JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. (WDRB) -- The former director of a Jeffersonville funeral home where dozens of decomposing bodies were found last year will avoid jail time after taking a plea deal last month, pleading guilty to 43 counts of felony theft.
Friday, a Clark County judge sentenced Randy Lankford to one year of home incarceration and eight years of supervised probation. As part of the plea deal reached on May 26, Lankford will be ordered to pay restitution of $1,000 each to the 46 victims named in the agreement.
However, that sentence is not satisfactory for many of the victims' families.
Samantha Lin's mother, Angela Lin, died suddenly at 52 years old.
"Her nickname was toxic sunshine, because of her smile and her hair," Samantha Lin said.
She said she feels justice could have been served if the sentencing was different.
Samantha Lin, 20, lost her mother Angela Lin in 2022. The Lin family is one of those seeking restitution after Angela's remains were mishandled at the Lankford Family Funeral Home. Image courtesy Lin Family.
"It's not enough, I mean, he had bodies just rotting in his care," Samantha Lin said. "He let these bodies rot, he did a lot of families wrong."
Kelita Williams feels indifferent about Lankford's sentence. She is traumatized after receiving ashes she believed to be her brother's, only to later find out they were not his.
"How we memorialized my brother is forever tainted. Forever tainted by what Mr. Lankford did," Williams said. "We still just have this memory of what has happened in this green urn, that was supposed to be my brother's cremains."
Kelita Williams brother, Larry Williams.
Lankford, who has been out of jail on home incarceration since last month's hearing, will be back in court for a restitution hearing in late September. He still faces several pending civil cases for the mishandling of remains discovered at the Lankford Funeral Home and Family Center last July.
Attorney Larry Wilder is handling over a dozen civil lawsuits against Lankford.
He explained the reason there are no criminal charges against Lankford related to abuse of a corpse, is because he was a licensed funeral director and embalmer. Therefore, given the expectations of the job, they are exempt from being prosecuted under Indiana's criminal law related to abuse of a corpse.
"What he did was unfathomable for a normal person to see happen. It's just not defined as a crime," said Wilder. "They pursued fraud charges because there wasn't really a crime to fit the failure to do what he did."
Wilder said he expects the nearly 20 civil lawsuits filed on behalf of families he represents will take another year or two.
Lankford was arrested and charged in August 2022. According to a probable cause affidavit, investigators found 31 bodies and 17 cremated remains at the funeral home on Middle Road in Jeffersonville after reports of a strange smell in the area.
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