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Supreme Court appeal could delay murder case against Niles teen at least a couple months
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The criminal case against Jacob Larosa will be delayed a second time while the Ohio Supreme Court decides whether to take up the appeal of Larosa’s transfer from juvenile court to adult court.
An appeal puts a criminal case on hold.
Larosa, 16, of Lafayette Avenue in Niles, is charged with aggravated murder, attempted rape, aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary in the March 31, 2015, beating death of Marie Belcastro, 94, of Cherry Street in Niles. She was Larosa’s neighbor and knew Larosa.
Larosa’s attorneys appealed to Ohio’s top court April 5, arguing it would be wrong to make him wait until after his criminal case in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court wraps up before he can appeal the transfer to adult court because it prevents him from being rehabilitated.
“The days, weeks and months of lost time for therapy, treatment and counseling can never be recovered,” his attorneys said.
The county prosecutor’s office filed a response Wednesday to the defense lawyers’ request, saying Larosa’s case presents no reason to deviate from established law, as ruled by two of three judges in the Warren-based 11th District Court of Appeals in February.
The public information office of the Ohio Supreme Court said it usually takes two to four months for the court to determine whether it will hear an appeal. If the court does take up the case, that could take another year.
Judge Sandra Stabile Harwood of juvenile court ruled in Dec. 23 that Larosa’s case should be transferred from juvenile court to adult court because of Larosa’s “lengthy history of behavioral issues extending back to early childhood” and history of disregard for any treatment or sanctions that have been offered through the juvenile system.
He is locked up in the county’s juvenile detention facility.
LuWayne Annos, assistant county prosecutor, conversely, said in her filing that established law requires appeals on transfers from juvenile court to adult court to occur after the adult-court case is over.
If Larosa is convicted of certain crimes in his indictment, he could get life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The common pleas court case is set for a pretrial hearing June 3 and a jury trial Sept. 19 before Judge W. Wyatt McKay. It took about six weeks for the appellate court to rule against hearing Larosa’s appeal on the same issue.