FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A former North Texas funeral home owner has been convicted of theft after accepting money to care for bodies but failing to do so before the mortuary abruptly closed.
Deondre Johnson was convicted Wednesday by jurors in Fort Worth. He faces up to two years in state jail. Johnson also faces trial later on seven counts of abuse of a corpse.
The Johnson Family Mortuary closed in mid-2014 due to nonpayment of rent. Investigators who later went through the site found several bodies left in advanced stages of decomposition, with some remains difficult to identify.
Prosecutors say Johnson accepted payment then failed to provide services such as cremation.
His wife, mortuary co-owner Rachel Hardy-Johnson, was sentenced in June to two years in federal prison for felony food stamp fraud.