

Jon Hallford, 46, has already been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on conspiracy to commit wire fraud charges, but has since appealed the sentence. Carie Hallford, 49, is set for federal sentencing in March. She is expected to receive a 15-year sentence.  

Monday’s ruling marked one step closer to the end after over two years of legal proceedings in the state case. While some families who used Return to Nature for loved ones have been able to move on, many more demanded a trial and answers to their questions.

Judge Eric Bentley separately rejected the Hallfords’ initial state plea agreements earlier this year after outcry from affected families over the length of the sentences and desire for a trial. The original plea agreement stipulated a 20-year prison sentence each to run concurrently with their federal sentences. 

Bentley came to a different conclusion Monday regarding the couple’s most recent plea agreements, filed last week in the 4^th Judicial District, even after listening to impact statements from 20 families, all adamantly against the proposed deal. 

“From where I sit, it’s not clear to me that very many of your questions would be answered at trial,” Bentley said. “It’s very unlikely and unusual that a trial would answer (all) your questions.”

The plea agreements stipulate a 30- to 50-year prison sentence for Jon Hallford and a 25- to 35-year sentence for Carie Hallford. The sentences will run concurrently to the federal sentences. 

Families filled rows of the courtroom waiting for Bentley to rule in favor of or against the plea deal, with all against the negotiation, finding it “absurd” and “inadequate.” 

All who shared statements at the hearing agreed that the sentencing the Hallfords faced under the deal was too lenient to make up for the damage they caused the families.  

One, Emma Williams, called the Hallfords “depraved individuals,” who “need to face a jury of their peers and describe the atrocities they committed.”

Other affected family members who had not spoken out took the stand, including Destiny Hendren, who said the Hallfords’ actions were not a mistake, but deliberate, and the plea agreement “feels profoundly inadequate.”  

Before Bentley’s ruling, both defense teams and the prosecution requested that the agreements be accepted, calling them “fair and just,” while explaining the burden that trials would place on the judicial system. The prosecution additionally said it was likely more evidence would be revealed at a later date and might answer some of the victims’ questions.

Trials for Jon and Carie Hallford were scheduled to begin in February and October, respectively. Prosecutors said they were expected to call to the stand nearly 200 family members whose relatives’ remains were discovered, to testify to the state of the bodies when handed over, and communication between them and the Hallfords. 

Now that the agreements have been formally accepted, sentencing for Jon and Carie Hallford will be held in February and April, respectively, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

“My objection to the ruling today is not necessarily an objection to the judge,” Crystina Page said after the hearing. “He only has access to specific pieces of the case file, so he doesn’t understand the scope and magnitude of some of the things we wanted answers for.”

Page’s son, David Jaxon Page, was found among those recovered at the Penrose location.

Tanya Wilson, whose late mother, Yong Anderson, was among the first bodies to be identified from recovered remains, in October 2023, was disheartened at the news Monday evening.

“(The judge is) limited in the things that he can consider, and he’s required to consider other things that we don’t, so for him, he sees 50 years as a lengthy sentence. And it would be, I think, if it wasn’t for the concurrent nature of the plea deal,” Wilson said. “For us, it’s not justice. I think that disconnect from how we’re looking at it, from how the judge is looking at it, is where all that pain lies.”

Jon and Carie Hallford appeared in custody, seated across the room from each other, for the afternoon hearing. They seemed emotionless throughout the proceedings. Carie filed for divorce from Jon earlier this year.

Before the hearing, the families of victims protested outside the El Paso County Courthouse, giving testimonials to the impact that the actions of the Hallfords had on them.  

Many appeared teary-eyed, hand-in-hand with other victims, as they told stories about their loved ones and showed a bag containing nearly 200 acorns, one for each victim who was promised to have a tree planted in their honor by the Hallfords.  

Angelika Stedman said she used Return to Nature for her late daughter, Chanelle Chaloux, but her body was never found among the remains discovered in Penrose. 

“I lost my daughter twice,” Stedman said. “I certainly believe that going to trial, which we’re hoping for, that even if one more person is able to find some answers, to get some kind of closure, it is worth it.” 

Before 2020, abuse of a corpse was a Class 2 misdemeanor and carried a possible jail term of three months to a year. House Bill 20-1148 altered how the crime is classified, changing it to a Level 6 felony with a sentencing guideline of one year to 18 months, and although not likely in the Hallfords’ case, probation is an option for some Level 6 felony offenders. 

At the protest, several said the Hallfords should be charged per victim, with an 18-month maximum sentence available for each of the 191 bodies recovered, totaling over 280 years each. A 191-year sentence, which several at Monday’s hearing were aiming for, is one year per victim.  

“If they think that 191 years is absurd, they should have stopped after my son, and this would be an 18-month case,” Page said. 

Gazette reporters Stephanie Earls and Grace Brajkovich contributed to this report.