Funeral home director sentenced to prison for stealing from elderly clients

UNIONTOWN, Pa. — A Uniontown funeral home director who authorities said stole a half million dollars’ worth of prepaid funeral policy payments from the elderly was sentenced to prison on Tuesday.

Stephen Kezmarsky has been sentenced to four to eight years in prison, 20 years of probation and $555,000 in restitution. The district attorney had asked for 15-30 years.

Kezmarsky pleaded guilty in October 2019 and owes more than $500,000 to clients for prepaid funeral expenses.

According to the Office of Attorney General Josh Shaprio, Kezmarsky accepted the payments from 2005 until 2017 but never submitted the policies to the insurance company.

“Anyone who defrauds Pennsylvanians, especially vulnerable people planning for the end of their lives, will be held to account for their crimes,” Shapiro said. “For 12 years, Kezmarsky deceived dozens of Pennsylvanians who believed they were making final plans, and now he will spend a long time behind bars and repay what he stole.”

Many of clients are elderly and came to court to speak on Tuesday. Some couldn’t be there because they are very sick.

A 98-year-old man wrote in a letter that he depleted his savings to prepay for his funeral and he cannot afford to pay for another.

One woman said, “Never in our wildest dreams could we believe the Stephen we knew could be such a cheater, liar, embezzler and forger.”

You can customize your WPXI News App to Fayette County news alerts. CLICK HERE to find out how.

Kezmarsky took the stand and said he performed many funerals for free or wasn’t paid — and was a bad businessman. He said, “It wasn’t because I was a rich man who wanted to be richer. The busier we got, the less money we had. I was proud to be a funeral director. Never been drunk, never gambled.”

Kezmarsky’s family and friends also spoke on Tuesday, urging the judge to let him work and work to pay restitution, instead of sentencing him to jail time.

The DA told the court that Kezmarsky could have faced 100-200 years in prison based on the number of victims. He said he will appeal the judge’s decision in hopes of a stiffer sentence.

Prosecutors ask judge to revoke bond for former funeral director Prosecutors ask judge to revoke bond for former funeral director

© 2020 Cox Media Group