Unlicensed Akron funeral director Shawnte Hardin sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison
Shawnte Hardin, a minister who was found guilty of running an illicit funeral home business across Ohio, was sentenced to 11 years, 10 months in prison on Friday.
“Real pastors pray at funerals, not prey on grieving families,” said Ohio Attorney General James Yost in a release. “The defendant’s lies, fraud and complex scheme — including literally driving bodies across the state — are thankfully ended by today’s sentence.”
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Hardin's attorney, Richard M. Kerger, said the sentence is far less than the 45 years his client could have received. He said there are some provisional factors in the sentence that mean Hardin could spend 10 years, five months in prison.
"I think it is an attempt to provide the people who feel they were harmed with a sense that something was done ... it's not a slap on the wrist."
He said Hardin did not exhibit any emotion at sentencing.
"He said nothing," Kerger said. "He took it very well. We talked, and I think he was prepared for a prison sentence."
Investigation lasted years
A review of state records indicates much of Hardin's business was through word of mouth among families struggling to pay for licensed funeral services.
Cheryl Grossman, executive director of the Ohio Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors, previously said it took the attorney general several years to build a strong enough case to prosecute. She hopes the case will serve as a warning to others who might try to operate without a license.
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Records show Hardin has handled scores of bodies in Summit, Franklin, Lucas and Cuyahoga counties since around 2014, when he first applied for a funeral home license and was rejected.
The investigation continued even after he was indicted on 37 charges in October 2021.
In January, a group of "urban explorers" found what appeared to be the cremains of at least 89 people in a building next to the abandoned Greater Faith Missionary Baptist Church at 825 E. Buchtel Ave., where Hardin had been pastor and owner.
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Hardin — who state officials say has never been a licensed funeral director or embalmer in Ohio — had already been under investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation for years before police in Columbus last year discovered bodies stored in an empty storefront there. The bodies were connected to Hardin, who has held himself out as the provider of low-cost funeral services.
In December 2018, Toledo police officers began investigating after a transport driver for the Lucas County coroner who had delivered a body at a building connected with Hardin alerted authorities to reports of an improperly stored body.
Hardin was found guilty Aug. 5 in Lucas County Common Pleas Court on 31 charges, including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, tampering with records, telecommunications fraud, operating an unlicensed funeral home, possessing criminal tools, abuse of a corpse, representation of a funeral director while unlicensed, passing bad checks, theft and failure to file taxes.
He operated several businesses in Lucas, Cuyahoga, Summit and Franklin counties under various names: Hussain Funeral Directors, Celebration of Life Memorial Chapels, Hardin Funeral Home Inc., American Mortuary Services and Transportation, and Shawnte Davon Hardin Services LLC.
Eric Marotta can be reached at 330-541-9433, or emarotta@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @MarottaEric.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Shawnte Hardin, unlicensed Akron funeral director, sentenced to prison
