Pretrial hearing set Friday in Larosa murder case

WARREN — The Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office is planning to move forward with a pretrial hearing at 11 a.m. Friday in common pleas court in the murder case of Jacob Larosa, 16, of Niles, after a dismissal of an appeal Larosa’s attorneys filed.

The appeal argued that the decision of Judge Sandra Stabile Harwood of juvenile court that sent Larosa’s case to the common pleas court for him to be tried as an adult could be appealed.

But two of the three judges in the 11th District Court of Appeals disagreed.

Larosa, of Lafayette Avenue, is charged with aggravated murder and several other charges in the March 31 beating death of his neighbor, Marie Belcastro, 94, of Cherry Street in Niles. Larosa was 15 at the time of Belcastro’s death.