LAKE COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) — A jury found Shannon Kent guilty of official misconduct on Sept. 10, but he was acquitted of a perjury charge.
The former Lake County coroner sent his wife, Staci Kent, to handle numerous death investigations even though she wasn’t authorized to do so.
Kent was indicted by a grand jury in September 2019 and testified that his wife had acted as the deputy coroner for about two years. Staci Kent was never legally sworn in or ever appointed for the position.
The Problem Solvers first reported on the Kent’s legal troubles in November 2020 following a search warrant that was caught on body cam.
Kent will be in court on Sept. 23 on additional charges including abuse of a corpse, official misconduct and providing false health and medical information and certificates.
Silverthorne police arrested Kent and his wife in February for tampering with a deceased body. Police found a body in a coffin inside a funeral home they no longer own.
The Park County Coroner’s Office confirmed the body found at the former Kent Funeral Home was 42-year-old Victor Akubuo of Southern California. Akubuo died on July 30, 2020 in a single semi crash in Park County, the coroner’s office said. The Kent Funeral Home was retained by the family in August of 2020.
Lake County deputies found Kent’s Leadville funeral home to be unsanitary including a newborn body among other bodies, without identifying paperwork. Officers also found one body that was not properly refrigerated.
In a separate incident, Kent is accused of mixing an infant’s ashes with remains from another body.
Staci Kent will face corpse abuse, cremation violations and perjury charges on Sept. 23.