PALMER — A man who robbed a Talkeetna woman of her marijuana and, apparently, her jewelry was ordered Monday to pay restitution.

Travis Duley Wharton, 20, and an accomplice, Tanner Comoza, 21, pleaded guilty last year to robbery. Comoza received a 7-year sentence, Wharton a 4-year term. The pair had entered the home of an elderly Talkeetna woman Dec. 30, beat her unconscious, tied her with a telephone cord and made off with her two marijuana plants, plus the jewelry and a .22-caliber rifle.

As part of his sentence, Comoza agreed to pay restitution of more than $22,000 to the victim, Shirley Lungaro. But Wharton didn’t. On Monday, he agreed to pay the $5,980 in medical costs and the $604 in gas burned to get to doctors’ appointments. But he said he wasn’t liable for all $15,497 in missing jewelry because he never stole it. At least not all of it.

The silver earrings, Christmas wreath broach, a bracelet and some other items he did take, Wharton argued through his attorney, Nathaniel Peters. But the most expensive three items — a diamond engagement ring, a pair of diamond-stud earrings and a pair of gold charm bracelets weren’t taken in the robbery. Also, he didn’t steal the rifle.

“We’re saying they weren’t taken. I don’t know whether they exist or not,” Peters told Superior Court Judge Eric Smith. “Miss Lungaro has no proof that any of this stuff exists or was taken other than her own testimony.”

Lungaro testified that since the robbery she has conferred with a jeweler to try and come up with an accurate a picture of the jewelry’s worth. It was sort of a tough process, she said, because the jeweler didn’t have pieces exactly like her lost items. Her pieces were all presents or heirlooms, a lot came from her late husband. Thus there weren’t any receipts to be had.

Plus, “it’s just really hard to put a price tag on sentimental things like that,” she said.

Asked how she knew the items were missing, Lungaro said the rifle, for sure, she remembers the robbers taking.

“I remember them holding it over me, asking me if that was a 22,” Lungaro testified. “I was scared they were going to beat me with it.”

After the robbery she checked her jewelry box and all the drawers had been emptied.

Lungaro’s daughter, Christy Lungaro, said she helped her mother go through her things and look for the jewelry. They looked behind furniture, checked bed sheets and the pockets of clothes. The jewelry was gone.

As for whether the items were worth as much as her mother claimed — another thing Wharton disputed — she said it was.

“My dad wasn’t cheap. It’s kind of offensive to have these questions asked,” she told Peters.

Peters asked Shirley Lungaro if she had been forthcoming with Alaska State Troopers regarding the marijuana grow. He told Smith he was trying to prove her credibility, pointing out that she took a few days to let troopers know she’d had the plants.

“We feel that this is a case where Miss Lungaro is trying to get a windfall from Mr. Wharton,” he said.

As a response, Lungaro said she was in shock at the time of the robbery and admitted to growing the marijuana if not in her second conversation with troopers then in her third.

In the end, Smith decided that Lungaro and her daughter were credible witnesses, pointing out that Lungaro had gone to some lengths to get a good accounting of the worth of her jewelry. He ordered Wharton to pay the full restitution amount.

“The fact that she was uncomfortable telling the troopers about a marijuana grow does not show that she is lying about her jewelry,” Smith.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.