UPDATE | Teen charged with trying to rape elderly victim

WARREN

Jacob O. Larosa, 15, of Niles, charged in the March 31 aggravated murder of his neighbor, Marie Belcastro, 94, is also now charged with attempting to rape her, as well as aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery.

Affidavits released Friday say police and an ambulance were called to Larosa’s Lafayatte Avenue home that afternoon for injuries to Larosa before they even knew Belcastro had died.

They found Larosa half way in the bathroom and hallway of his home with blood on his hands and underwear with no pants on and vomiting, police said.

At about that time, police learned that Belcastro’s daughter, Debbie O’Leary, was outside of Belcastro’s house on Cherry Street around the corner from Larosa’s house. Police went inside to find Belcastro dead with no pants on and her legs “twisted.”

Larosa, who was taken to St. Joseph Warren Hospital for treatment, initially told police he had not been in Belcastro’s house and said he heard screams and saw other people inside.

Later, he said he had been in the house that day but only to get $10 and then later to get change for a candy bar.

Police looked at a neighbor’s surveillance video, which showed Larosa “on the side door” of Belcastro’s house that day, the affidavit said, adding that the door was broken.

Larosa was arraigned Friday morning in Trumbull County Juvenile Court, where his charges were read to him. He was not required to enter a plea. His mother, Megan Lucariello and his father, Edward Larosa, stood toward the rear of the courtroom. His mother sobbed through part of the hearing.

Jacob Larosa will remain in juvenile detention until his next hearing in juvenile court, at 1:30 p.m. April 30. That hearing will be to determine whether there is probable cause for the case to proceed, said Judge Sandra Stabile Harwood.

If so, the following hearing will be one where evidence will be presented to Judge Stabile-Harwood so she can determine whether she should transfer the case to the Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, where Larosa would be tried as an adult, as county Prosecutor Dennis Watkins has requested.