The wife of a Hixson man sentenced to prison for neglecting and abusing his mentally disabled son will be released from jail Wednesday after a Hamilton County judge sentenced her to three years and credited her with time she had already served.
Jacqueline Hoover, 41, had faced a potential life sentence for her role in the death of her stepson, 44-year-old John V. “Johnny” Hoover. At her hearing Tuesday afternoon in Criminal Court Judge Boyd Patterson’s courtroom, she described decades of abuse, first in her adoptive home in New Jersey and later in her marriage.
She and her husband, 73-year-old John Dennis Hoover, were both arrested and charged with first-degree murder in June 2022. In August, her husband received the maximum sentences of six years in prison for aggravated neglect of a vulnerable adult and four years for reckless homicide.
General Sessions Judge Gary Starnes said at a preliminary hearing in 2022 that John V. Hoover’s case was one of the most horrendous he’d ever seen and that he couldn’t begin to describe the photographs entered into evidence.
“He was tied to a bed. He was actually able to ambulate at one point in time and went to his neighbor’s house and was asking for food because he was hungry,” Starnes said 0f the victim. “He ate out of the garbage can. He was tied to the bed with a rope and a chain. This is literally like a horror movie.”
(READ MORE: Hixson man sentenced to six years in neglect, homicide case)
Hixson mom charged in stepson’s neglect case will be released Wednesday
MITIGATING FACTORS
Jacqueline Hoover pleaded guilty to aggravated neglect of a vulnerable adult. In her testimony Tuesday, she said she met her future husband in high school, when he was a custodian and she was about 14 or 15. He flirted with her then, she said.
After she was kicked out of her adoptive mother’s home at 18, she said, she stayed in a group home for about a year before the custodian asked his daughter to recommend her friend Jacqueline move in with him.
She slept on his couch. She woke up to him cuddling her in her sleep without permission, she said, and while she fled to the bathroom, she had nowhere else to go and a relationship formed.
She told the court he controlled every household decision, sexually and physically abused her multiple times a week and, at least once a week, threatened to kill her if she left him.
Defense attorney Dan Ripper asked Jacqueline Hoover about her kids. She has two twin boys, ages 21, and a girl, 19, she said. Her husband threatened to hit them and did, she testified.
“He did everything, not me,” Jacqueline Hoover said.
She tried to give her stepson food in secret, but she told the court her husband would punish her sexually and physically.
Ripper asked the court to sentence her to three years, with credit for the time she’s served, and also asked the judge to instruct the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office not to release her at midnight, which he said is typical.
Prosecutor Paul Moyle asked Jacqueline Hoover about the abuse she faced growing up. She testified that her mom would strike her, open-handed, around 10 times a week. He also asked about the surgery she had in April 2022, which she said was needed to remove her left kidney and left her bedridden for eight weeks.
In an interview after the proceedings, Moyle said the state had asked the court for a sentence consistent with the law. The maximum possible sentence asked for, he said, would have meant a release eligibility of almost two years.
“She has served nearly twice that,” he said.
Moyle also acknowledged early in the sentencing that she cooperated with authorities and testified against her husband.
INSIDE THE DECISION
At Hoover’s sentencing, Patterson, the judge, said several mitigating factors applied, including that she was likely a victim of her husband and she had acted under the domination of another person in unusual circumstances.
“Defendants can sniff out victims,” Patterson said, “and it seems like this particular defendant, Mr. John Hoover, knew that this defendant, Mrs. Hoover, was easily victimized.”
It’s difficult to comprehend that despite the many people living in the Hoover house, Patterson said, all of them felt alone. The defendant, Jacqueline Hoover, likely felt alone in trying to keep her kids safe, he said.
“And, of course, Johnny, he was alone, since no one was looking out for him at the time, except for Mrs. Hoover, who snuck him food and kept him barely alive,” the judge said, “until she was unable to do that due to her going into a hospital to convalesce.”
The prosecution asked about something it knew was exculpatory, Moyle said, because prosecutors are supposed to seek justice and truth, not a conviction at all costs. She told investigators before her arrest about the surgery, so the prosecution knew her recuperation coincided with her stepson’s deterioration.
Still, it was evident from the photographs shared in the case that John V. Hoover looked skeletal, was dying and required medical assistance immediately, Moyle said.
“The reason she was charged to begin with is that she knew that there was neglect, and did nothing to stop it,” he said. “Didn’t intervene. Didn’t provide any assistance. She could have called police. She could have called an ambulance.”
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In an interview after the hearing, Ripper said that the abuse Hoover endured does not excuse her inaction for her stepson, but he said that the state and judge recognized she needed an opportunity to move forward and imposed merciful justice.
“I think what happens is that sometimes a case has a lot of victims, and sometimes some of the victims get prosecuted,” he said. “And in this particular case, John Hoover made a lot of people victims, including Jacqueline Hoover.”
At the end of the proceedings, Ripper hugged his client, and Patterson said he hoped Wednesday would be the start of a new chapter for her. Jacqueline Hoover was briefly brought back in, after being let out of court earlier, for the judge to instruct her that she’s no longer allowed to be a caregiver at any institutions.
Contact breaking news reporter Mason Edwards at medwards@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6409.