Judge sentences woman to jail after positive drug test in Greensburg fatal overdose case

Britnee Clark stood in front a Westmoreland County judge Thursday and proudly said she turned her life around since she was charged nearly three years ago with selling fentanyl-laced heroin to a Greensburg woman who died from an overdose.

Clark, 41, of Avalon, Allegheny County, proclaimed that she completed drug rehabilitation, obtained a new job as a supervisor for a local cleaning company and hasn’t used any opiates since her arrest.

“After those events I actually did take inventory of my life and the direction it was headed and decided to go in a different direction. I haven’t used opiates since the day I was arrested and will continue that for the rest of my life,” Clark said.

She didn’t mention the cocaine she had recently consumed, which was detected during a drug test ordered by Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Christopher Feliciani.

The judge told Clark he was set to impose a sentence that included probation, house arrest and no jail time.

When the positive drug screening was returned, those plans changed.

Feliciani ordered Clark to serve one year, less a day, to two years less a day in the Westmoreland County Prison.

“You are still an addict,” Feliciani said, noting that Clark could have received as much as 18 years in prison.

Clark in February pleaded guilty to one count of drug delivery resulting in death and two related drug charges in connection with the May 2019 overdose death of 59-year-old Roxanne Gongaware, whose body along with drug paraphernalia were found in the living room of her Harrison Avenue home.

Police said Clark was the primary source for the drugs that caused Gongaware’s death.

According to court records, evidence found on Gongaware’s cellphone included a series of text messages with a friend about the purchase of drugs.

Police said that friend, Janae M. Brown, 43, of Scottdale and another friend, Marcia Lynn Shearer, 62, of Connellsville, drove to Avalon to meet with Clark, Shearer’s niece, who arranged the purchase of drugs from an unidentified man in McKees Rocks. Brown brought six bags of the heroin to Gongaware, police said.

Brown and Shearer were also charged with drug delivery resulting in death. Their cases are listed for trial later this year.

Clark, who had been free on bail, was taken into custody after Thursday’s sentencing hearing.