House arrest for Ligonier woman who stole jewelry from clients

Claudia Narcisi told a Westmoreland County judge on Monday she wasn’t sure what troubled her the most, the loss of irreplaceable family heirlooms or that she initially blamed another person before she learned a year later that the woman she hired to paint rooms in her Hempfield home had absconded with her jewelry.

“This monster took a piece of my mother and my grandmother that I will never get back,” Narcisi testified during a sentencing hearing for the woman convicted of the thefts.

Jane Clark, 64, of Ligonier, was sentenced Monday to serve five years on probation for a series of thefts dating back five years throughout Westmoreland County. Prosecutors said Clark used her popular interior design business, Wallpapering By Jane, as a cover for the thefts.

According to court records, Clark took more than 100 items from about a dozen homes where she had been hired to work and sold many of the stolen pieces at local pawn shops.

Clark pleaded guilty in March to counts of theft and receiving stolen property. In court on Monday said claimed she didn’t know why she stole from her clients over her nearly three decades in the interior design business.

“It feels like there are two of me,” Clark said. “I am so sorry. I should have gotten help for my problem years ago. I am getting that help now. It’s been two years and nine months since I have stolen from anybody.”

Defense attorney Mike Ferguson said Clark closed her business following her arrest and now works in a local coffee shop. He said her lack of a prior criminal record warranted a sentence that included no time behind bars. Clark last month paid nearly $35,000 in restitution for the stolen items.

The sentence imposed by Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio called for Clark to serve the probation term as well as one year on house arrest.

Clark also was ordered to complete 100 hours of community service, including a requirement that she speak to others about the importance of mental health treatment. Neither Clark nor her lawyer disclosed in court her mental health diagnosis.

“Your story can be quite powerful,” Bilik-DeFazio said.

Narcisi said she never even considered Clark as a suspect because of her age and reputation and even hired her again a year later to paint another room. It was after that second job in 2017 she discovered more jewelry had been stolen and alerted police that she found pictures of her items at local pawn shops.