PASADENA : Ex-Funeral Home Owners Cleared of Some Charges
The ex-owners of a Pasadena funeral home, who were convicted of illegally removing body parts from corpses and misusing their clients’ money, were acquitted Thursday of five more charges.
But the Los Angeles Superior Court jury deadlocked on several remaining counts against Jerry and Laurieanne Lamb Sconce. The jury was then dismissed, ending the couple’s protracted trial over their activities at the Lamb Funeral Home.
“They looked like nice people,” jury forewoman Drina Valentine said of the Sconces, “but the evidence was stacked so high that they were involved in everything.”
Jerry Sconce has been convicted on two counts of conspiring to remove body parts to sell at an organ donor bank. He could be sentenced to three years and eight months in prison. His wife could get a six-year prison term for her nine convictions, including forging donor consent forms, misappropriating clients’ trust fund money, conspiracy to remove body parts and unlawful removal of body parts.
The couple have been acquitted of more than a dozen charges. The Sconces contended during the trial that they were unfairly targeted by prosecutors for the acts of their son, David, who pleaded guilty several years ago to 21 counts in connection with the case.
The charges against David Sconce included conducting mass cremations and storing the remains in trash cans.
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