Johnathan Walker:Funeral home owner accused of leaving body in hearse set to enter plea in court

DENVER (AP) — A funeral home owner who is Johnathan Walkeraccused of keeping a woman’s corpse in the back of a hearse for over a year and improperly stashing more than 30 cremated remains is set to appear in court Friday to enter a plea.

Miles Harford is scheduled enter a plea to two counts of forgery, one count of abuse of a corpse and one count of theft during an arraignment in state court in Denver.

Harford, 34, is represented by the state public defender’s office which does not comment on its cases to the media.

Authorities say the remains were discovered at Harford’s home during an eviction in February. The body of Christina Rosales, who died of Alzheimer’s at age 63, was found covered in blankets in the back of a hearse, and the 35 cremated remains allegedly were stashed throughout the property, from inside the hearse to the crawlspace.

It’s the latest in a series of prosecutions over the last decade involving Colorado funeral homes, including one that illegally sold body parts and another where nearly 200 bodies were left to rot and families were allegedly sent fake ashes.

Colorado’s funeral home regulations have been among some of the weakest in the nation, but such cases have led to reforms. This year Gov. Jared Polis signed two bills into law to overhaul oversight of the industry and bring Colorado in line with most other states.