Jeffrey Phares, the West Virginia cemetery owner who pleaded guilty to wire fraud in March, will be sentenced November 10, 2026, at 10:30 a.m. in federal court in Wheeling before U.S. District Judge John Preston Bailey, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of West Virginia. The July 27 announcement also settled the case's scale: approximately 225 victims and more than $600,000 in unfulfilled grave marker orders, per court documents.
By the Numbers
The mechanics, as the DOJ describes them, were simple: misleading victims who placed orders for grave markers, accepting their money, sending design approvals, then using the funds for his personal use. The March 19 plea release adds that he repeatedly misled victims regarding delivery delays.
“According to court documents, there are approximately 225 victims with more than $600,000 in unfulfilled grave marker orders.”
— U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of West Virginia, sentencing announcement, July 27, 2026
The loss figure has grown as the case moved from plea to sentencing. At the March plea hearing, over which U.S. Magistrate Judge James P. Mazzone presided, the DOJ release estimated total losses at $250,000-$550,000 and gave no victim count. The July 27 sentencing release states the higher figure of more than $600,000 and adds the approximately 225 victims, both drawn from court documents. The $600,000-plus number is the current one.
Phares owned and operated four cemeteries, both releases state: Greenlawn Memorial Park in New Martinsville, Elkins Memorial Gardens in Elkins, Greenlawn Memorial Cemetery in Clarksburg, and Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens in Jane Lew.
The restitution process is now underway, and it runs on a clock that ends before the hearing. Restitution is a court-ordered repayment to victims for documented losses, and it is owed in addition to any prison term. Under the plea agreement, Phares agreed to pay restitution and to give the government all necessary documentation to determine the amount, which will be set prior to sentencing.
For families, the practical instruction in the July release is narrow: victims who submitted their Phares contracts to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI, U.S. Probation, or the West Virginia Attorney General's Office are told their information has been received and is being reviewed as part of the restitution process. No submission deadline appears in either DOJ release, and no restitution dollar amount has been made public.
That leaves a short sequence between now and November 10. The submitted contracts and financial records are being tallied, the government and U.S. Probation fold the figure into a presentence calculation, and Judge Bailey imposes a restitution amount at or before sentencing.
Obitley reported in July on Phares's plea and the national pattern of families who paid for headstones that never arrived ("if-you-paid-for-a-headstone-and-never-received-it"), and in June on a Pennsylvania headstone fraud case that developed with no state oversight ("headstone-fraud-500-families-no-oversight"). The November 10 sentencing date postdates both articles.
Phares faces up to 20 years in prison. That figure is the statutory maximum for wire fraud, the ceiling Congress set for the offense. It is a weak predictor of the outcome: the DOJ release states that a federal district court judge will determine the sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. The guidelines produce an advisory range from factors such as the loss amount and the defendant's criminal history, and calculated ranges in fraud cases often sit well below the statutory maximum. A prison term of any length leaves the restitution obligation untouched; it is ordered separately and does not scale with the sentence.
The investigation involved the FBI, the Wetzel County Sheriff's Office, and the Wetzel County Prosecuting Attorney's Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jarod Douglas is prosecuting the case. U.S. Attorney Matthew L. Harvey announced the sentencing date.
What This Means for You
*Sources: "Sentencing Set for West Virginia Cemetery Owner Who Defrauded Customers," U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of West Virginia, U.S. Department of Justice, July 27, 2026, https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndwv/pr/sentencing-set-west-virginia-cemetery-owner-who-defrauded-customers; "West Virginia Cemetery Owner Admits to Fraud Involving Grave Markers," U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of West Virginia, U.S. Department of Justice, March 19, 2026, https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndwv/pr/west-virginia-cemetery-owner-admits-fraud-involving-grave-markers.*
Get investigations like this in your inbox
Free. Every Tuesday.