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Niles teen charged with aggravated murder, may be tried as adult
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
A neighbor cried when talking about Marie Belcastro, the 94-year-old woman found dead in her home Tuesday.
“She never did nothing to anybody,” Charles Winwood said.
Now, Jacob Larosa, 15, may be tried as an adult in her death.
Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins said Wednesday authorities believe Larosa killed Belcastro on Tuesday afternoon at her Cherry Street home in Niles.
If Larosa is tried as an adult, it will be the first time in many years that a county juvenile has had his or her case handled in the adult system.
In 1985, 17-year-old Timothy Combs, the accomplice of Danny Lee Hill in the murder of Raymond Fife, was tried as an adult. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Juveniles in Ohio are not eligible for the death penalty.
Watkins said Chris Becker and Stanley Elkins, assistant county prosecutors, will handle the matter in juvenile court. Becker handles adult criminal cases. Elkins handles juvenile criminal cases.
A judge in the juvenile system — either Judge Pamela Rintala or Judge Sandra Stabile-Harwood of Family Court — will make the decision on whether Larosa will be tried as an adult, Becker said.
Larosa had a detention hearing Wednesday in county juvenile court and is due for a second hearing there early next week.
Juvenile Magistrate Monte Horton ordered Larosa held in the juvenile detention center until his next hearing, said Jack Silbaugh, who is Horton’s bailiff.
Larosa and his family lived a few houses away from Belcastro on Lafayette Avenue. His sister, Kaela Larosa, told reporters Tuesday her brother had just gotten out of the detention center earlier in the day.
Several residents of Cherry Street and Lafayette, which runs parallel to Cherry, said Belcastro was a nice woman who had lived on the street her entire life.
“She was just a sweet little lady, always smiling. She would give the kids treats,” said Jamie Mullane, who lives across the street from Belcastro’s one-story home.
“They would help her with yard work,” Mullane said of her children, adding that Belcastro enjoyed picking up sticks in her yard when the weather was nice.
Mullane said Larosa would sometimes hang out with her 16-year-old daughter, who “tried to help him,” even though Larosa had made a lot of enemies.
“He has stolen from a lot of people around here,” she said. “He was known as a troublemaker.”
Mullane said she sympathizes with Larosa’s parents, who she believes did their best to raise him and four other children.
Winwood, Larosa’s next-door neighbor, said he has no sympathy for Larosa because he created problems for him from the time Winwood moved into his house three years ago.
Winwood installed video cameras around his house shortly after he moved in because of Larosa, who he said regularly threw items out of his bedroom window toward his house.
Winwood captured video of Larosa two times in recent years breaking into his house, he said. One time, Larosa took $100, Winwood said, but Winwood’s son got it back from Larosa, so they didn’t call police.
His video equipment captured Larosa in the alley behind his house near Belcastro’s house on Tuesday afternoon, and he gave the video to Niles police, Winwood said.
The video shows Larosa “coming back [from the area of Belcastro’s house] with two bottles of booze” Tuesday afternoon, he said.
Winwood cried when talking about Belcastro, who he said he typically only saw in her back window.
“She never did nothing to anybody,” he said.