Leavittsburg man pleads guilty to involuntary manslaughter for shooting his cousin to death while intoxicated

By Ed Runyan | April 16, 2016 at 12:00a.m.

WARREN

Thomas Catalde Jr. pleaded guilty Friday afternoon to involuntary manslaughter and using weapons while intoxicated for accidentally shooting to death his cousin, Jesse Hayes, 15, of Parma, last May 9 at Catalde’s house.

Catalde, 29, of Ruth Avenue, was scheduled for an evidence-suppression hearing Friday before Judge W. Wyatt McKay of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, but negotiations between the attorneys produced an agreement that eliminated the need for the hearing or a trial.

Catalde remains free on bond but must appear at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday for sentencing and is expected to get 45 months in prison – three years for a specification of using a gun and nine months on the involuntary manslaughter, a felony.

Catalde told police he shot Hayes in the face with a shotgun he recently had purchased because he didn’t know it was loaded and “was just screwing around,” according to Warren Township police.

Catalde told police he had been drinking before the shooting but he was not intoxicated. Hayes was visiting relatives at the time.

As he did during an earlier hearing, Catalde cried through some of Friday’s plea hearing.

Chris Becker, an assistant county prosecutor, said Catalde tested positive for marijuana and prescription drugs just after the incident.

Hayes, a student at Parma Senior High School, died in a Cleveland hospital two days after the shooting.

Catalde was on probation at the time he was charged in Hayes’ death. Judge Terry Ivanchak of Warren Municipal Court ordered Catalde in late May to serve 45 days in the Trumbull County jail as punishment for violation of that probation resulting from the Hayes shooting.

Catalde was placed on probation after being convicted April 10 of having physical control of a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

That stemmed from allegations that he ran over another man with his car during an argument on New Year’s Eve on Homeview Drive in Leavittsburg.