Case against teen accused of killing Niles neighbor, 94, moved from Sept. to March


WARREN

Assistant Trumbull County Prosecutor Chris Becker said he’s “been ready for some time” to start the murder trial for Jacob Larosa, 16, who is accused of killing his elderly neighbor March 31, 2015, in her Niles home.

But Larosa’s attorneys on Friday waived his right to be tried quickly, prompting Judge W. Wyatt McKay of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to reset Larosa’s trial date from Sept. 19 to March 20, 2017.

“We will treat it as a capital-murder case and as vigorously as a capital-murder [death penalty] case,” Becker said after Friday’s hearing. Larosa’s case will not be a capital-murder case because juveniles are not eligible for the death penalty.

Instead, Larosa would be eligible to spend the rest of his life in prison without parole if he’s convicted of certain crimes he faces.

Larosa, of Niles, is charged with aggravated murder, attempted rape, aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary in the death of his neighbor, Marie Belcastro, 94.

Larosa, of Lafayette Avenue, was 15 at the time of Belcastro’s death.

Friday’s hearing was the first for Larosa in adult court since a ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court in June that kept his case in adult court.

Read more about the case in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.