2025/08/20 05:30
◎管淑平
A Colorado funeral home owner who stashed nearly 190 dead bodies in a decrepit building and sent grieving families fake ashes received the maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison on Friday, for cheating customers and defrauding the federal government out of nearly $900000 in COVID-19 aid.
科羅拉多州1名殯儀館業者，把將近190具遺體堆放在1間廢棄建築物裡，並將假骨灰寄給哀痛的家屬，被以欺騙顧客和向聯邦政府詐領將近90萬美元新冠疫情紓困金，週五被判處最高刑期20年有期徒刑。
Jon Hallford, owner of Return to Nature Funeral Home, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in federal court last year.
「回歸自然殯儀館」負責人喬恩．霍福德，去年在聯邦法院承認犯下謀劃電匯詐欺。
Judge Nina Wang said that although the case focused on a single fraud charge, the circumstances and scale of Hallford’s crime and the emotional damage to families warranted the longer sentence.
法官妮娜．王表示，雖然本案只處理1項詐欺指控，但鑑於霍福德的犯罪情節、規模，以及對家屬造成的情感創傷，有必要處以較長刑期。
Separately, Hallford pleaded guilty to 191 counts of corpse abuse in state court and will be sentenced in August.
霍福德另在州級法院，對191項損害遺體罪名認罪，此案將在8月宣判。
新聞辭典
decrepit：形容詞，破舊、殘破的。例句：The decrepit bridge was closed for safety reasons.（那座破舊的橋樑已因安全考量被封閉。）
stash：動詞，堆放、藏匿。例句：She stashed her money in a secret drawer.（她把她的錢藏在1個祕密抽屜裡。）
英倫翻譯社轉自 https://features.ltn.com.tw/english/article/paper/1720859
