A Westmoreland County jury on Thursday convicted a Latrobe man of sexual assault but not rape.
Prosecutors said Hunter Jones Hoyle, 22, assaulted a 20-year-old woman after she fell asleep in a friend’s room in the early morning hours of Jan. 1, 2020, following a party at a home on Hurst Road in Hempfield.
The jury heard three days of testimony and deliberated three hours before returning the guilty verdict on one felony count.
According to court records, both Hoyle and his accuser attended the same party and witnesses claimed Hoyle “was hitting and hugging on all of the girls there.”
The woman told police she drank a half bottle of orange vodka and consumed four Jell-O shots before she fell asleep in a friend’s bedroom. She said she remembered feeling pain, hearing Hoyle speaking to her and then loud knocking on the door.
When she awoke at 9 a.m., she said she was sore, her shorts were inside out and she told police she did not consent to having sex. Witnesses told investigators they saw Hoyle in the bedroom with his accuser, and two of the party-goers claimed they saw Hoyle in the room with the woman as he hiked up and buckled his pants, according to court records.
Police said Hoyle eventually admitted to having sex with the woman.
Hoyle will remain free on a $50,000 bond and will continue to be supervised through home electronic monitoring as he awaits sentencing. Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio said a sentencing hearing will be held in about three months.
