Lamb Funeral Home Owners Acquitted : Trial: Couple were found not guilty of commingling remains, conducting mass cremations. Jury deadlocked on other counts in case that rocked industry.

The former owners of a Pasadena funeral home, whose arrests shocked the industry and led to a change in state law, were acquitted Friday of charges they conducted multiple cremations and commingled human remains.

After three weeks of deliberation, a Pasadena Superior Court jury found there was insufficient evidence to prove the misdemeanor counts against Laurieanne Lamb Sconce, 55, and her husband, Jerry, 58.

The jury also acquitted Laurieanne Lamb Sconce of conspiring to steal and sell body parts to a tissue bank. The panel voted 11 to 1 to acquit Jerry Sconce of the same charge and Judge William Masterson declared a mistrial on that count.

Jurors also deadlocked on six felony counts that Laurieanne Sconce forged signatures on organ donor consent forms and unlawfully removed body parts. The jury’s votes on two of those counts were split, 6 to 6, and the rest were weighted in favor of acquittal.

Masterson also declared a mistrial on those counts.

“I kept looking for evidence that would prove them guilty, and there was none,” juror Muriel Desantis said Friday. “The evidence was inconclusive.”

After hearing the verdicts, Laurieanne Lamb Sconce--whose grandfather, Charles F. Lamb, founded the mortuary in 1929--smiled through tears of relief.

“I’ve waited five years for (the verdicts),” she said, adding that she and her husband had “lost everything,” as a result of the allegations.

The verdicts were “exactly what I knew they should be,” Jerry Sconce said.

The Lamb Funeral Home became the focus of a scandal that rocked California’s funeral industry in 1987, when a San Bernardino County sheriff’s investigator found partially cremated bodies and trash cans full of human ashes at a ceramics plant in the high desert community of Hesperia.

The plant was a cremation center used by the Sconces’ son, David. Prosecutors later charged the family with conspiracy for conducting mass cremations to save money, and with stealing and selling body parts to tissue banks.

The case ultimately led to enactment of a state law that allows crematory inspections on demand. It also triggered a class-action lawsuit involving the families of 5,000 deceased people. The complaint was settled earlier this year for $15.4 million.

David Sconce pleaded guilty in September, 1989, to 21 counts of mishandling remains. He served about 2 1/2 years of a five-year prison term.

During the two-month trial that ended Friday, defense attorneys argued that David Sconce was solely responsible for the crimes and that his parents were unaware of his actions.

“We felt to a degree that there could have been some knowledge” by the defendants, said juror Donald Hockenhull, a letter carrier from West Covina. But jurors agreed there was not enough evidence to prove that “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

The prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Elliott Alhadeff said a decision is pending on whether to retry the Sconces on the remaining counts.

Laurieanne Lamb Sconce’s brothers, Kirk and Bruce Lamb--who were not accused of any wrongdoing--received a license to operate the business on East Orange Grove Boulevard under a new name, the Pasadena Funeral Home.