Denver – A Colorado Funeral Home owner who stash About 190 bodies Fake ash was sent to a decripit building and mourning families, received maximum possible punishment of 20 years jail on Friday, cheating customers and excluding the federal government from about $ 900,000 in Kovid -19 aid.

John Holford, owner of Nature Funeral Home, convicted a conspiracy to commit wire fraud in the federal court last year. Separately, Holford convicted 191 cases of corpse abuse in the state court and sentenced in August.

At Friday’s hearing, federal prosecutors sought a 15 -year sentence and Hallford’s lawyer asked for 10 years. Judge Nina Wang said that although the case was focused on the same fraud allegation, Hallford’s crime circumstances and emotional damage to the scale and families were pronounced prone.

“It’s not a simple fraud case,” he said.

Before the sentence in court, Holford told the judge that he returned to nature to have a positive impact in people’s lives, “Then everything was completely out of control, especially me.”

“I am very sorry for my tasks,” he said. “I still hate myself what I have done.”

Hallford and his wife, Carrie Holford were accused of storing bodies between 2019 and 2023 and sending fake ash to families. Investigators described the discovery of bodies in 2023, who stood on top of each other over each other in a squat, a squat in the penroz about a two-hour drive in the south of Denver, a two-hour drive.

Rugna Khoj told many families that their loved ones were not cremated and the ashes they had spread or cherished were fake. According to court documents, in two cases, the wrong body was buried.

Many families said that it reduces their mourning process. Some relatives had bad dreams, others were struggling with guilt, and at least one thought of the soul of his loved one.

Among the victims speaking during Friday sentence was a boy named Colon Sparry. With his head above the lecture, he told the judge about his grandmother, who said Sparry said that he was a second mother for him and died in 2019.

His body closed inside the return to the nature building for four years until the search, which drowned Sparry in depression. He said that he told his parents at that time, “If I also die, I can meet my grandmother in heaven and talk to him again.”

His parents brought him to the hospital for mental health check -up, leading to Therapy and an emotional support dog.

“I miss my grandmother very much,” he told the judge through tears.

Federal prosecutors accused both Holford of epidemic assistance fraud, snatched money and jointly spent more than $ 120,000 jointly on a GMC Yucon and Infinity, as well as $ 31,000 in Cryptocurrency, $ 31,000, Gucci and Tiffany & Company from shops such as luxury items, and even the Lakhir item, and even the Lakir Body Sculptor.

Derric Johnson told the judge that he traveled 3,000 miles as to how his mother was “thrown into a festive sea of ​​death.”

“I was thinking that I was naked? Was she piled up on others like a lumbar?” Johnson said.

He said, “While the bodies were secretly, (hallford) lived, they laughed and they dined,” he said. “My mother’s probability of cremation money helped pay for a cocktail, one day in the spa, a first -class flight.”

John Holford’s Attorney, Laura H. Sulau asked for a 10 -year low sentence at the hearing on Friday, saying that Holford “knew he was wrong, he admitted that he was wrong” and did not give an excuse. His sentence in the case of the state is scheduled in August.

Asked for a 15 -year sentence for Holford, Assistant American Attorney Tim Nef described the scene inside the building. The investigators could not go to some rooms as the bodies were so high and piled up in various states of decay. The FBI agents had to keep the boards down so that they could walk over the fluid, which was later pumped.

Carrie Holford is scheduled to go for a test in the federal case in September, the same month as its next hearing in the state case, in which he is also accused with 191 cases of misuse of the corpse.