The owner of a Colorado funeral home received the maximum prison sentence after he was found guilty of stashing nearly 190 bodies in a decrepit building and sending families fake ashes instead of their loved ones.

Jon Hallford, owner of Return to Nature Funeral Home, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Friday for cheating customers and defrauding the federal government out of nearly $900,000 in COVID-19 aid. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in federal court last year.

Separately, Hallford pleaded guilty to 191 counts of corpse abuse in state court and will be sentenced in August.

During Friday’s hearing, federal prosecutors asked for a 15-year sentence while Hallford’s attorney requested 10 years.

Jon Hallford and his wife, Carie, were accused of storing the bodies between 2019 and 2023 and sending families fake ashes. (AP)

Another victim, Derrick Johnson, told the judge that he traveled 3,000 miles to testify about how his mother was “thrown into a festering sea of death,” The AP reported.

“I lie awake wondering, was she naked? Was she stacked on top of others like lumber?” said Johnson.

“While the bodies rotted in secret, (the Hallfords) lived, they laughed and they dined,” he added. “My mom’s cremation money likely helped pay for a cocktail, a day at the spa, a first-class flight.”

Carie Hallford is scheduled to go to trial in the federal case in September, the same month as her next hearing in the state case in which she is also charged with 191 counts of corpse abuse.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.