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Teen murder suspect has checkered past
By Ed Runyan
NILES
Jacob O. Larosa, 15, has more than just a reputation for stealing and causing trouble.
He’s also named in a stack of police reports as the perpetrator of thefts, break-ins, domestic violence, property damage and runaways.
Larosa, of Lafayette Avenue near state Route 46, is in the Trumbull County Juvenile Justice Center, charged with the Tuesday killing of his neighbor, Marie Belcastro, 94, of Cherry Street.
Niles police released 19 police reports Thursday that name Larosa as either the perpetrator of a crime, suspect or victim. Only one is from 2015 — a Feb. 9 report saying he had run away but had been found about seven hours later.
But the 18 other reports were all written over the course of one year — from Sept. 4, 2013, to Aug. 26, 2014.
They confirm the comments of neighbors, who said he was well-known in the neighborhood for stealing and causing trouble. His next-door neighbor, Charles Winwood, said Larosa caused so much trouble, he had video cameras installed on his property shortly after he moved in three years ago.
He said the cameras caught Larosa breaking in twice, stealing cash and sleeping under his front porch.
According to police reports, Larosa annoyed a lot of people, including his own family.
A 60-year-old resident of the 400 block of Cherry Street, one block away from Belcastro’s house, reported that Larosa threw rocks at him and passing cars last July 21. An officer spoke to his parents.
“Mother always justifies her son’s actions instead of making him take responsibility,” the officer noted in the report.
On June 24, 2014, the Giant Eagle on Route 46 reported that it had Larosa on video stealing money from a vehicle in the parking lot. He was released to his mother, and his probation officer was contacted.
He was among three males police found near Niles McKinley High School going through garbage receptacles and breaking into a car late June 2, 2014, police said.
Earlier that night, police were called to his house, where his 7-year-old sister told police Larosa had caused a bloody, 3-inch cut over her eye by throwing a candle in a Mason jar at her in what another girl called an unprovoked attack. Larosa fled from the home.
His parents called police March 31, 2014, saying Larosa had broken into their garage. A similar report was filed in January regarding video-game systems and an e-book reader he was accused of stealing from home.
Giant Eagle filed charges in October 2013 after he was accused of stealing from the store. His stepfather told police in September 2013 that Larosa had run away “several times lately and has been getting into trouble associating with older individuals.”
Also Thursday, Niles police released the 911 tape of the call Marie Belcastro’s daughter made to the police department about 5:30 p.m., after finding her mother beaten to death. Belcastro lived on Cherry Street, a few houses away from Larosa’s house. Larosa was taken into custody later that night.
“I just walked into her house, and I finally found her,” the woman told the 911 operator, obviously distraught. “She looks like she’s all smashed. There’s blood in every room. It looks like the house was ransacked.”
The dispatcher asked the woman the age of her mother, and she replied, “She was 94. I think she is dead. She’s twisted here in the bedroom. I know somebody came in here. There’s pieces of furniture strewn all over.”
Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk, county coroner, ruled her death a homicide due to blunt trauma to the head.
Larosa is charged with aggravated murder in Belcastro’s death Tuessday and is in the Trumbull Juvenile Detention Center in Warren.
He is scheduled for a hearing sometime next week. At that time, prosecutors plan to ask for the Niles McKinley High School sophomore to be tried as an adult and have the case transferred to common pleas court.
A judge in the Trumbull County Family Court will decide whether Larosa will be tried as an adult.
Niles police are referring all questions to the county prosecutor’s office, but the department released a preliminary report in the case Thursday. It suggests that alcohol was involved in the attack but doesn’t say whether anything was stolen.