The former Lake County coroner was sentenced to 180 days in jail on Thursday. In December, he pleaded guilty to two misdemeanour charges related to how he handled the cremated remains of a stillborn baby that were found at his funeral home in Leadville.
Shannon Kent admitted to two counts of illegal acts involving cremation on December 22. The 5th Judicial District Attorney’s Office says that because of this, 12 other counts were dropped. Each count can get you up to two years in prison and a fine of $5,000. He might have to pay a fine and go to jail. But on Thursday, the judge put him in jail for 180 days for each count.
A woman called the Lake County Sheriff’s Office in February 2020 to tell them that she had given birth to a stillborn baby at 35 weeks in December 2019. After the death of her baby, she and her fiance contacted Kent Funeral Home. She later told investigators that working with the Kents was “nothing but a nightmare.”
Have a look at some of the latest trending news:
- Governor Pritzker Celebrates the Launch of Student Center of Lake County in Waukegan
- Lake County Black leaders Demands Justice for Memphis Arrests, Calls for Police Accountability
She said it started with a lack of communication, and when she got the cremated remains of her son, she was “not sure” if they were his because the ashes were too big for the urn they had bought for an infant. Investigators had experts look at the bones and found that they belonged to “at least two people,” including an infant and a “larger person.”
In February 2021, Shannon Kent and his wife Stacie were both arrested after a dead body was found in a coffin at the old Kent-Bailey Funeral Home. In that case, the person died in July 2020 in an accident in Park County. In February 2021, his dead body was found at their funeral home in Silverthorne. In February of last year, a Clear Creek County jury found the couple not guilty of the charges against them.
Shannon Kent was elected coroner for the first time in 2014 and then again in 2018. In August 2021, he stepped down from his job. The Kents gave up their Colorado licence to run a funeral home in December 2020.
Shannon Kent was found guilty of second-degree official misconduct in September because he sent his wife to several death scenes in 2019 even though she was not a deputy coroner. For this crime, he was given six months of unsupervised probation.
Keep visiting our website to stay updated with latest local news.
