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SALT LAKE CITY — A former mortuary worker convicted of embalming bodies without a license and in some cases stealing gold crowns from their teeth has reported to the Salt Lake County Jail to begin serving his sentence.
Michael Deacon Jones, 40, of Salt Lake City, reported to jail on Thursday to begin serving a five-day sentence. He was convicted in August of removing items from a dead body, as well as two counts of unlawful preparing of a dead body without a license, all class A misdemeanors.
In February, Jones, along with the owner and manager of Carver Mortuary, 847 W. 2500 South, were charged for allegedly allowing unlicensed employees to embalm and cremate remains.
Tanner Jay Carver, 35, of Spanish Fork, and Shane Adam Westmoreland, 42, of Mapleton, were each charged in 3rd District Court with seven counts of unlawful and unprofessional conduct and 10 counts of unlawful preparing of a dead body for disposition without a license. All are class A misdemeanors.
Carver is the principal owner of Carver Mortuary and Westmoreland is the manager, according to court records. Carver was convicted in August of multiple counts of unprofessional conduct. He was given a suspended jail sentence and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service.
Originally, Jones was charged with 20 counts of unlawful preparing of a dead body for disposition without a license. His professional license had expired in 2013, but he still performed over 300 embalming procedures and cremations, the charges state.
He was also convicted of taking gold crowns out of the mouths of bodies and selling them as scrap metal to a local precious metals refinery.
Beau Hintze, 37, of Eagle Mountain, was charged with three counts of unlawful and unprofessional conduct, a class A misdemeanor. He was convicted in August of unlawful preparing of a dead body and ordered to perform community service.
A trial for Westmoreland is to begin in February.
