A Colorado judge on Friday threw out a plea agreement for Jon Hallford, the former operator of Return to Nature Funeral Home, who had admitted to abusing 191 corpses. The deal, negotiated by prosecutors and defense lawyers, would have given Hallford a 20-year state prison term to be served at the same time as a separate 20-year federal sentence he is already serving for pandemic-relief fraud. Judge Eric Bentley, sitting in El Paso County District Court, said the agreement did not reflect the gravity of Hallford’s conduct after hearing emotional testimony from more than a dozen families whose relatives’ remains were left to decay. Bentley called the decision to reject a plea “reserved for the most extreme cases,” noting it was the first time in his nine years on the bench that he had taken such a step. Investigators uncovered roughly 190 decomposing bodies in 2023 at a Penrose warehouse used by Hallford and his wife, Carie, who assured clients that their loved ones had been cremated and then supplied them with fake ashes. Authorities say the couple began stockpiling remains as early as 2019 and, in two instances, buried the wrong bodies. Four sets of remains have yet to be identified. Hallford, 43, has been incarcerated since February after pleading guilty in federal court to siphoning nearly $900,000 in COVID-19 relief funds to purchase luxury goods. With the state plea now void, he may withdraw his guilty plea in the corpse-abuse case and proceed to trial; a status hearing is scheduled for Sept. 12. Carie Hallford has pleaded guilty to related charges in both the fraud and corpse-abuse cases and awaits sentencing.