Terminally ill man's abuser gets 24 years

Shannon Irwin says her terminally ill boyfriend 'just got his butt whipped.'
By DEBORA SHAULIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Judge Maureen A. Cronin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court says no one should suffer the way Edward Hoopes did -- not even his attacker, Shannon R. Irwin.
On Wednesday, Judge Cronin sentenced Irwin, 37, of East Ohio Avenue in Sebring, to 24 years in prison, the maximum for three felonious assault convictions. A jury found Irwin guilty in December of abusing Hoopes, who was Irwin's boyfriend and who was diagnosed with ALS -- amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a fatal neuromuscular illness that's also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Hoopes was forced to use a wheelchair.
Hoopes' injuries, which Judge Cronin reviewed before imposing Irwin's sentence, included bruises in various stages of healing over almost all of his body, cuts, wounds that a paramedic said were consistent with cigarette burns and mutilated genitalia. Besides her own actions, Irwin didn't stop her 12-year-old son by another man from using hockey sticks, a broomstick and a broken coffee cup to hurt Hoopes, the judge said.
Hardy and Assistant County Prosecutor Jay Macejko asked Judge Cronin to give Irwin the maximum sentence. "What happened to Edward Hoopes is fodder for horror movies," Macejko said. Hoopes was "trapped in a dying body" with "a sadistic woman" standing over him.
Defense Atty. Gary Van Brocklin asked the judge to consider that Irwin had taken a drug called interferon, which is used to treat cancer and hepatitis C, and that it has been found to cause depression and aggressive behavior. Irwin told Judge Cronin that she has hepatitis and that she got it from "shooting up."
Irwin spoke at length before sentencing, saying that she and Hoopes were together for nearly three years. Hoopes mistreated her, and she was thinking about leaving him, she said. Hoopes became ill in 2002 and by 2003 was unable to work. Irwin said she kept her manual labor job while caring for Hoopes without his family's help.
"I took care of that man better than I took care of myself. If it was not for that medicine, this never would have happened," Irwin said, referring to the interferon.
She got $500 a week
Irwin said she was appointed Hoopes' caregiver in May 2004 and was paid $500 per week by the state to care for him at home.
The felonious assault convictions were for injuries Hoopes suffered in May, June and July 2004, Judge Cronin said.
Irwin attributed Hoopes' wounds to his genitalia as "an accident" and his other injuries to domestic violence. "He just got his butt whipped," Irwin said.
In July 2004, Sebring police went to the home that Hoopes shared with Irwin and her 12-year-old son after receiving calls from neighbors who said they could hear a man crying. If not for those complaints, Irwin may have been charged with murder, Judge Cronin said. Irwin agreed.
Hoopes died in March 2005.
His sister, Ladonna Handy, also spoke before sentencing and said Hoopes didn't heal after the beatings because of his illness. Irwin became angry when family members checked on Hoopes, so the family "backed off so she wouldn't take it out on him," Handy said. "He loved her."
Irwin's criminal record dates back to 1998 and includes convictions for petty theft, aggravated robbery, passing bad checks, breaking and entering, drug abuse and having sex in a motor vehicle.
Irwin's son was prosecuted in juvenile court and is living with relatives, Macejko said.
shaulis@vindy.com