Three administrators of a Jacksonville funeral home that was shut down in January pleaded innocent to corpse-abuse charges during a Thursday court appearance.
Arkansas Funeral Care co-owners Leroy Wood, 86, of Jacksonville and his son, Rodney Wood, 61, of Heber Springs, along with Edward Snow, 63, of Cabot entered innocent pleas in Pulaski County Circuit Court.
The three each face 13 charges.
A hearing has been set for Nov. 19, with a jury trial scheduled for Feb. 3 before Circuit Judge Chris Piazza.
On Jan. 21, officials with the state Crime Laboratory and the Pulaski County coroner's office picked up 31 bodies and 22 cremated remains from Arkansas Funeral Care after an investigation determined that the business violated state regulations regarding the storage of bodies.
The state Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors' inspector reported finding a cooler "filled beyond capacity with bodies" during a January inspection of the funeral home.
Bodies were "stacked on top of each other," and "seven bodies [were] outside of the cooler that had not been embalmed," according to the report.
Arkansas Funeral Care was shut down Jan. 23.
Snow, who served as the manager of day-to-day operations at the funeral home, was arrested June 15. The Woods were arrested June 16.
According to arrest affidavits, officials believe 13 of the 31 recovered bodies were subjected to abuse. Bodies were "in various stages of decomposition," and some showed signs of "extreme decomposition," the affidavits state.
"Bodies were stacked on top of one another, on pallets, on the washer and dryer and on every available space they could find," the affidavits read. "Coffee cans with deodorizer were placed next to bodies to help with the odor in the room."
Snow has denied the allegations in the complaints.
Leroy Wood, who served as funeral director, surrendered his funeral director's license, along with the funeral home's operating license and crematory license, during a Jan. 23 meeting with the state board.
The surrender of the licenses effectively closed the operation, which opened in 2006. Leroy Wood and the funeral home also were fined $10,000.
The funeral home's prepaid funeral-benefits contracts license was surrendered in February.
Snow still faces eight complaints before the state Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors, but the state board has tabled a hearing on those complaints until Snow's criminal case runs its course.
State Desk on 08/07/2015