Staff photo / Ed Runyan Thomas B. Spencer talks to his attorneys, from left, James Foltz and J.P. Laczko, after he learned that he had been sentenced to 10 years in prison Wednesday on two convictions of gross sexual imposition in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

YOUNGSTOWN — Thomas B. Spencer got the maximum of 10 years in prison Wednesday after a Mahoning County Common Pleas Court jury found him guilty Jan. 22 on two counts of gross sexual imposition for touching a girl while near a residential bonfire in Boardman in 2023.

Spencer, 42, who got credit for 364 days in the Mahoning County jail awaiting trial, will file an appeal in the case, said J.P. Laczko, one of Spencer’s attorneys.

The trial was over in one day after the testimony of the girl, her brother and mother, Spencer’s ex-girlfriend, police officers and others. Judge Maureen Sweeney presided over the trial.

In her testimony, the girl said the day Spencer touched her was the second time he had been at her house. She said at the time it happened, her mother and the other woman were in the house using the bathroom.

Kevin Day, assistant prosecutor asked the girl:

“When you were outside, did Tommy do something to you?”

“Yep,” she said.

“What did he do?” Day asked.

“He touched me inappropriately,” she said.

She went on to say that Spencer touched her in her private areas in the back and front.

Day asked what Spencer did when he touched her.

“He said I was cute,” she said.

Did he tell you not to tell anybody about that?”

“Yep,” she said.

She said her mother and the other woman were in the house for about 10 minutes.

Day asked if it was correct that she told her mother about the incident a couple of months later, and she agreed. She also agreed when Day asked if that was when the girl saw Spencer’s clothes in her mother’s car and was concerned that Spencer was moving in with them.

The girl’s older brother also testified, saying that at one point, he went into an area near the home to get firewood and his sister and Spencer were near the fire.

Day asked him if he saw “Tommy” do something to his sister, and he said yes he saw him touching her in a private place for a couple of seconds. He did not tell his mother about it and did not say anything to Spencer, he said.

The girl’s mother testified that when she went back outside after being in the house, she found her daughter being quiet, which was unusual for her.

“Around Mr. Spencer, she really didn’t want to communicate too much,” she said.

“She’s usually bubbly. She never wants to be quiet,” the mother said. “She always wants to tell you something.”

The other woman and Spencer stayed over at the family’s home that night, but that was not a real common thing, maybe five times, the mother said. The adults were drinking that night, she agreed.