COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The owners of a Colorado funeral home who left nearly 190 bodies to decompose in a room-temperature building and gave to grieving families fake ashes pleaded guilty Friday to abuse of a corpse.

Jon and Carie Hallford, owners of Return to Nature Funeral Home, began storing bodies in a decrepit building near Colorado Springs as early as 2019 and gave families dry concrete in place of cremated remains, according to the charges. Last year’s grim discovery shook up the families’ grieving process.

The plea agreements reached between the defendants and prosecutors call for Jon Hallford to be sentenced to 20 years in prison and Carie Hallford to 15 to 20 years in prison.

Over the years, the Hallfords spent extravagantlyprosecutors say. They used clients’ money and nearly $900,000 in pandemic relief funds to buy laser body sculptures, luxury cars, trips to Las Vegas and Florida, $31,000 in crypto- currency and other luxury items, according to court records.

Last month, the Hallfords pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges in a settlement in which they admitted to defrauding customers and the federal government. Under the agreement, prosecutors could seek sentences of up to 15 years in prison for the couple.

Even though the couple lived large, prosecutors said the bodies at their funeral home were decomposing.

“The bodies were lying on the floor, stacked on shelves, on stretchers, stacked on top of each other or simply stacked in rooms,” prosecutor Rachael Powell said. She said family members of the discovered bodies “were intensely and forever outraged.”

The Hallfords each pleaded guilty to 191 counts of corpse abuse for bodies found decomposing and two instances where the wrong bodies were buried.

They also agreed to pay compensation, the amount of which remains to be determined. Additional charges of theft, forgery and money laundering would be dismissed under the agreements.

Crystina Page’s son, David, died in 2019 and his body languished in the funeral home building until last year.

“He lay in the corner of an unusable refrigerator, thrown out of his body bag with rats and maggots eating his face for four years,” Page said outside the courtroom after the hearing . “Now, every moment I think about my son, I have to think about Jon and Carie, and that’s not going to go away.”

Sentencing was set for April 18.

Six people with objections to the plea agreements had requested before Friday’s hearing to address the court. They believed the length of sentences under the plea agreement was insufficient given the Hallfords’ conduct, prosecutors said.

Judge Eric Bentley said they would have an opportunity to speak before sentencing. If the judge rejects the plea agreement, the Hallfords could withdraw their guilty plea and go to trial.

Carie Hallford told the judge that although she hadn’t visited the building as much as Jon, “I knew how serious it was and I chose to do nothing.”

At the conclusion of Friday’s hearing, Bentley revoked a bond that had allowed Carie Hallford to remain free while the case was pending. She was handcuffed in the courtroom to the applause of family members of the deceased.

Jon Hallford was already in custody and was wearing an orange jumpsuit and handcuffed for the hearing.

Last month, the Hallfords pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges in a settlement in which they admitted to defrauding customers and the federal government.

Jon Hallford is represented by the public defender’s office, which does not comment on cases. Carie Hallford’s attorney, Michael Stuzynski, declined to comment.

For four years, Return to Nature clients spread what they thought were the ashes of their loved ones in meaningful places, sometimes on a plane flight. Others carried their urns country road travel or detainees they are tight at home.

The bodies, which prosecutors say had not been stored properly, were discovered last year when neighbors reported a foul odor coming from an apartment building in the small southwest Colorado town of Penrose. Springs.

Authorities found the bodies too decomposed for visual identification. The building was so toxic that responders had to wear hazmat clothing and could only stay inside for brief periods of time.

The discovery of the bodies at Return to Nature prompted state lawmakers to tighten what had been one of the nation’s most lax regulations for funeral homes. Unlike most states, Colorado did not require routine inspections of funeral homes or certifications for business operators.

This year, lawmakers brought Colorado’s regulations in line with those in most other states, largely with the support of the funeral industry.