Return to Nature owner Jon Hallford will be sentenced in August after his original sentencing date in state court was postponed.

The funeral home in Penrose, about 35 miles southwest of Colorado Springs, came under a multi-agency investigation in October 2023 after complaints about a foul odor in the area. Investigators said they found nearly 190 bodies in various states of decomposition that were not properly stored.

Originally, co-owners Jon and Carie Hallford were slated to appear in 4th Judicial District Court on Friday for a sentencing hearing after the couple pleaded guilty last year to 190 counts of abuse of a corpse last year.

But earlier this week the couple waived their appearances in court due to sentencing being postponed.

Judge Eric Bentley explained during the hearing Friday that due to postponements in the Hallfords’ federal case a delay in sentencing in the couple’s state case was needed. Bentley described the decision to postpone the hearing as difficult, but that had they gone ahead with sentencing because there was a strong possibility that the sentence would be vacated by an appeals court in the future.

At a hearing in October, the Hallfords pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of wire fraud, with the remaining 14 counts to be dismissed as part of the plea agreement if accepted by the court.

In March, Carie Hallford withdrew her plea after Judge Nina Wang found the agreements to be “not in the public’s best interest” and informed the Hallfords that there may be new terms, according to court documents. Jon Hallford decided to keep his guilty plea.

Carie Hallford is now set to go to trial in her federal case on Sept. 8 while Jon Hallford is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court on June 27.

Bentley explained that the plea agreement requires concurrent sentencing in the Hallfords’ state and federal cases. A postponement in state sentencing is required because Bentley can’t order any sentence to run concurrent with a federal sentence unless they have already been sentenced federally, he said in court on Friday.

Although only a small handful of victims appeared in court on Friday some expressed displeasure to Bentley over the possibility of concurrent sentencing.

Due to Carie Hallford now going to trial, Bentley opted to schedule Jon Hallford’s sentencing hearing in state court for Aug. 22. Carie Hallford will return to state court on Sept. 26 for a status conference.

The state plea agreements, if accepted, would see Jon Hallford sentenced to 20 years in prison while Carie Hallford faces a sentencing range of 15 to 20 years in prison. On the state level, if the plea agreement is accepted, all other charges will be dismissed.