Former Saint Vincent student testifies in attempted rape trial of Latrobe man

A woman told a Westmoreland County jury Tuesday she was able to break free from the man prosecutors claim planned to rape her as she walked along a trail near Saint Vincent College, where she was an 18-year-old freshman in September 2017.

Now 22 and attending another school, the Kittanning woman testified a man wearing an American flag T-shirt, black cap and sunglasses passed her on a walking path at Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve and immediately turned and grabbed her from behind.

“He put me in a chokehold and pulled me to the ground,” she said during the first day in the trial of Luke Hoover, 23, of Latrobe.

Hoover was charged with attempted rape, aggravated assault, strangulation, stalking and simple assault in connection with the incident, which resulted in a brief lockdown of the campus.

Hoover’s accuser testified she set out alone on a walking trail and came upon her attacker, who was standing with his hands in his pockets as she passed him. As her path looped around, she came upon him again and, as they passed, he turned and grabbed her from behind, she said. She testified she was able to break free after she elbowed him the abdomen. Hoover tried to apologize as she ran away, she testified.

“He said he thought I was someone else. He had no emotion in his voice. It was a monotone,” she told jurors.

Assistant District Attorney Jim Lazar, in his opening statement to the jury, said Hoover was identified from a picture taken by a security camera at the nature reserve by a Saint Vincent student who worked part-time at a nearby halfway house near Latrobe. The woman testified the man in the picture is the same person who attacked her on the trail.

Lazar said Hoover, a resident of the halfway house, was convicted of sexual assaults as a juvenile for incidents in 2012, 2013 and 2015. In those cases, Hoover’s victims claimed he approached them from behind and put his hands around their necks before pulling off their pants, Lazar said.

“This is an identical pattern,” Lazar said. “It is sufficient for you to make a finding this was an intent to commit a sexual assault.”

Defense attorney Mike Garofalo in his opening statement did not dispute Hoover’s criminal record but said the circumstances of the previous offenses should not be considered in the current case. He said prosecutors will not be able to prove Hoover intended to rape the coed.

“You have to assume that by grabbing someone you have the immediate intent to penetrate her. This case will boil down to whether or not there is enough evidence to prove Luke Hoover had an intent to commit rape,” Garofalo said.

Garofalo said Hoover, who has been in jail since his arrest in January 2018, is not expected to testify during what is expected to be a two-day trial before Judge Megan Bilik-DeFazio.