Johnstown funeral home director faces sentencing

JOHNSTOWN, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Brian Barnett, the Johnstown funeral home director who mishandled human remains will now spend two to seven years in prison.

Barnett was the previous owner and director of the Ehle-Barnett Funeral Home. He pleaded guilty, in March, to grand larceny, concealment of a human corpse, improper burial, scheme to defraud and operating a funeral firm without a funeral firm to be registered.

The families, whose loved ones were mistreated by Barnett, spoke directly to him in the courtroom about the pain they've experienced.

“Brian Barnett stole the peaceful passing of my wonderful 86-year-old mother from me, I am still horrified that he could treat my mother and myself like this.” 

Others described the betrayal they felt when Barnett's actions came to light.

“When we paid our respects to deceased friends at Brian’s funeral home, my brother was only feet away, in that garage, under numerous bags of garbage, his body decomposing.”

Barnett apologized to the families in court. He said he has a past history of addiction and struggles to remember his actions or what caused them.

“I still struggle to remember many things from the last six years, being told do you remember when this or that happened and having no recollection whatsoever is one of the scariest and most humiliating things one can go through," Barnett said. "It’s like a fever dream or fever nightmare.”

Barnett was ordered to pay restitution to people impacted by his actions. He was taken out of court in handcuffs, remanded to the custody of the Fulton County Sheriff's Office.