FRISCO — The previous proprietor of two central Colorado funeral houses has been sentenced to a 12 months of probation after pleading responsible to prices that her funeral dwelling included the cremated stays of an grownup when it gave the ashes of a stillborn boy to his dad and mom in December 2019.
Staci Kent was additionally fined $5,000 when she was sentenced earlier this month, the Summit Each day reported.
Kent and her husband, former Lake County Coroner Shannon Kent, had been charged with illegal acts of cremation associated to their funeral dwelling in Leadville. In addition they owned a funeral dwelling in Silverthorne.
Staci Kent pleaded responsible to at least one depend of illegal cremation, and a second depend was dismissed. She additionally pleaded responsible to violating the mortuary client safety regulation. Prosecutors dismissed a cost of abuse of a corpse and a cost of violating a regulation that describes how funeral houses should take care of our bodies.
Shannon Kent pleaded responsible to 2 counts of illegal cremation in December 2022 and was sentenced February to 6 months in jail. As a part of a plea settlement, prosecutors dismissed 12 different prices, together with 5 counts of abuse of a corpse.
The case started when the mom of the stillborn boy contacted regulation enforcement in February 2020 to report that she had acquired extra ashes than the infant-sized urn they bought would maintain, prosecutors stated. A scientific evaluation confirmed the cremated stays the household acquired included the stays of an toddler and people of an grownup, together with a chunk of an earring and surgical staples, indicating the toddler might not have been cremated alone, prosecutors stated.
When the household confronted Shannon Kent concerning the amount of ashes, the daddy stated Kent advised him the extra materials was from the cardboard field or the clothes wherein the toddler had been cremated, court docket data stated.
The Leadville case wraps up as a pair that owned funeral houses in Colorado Springs and Penrose — Jon and Carie Hallford — face felony prices for failing to cremate practically 200 our bodies over a interval of 4 years and giving some households faux ashes. The our bodies had been found in early October. The Hallfords are jailed with their bail set at $2 million every.
Colorado has a few of the weakest guidelines for funeral houses within the nation, with no routine inspections or qualification necessities for funeral dwelling operators.
