Woman sentenced to two years in prison for incident with child | News, sports, jobs

Staff Photo / Ed Runyan Rachel Hoover, 39, of Struthers, during her sentencing hearing Thursday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. She was sentenced to two years in prison for child endangerment for an incident involving a child.

YOUNGSTOWN — A Struthers woman was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison after pleading guilty in March to child endangerment and sexual assault for offenses involving a child.

Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge John Durkin handed down the sentence to Rachel E. Hoover, 39, who has already served 192 days in the Mahoning County Jail while awaiting trial.

Hoover’s co-defendant, William J. Hutchko, 41, of Canfield, was sentenced last week to 42 months in prison after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. He received credit for 185 days in county jail awaiting trial.

According to a Struthers police report, a woman reported that Hoover told her that she and her boyfriend, Hutchko, had had sex with a 14-year-old girl.

The incident began at Hutchko’s home in Canfield and ended at Hoover’s home in Struthers, police said. While Struthers officers were gathering information from Hoover’s friend, Hoover and Hutchko showed up at Struthers police, the report said.

Hoover told officers the allegations were true. She said she, Hutchko and the child were using methamphetamine during the incident.

Hutchko was made aware of the child’s age, but did not care, Hoover said. Hutchko initially denied the behavior but later confessed, the report said. He told police he suffered from a traumatic brain injury that prevented him from reading and writing, so a bodycam recording of his statement was made instead of him writing a statement down, the report said.

Hoover said she was “so high on methamphetamine that she was smoking that she was no longer fully aware of what she was doing, what she was allowing and what she was doing,” the report said.

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