Value of stolen Aspen jewelry a lot less than a person-fifth the rate

The jewelry Arthur Harris admitting stealing on Monday from a downtown Aspen boutique in September 2017 was priced at almost $95,000.

He won’t, nevertheless, have to spend back even just one-fifth of that sum as aspect of his plea offer with the District Attorney’s Office environment.

Which is due to the fact the actual price of the two pairs of earrings — on sale for just beneath $50,000 — and the bejeweled pendant — which retailed for marginally much more than $45,000 — he and his crew stole from Maja du Brul Jewelry was accurately $17,909.14, stated Chief Deputy District Legal professional Don Nottingham. The big difference might converse to retail jewelry costs in Aspen, he explained.



It unquestionably came as pretty a shock to Harris’ law firm.

“I’m just listening to for the first time what the restitution is,” community defender Scott Troxell mentioned.



Troxell mentioned he prepared on inquiring for a 7-yr probation sentence to give Harris time to pay out off the tens of 1000’s of pounds he expected to owe. The new price issue altered these designs, and Troxell requested a shorter sentence.

Harris, 54, pleaded guilty to 1 rely of felony theft Monday and was sentenced to four years supervised probation. He will very likely be extradited to Santa Barbara, California, wherever he will facial area theft expenses for a very similar procedure committed there, in accordance to Troxell and previous media experiences.

“I fully commited theft in a jewelry retailer, your honor,” Harris explained Monday soon after District Judge Chris Seldin asked him what he did. “(I took) earrings and a brooch … in the total of $95,000.”

Harris was extradited to Aspen from Reno, Nevada, after he was arrested there in September on a Pitkin County warrant. He’s been in the custody of the Pitkin County Jail throughout the 168 times considering that then.

A girl named Maya Kvek and two other women entered the retailer in the 300 block of Hopkins Avenue and distracted a saleswoman whilst Harris stole the two pairs of earrings. One particular pair was aquamarine and white gold, while the other highlighted pearls.

The saleswoman afterwards identified Kvek — and movie surveillance backed her up — as the particular person who stole the pendant, which was built of diamonds, sapphires, rubies, emeralds and gold. Police consider all five men and women operated as a crew.

Kvek pleaded responsible to a single depend of misdemeanor theft in September 2020, was presented credit rating for the 101 times she served in the Pitkin County Jail and was sentenced to two several years of supervised probation, which was transferred to Brooklyn, New York, exactly where she was from. Kvek also pleaded responsible to acquiring stolen house in Santa Barbara.

She was not requested to pay back restitution in the Aspen case.

Harris also asked for that his probation be transferred again to his household of Brooklyn, which Seldin granted Monday.

Seldin also noted that many others allegedly involved in the theft had been not apprehended, and reported he felt the time Harris served in jail few with probation was a sensible sentence.