Jury convicts Latrobe man of attempted rape of Saint Vincent College student

A Westmoreland County jury deliberated just one hour Wednesday before finding a former Somerset County man guilty of the attempted rape of Saint Vincent College freshman in 2017.

Hoover, prosecutors said, accosted his then 18-year-old victim from Kittanning as she walked in a secluded trail in the Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve weeks after she started her first semester at the Unity school.

Now 22 and since transferred to another school, she testified Hoover passed her on the trail, turned and grabbed her from behind and wrapped his forearm around her neck before she fought him off and fled.

The jury found Hoover guilty of attempted rape, aggravated assault, strangulation and simple assault.

Assistant District Attorney Jim Lazar said Hoover faces up to 50 years in prison when he is sentenced.

Hoover, now 23, was a resident of a Latrobe area home for juvenile sex offenders at the time and was free on a home pass at the time of the incident, Lazar said.

Jurors were told that Hoover was convicted of rape counts as a juvenile for a case in Somerset County in which his victim claimed she was grabbed from behind and by the neck then had her pants removed before she was sexually assaulted. Prosecutors also disclosed a second Somerset case in which Hoover was charged as an adult with attempted rape as part of a crime that featured similar allegations.

According to court records, Hoover pleaded guilty in 2019 to aggravated assault and was sentenced to serve up to five years in prison after prosecutors withdrew an attempted rape charge.

Hoover’s short, two-day trial before Common Pleas Court Judge Megan Bilik-DeFazio featured just two witnesses. Hoover did not testify.

Lazar said Hoover’s actions on the walking trial mirrored his previous offenses.

“Luke Hoover was on that trail like a predator. He’s prowling. He saw what he wanted on this secluded portion of this trail,” Lazar argued to jurors. “He doesn’t get extra credit for not being successful.”

Hoover’s defense lawyers conceded he was guilty of simple assault but argued that prosecutors were not able to prove there was an intent to commit a rape.

“There is no question he grabbed her, but we don’t have the elements to prove a rape,” said defense attorney Mike Garofalo, who later told jurors: “You have to consider the evidence, but you also have to consider the lack of evidence.”

The judge ordered Hoover undergo a pre-sentence investigation and undergo a sex offender evaluation. Hoover is expected to be sentenced in about three months.