HAMPTON -- Albert and Mitzi Fenzloff committed theft and fraud while operating a cemetery in Floyd County, according to a ruling filed Monday.

District Court Judge John Mackey found Mitzi Fenzloff guilty of first-degree theft and second-degree fraudulent practices. He found Albert Fenzloff guilty of second-degree fraudulent practices.

The Fenzloffs took over Sunnyside Memory Gardens in 2003 near Charles City. They will be sentenced at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 29 in Franklin County District Court in Hampton.

In his decision, District Court Judge John Mackey stated the couple sold pre-need funeral services to several people without required permits and without depositing 80 percent of the funds in trust accounts as required by Iowa law.

Of more than $51,000 the couple received for pre-need services, less than $1,000 went into trust, according to the ruling. That money, however, was for contracts customers signed before the Fenzloffs took over the business.

The rest of the money was placed in a Sunnyside business account or the Fenzloffs' personal account, the ruling stated.

The state seized control of Sunnyside in 2005. St. Charles Township assumed operation of the 16-acre cemetery in 2007.

Carol Munshower of Charles City worked as a secretary at Sunnyside for the Fenzloffs. She said this week she is looking forward to seeing them sentenced.

After working a little more than a year, Munshower quit because the Fenzloffs stopped paying her wages. She says Albert Fenzloff offered an explanation.

"'I'd pay you if I could, but I don't have any money,'" Munshower said.

Munshower and her sister, Debbie Rottinghaus of Charles City, gave $9,000 to the Fenzloffs to put in trust for expenses for their parents' future cemetery plot. Their father, William Nott, died in March 2006.

"If my dad hadn't passed away, we wouldn't have known the money was gone," Munshower said.

She received back pay from the state but not the $9,000. Munshower said others who prepaid for funeral and burial services are left with nothing but cemetery plots.

A trial for the Fenzloffs was scheduled to start Monday in Franklin County on a change of venue from Floyd County. The couple, however, waived their right to a jury trial and put their fate in Mackey's hands.

First-degree theft is a Class C felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. Second-degree fraudulent practices is a Class D felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $7,500.

Contact Mary Pieper

at mary.pieper@globegazette.com.