No decision on whether records will be open for Niles murder case

By ED RUNYAN

runyan@vindy,com

WARREN

Attorneys for Jacob Larosa, the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office and The Vindicator attended a juvenile court hearing Thursday to discuss whether documents filed in Larosa’s aggravated-murder case will be open to the public, but no decision was rendered.

Judge Pamela Rintala noted that defense attorney Rob Kokor asked Thursday that Judge Sandra Stabile Harwood handle the question instead of her — and that decision must be made before the public-records question can be answered.

Judge Stabile Harwood is assigned to the criminal case; Judge Rintala intended to handle the records matter.

Prosecutors agreed with the defense that it might be best for the same judge to handle the public-records matter and the criminal matter, attorneys said.

Larosa, 15, of Lafayette Avenue in Niles, is charged with aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary and attempted rape in the death of Marie Belcastro, 94. Belcastro was found beaten to death in her Cherry Street home March 31. Larosa was found in his home a few houses away just before Belcastro’s body was found, and Larosa had blood on his hands and underwear, police said.

Also Thursday, the judges contacted Judge Timothy Grendell, probate and juvenile court judge in Geauga County, who presided over the 2012 T.J. Lane shooting case at Chardon High School before it was transferred to the adult court. That discussion primarily focused on what judge should hear the records issue.

Only a handful of juvenile cases have been transferred to the adult court in Trumbull County in the past 30 years, officials say.

One of the best-known cases was that of Timothy Combs, who was 17 when he and Danny Lee Hill, 18, tortured and killed Raymond Fife, 12, in Warren in 1985. Combs was tried as an adult and sentenced to a life prison term.

Judge Rintala said the parties will communicate next week regarding which judge will handle the records matter and whether a hearing will take place regarding the records, or whether that matter can be handled with written briefs. No additional hearings on the records are scheduled.

But a 1:30 p.m. April 30 hearing before Judge Stabile Harwood is scheduled to determine whether there is probable cause to continue the case or whether it should be dismissed.

If the case proceeds, Judge Stabile Harwood will have to rule on the prosecutor’s request that Larosa be tried as an adult.

Kokor filed a motion with the juvenile court Monday asking that the complaint filed by the prosecutor’s office and other filings be kept closed to the public. The prosecutor’s office filed an answer, saying the documents should remain open.

Atty. Dan Kavouras of the Baker Hostetler law firm of Cleveland, representing The Vindicator and 21 WFMJ-TV, attended the hearing to request that all filings in the case so far and any future filings be kept public.

“The defense wants a default rule sealing all the records, when the opposite should be true,” Kouvouras said. “The court should have a presumption that all the records are open unless there is a showing that they shouldn’t be. Absent any compelling reason, the records should be open.”

Other news media in the courtroom for Thursday’s hearing likewise asked that the records be open.

Kokor said the danger of information from the records being released to the public is that individuals who might later become jurors in the Larosa matter might receive information that is later deemed inadmissible at trial.