Leavittsburg man jailed without bond on reckless homicide charge

WARREN — Thomas A. Catalde Jr. is in the Trumbull County jail without eligibility to make bond after his arraignment this morning on one count of reckless homicide.

Catalde, 28, of Ruth Avenue and Nelson Mosier Road, both in Leavittsburg, was arrested Wednesday. A judge in Warren Municipal Court entered a not-guilty plea.

Catalde is charged with shooting his cousin, Jesse Hayes, 15, of Parma, in his face Saturday night at the Ruth Avenue address while showing him a shotgun Catalde had recently purchased.

Catalde told Warren Township police the shooting was an accident and that he didn’t know the shotgun was loaded when he pointed it at his cousin and pulled the trigger.

Hayes, a student at Parma Senior High School, died two days later at a Cleveland hospital.