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Boy’s age prompts rare motion

Tribune Chronicle / R. Michael Semple Murder defendant Jacob LaRosa, left, stands before Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge W. Wyatt McKay with his public defender, Matthew Pentz, during a recent court hearing. LaRosa is accused of killing his 94-year-old neighbor, Marie Belcastro, in March 2015.

WARREN — Teen murder defendant Jacob LaRosa’s attorneys are using a rare legal move that will try to lessen his chances of facing a life-without-parole sentence if the teen is convicted at trial.

LaRosa will turn 18 on July 27 and has been incarcerated more than two years awaiting trial on felony charges linked to the 2015 murder of a 94-year-old Niles woman.

Public defenders Matthew Pentz and David Rouzzo have asked Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge W. Wyatt McKay to separate LaRosa’s trial into two phases, including a sentencing phase in which the defense would be permitted to present evidence to the jury that would lessen the maximum sentence.

The jury then would be required to cast a unanimous vote to recommend life without parole for LaRosa, according to the document. If LaRosa isn’t sentenced to the maximum, he would face life-sentence options that include parole chances at 20, 25 or 30 years.

“We are going for this motion because of the young age of the defendant,” Pentz said.

McKay is expected to have a decision at a July 28 hearing, Pentz said.

The defendant is charged with aggravated murder, aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery and attempted rape after being accused at age 15 of beating Marie Belcastro, 94, to death March 30, 2015. Belcastro died from blows to the head with a blunt object, the Trumbull County coroner’s report states.

In a motion responding to the defense’s bid to split the trial, assistant Trumbull County prosecutors Christopher Becker and Gina Buccino Arnaut state the defense’s argument is not based upon any existing law nor is there any case law to support it.

The defense’s motion pointed to a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision that prohibits mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juveniles.

In that case, the high court made clear that juvenile life-without-parole cases are “analogous to capital punishment,” and they require individualized sentencing, states a memo supporting the defense motion.

However, the prosecution states the justices left the door open for a life-without-parole sentence for “the rarest of children, those whose crimes reflect ‘irreparable corruption.'”

In their motion, the prosecution argues LaRosa’s crimes reflect this “corruption.”

The state’s motion alleges LaRosa brutally beat Belcastro and assaulted her in three different areas of her home and one of the beatings knocked out her hearing aid.

“Beat her so hard that Trumbull County Coroner Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk couldn’t guess how many times her skull was struck,” the prosecution’s motion states.

Legal maneuvers have postponed two trial dates set for the case, the latest being March 20, 2017. A new trial date has not been set, as McKay has yet to rule on a psychological evaluation that sheds light on LaRosa’s mental state.

According to court records, a competency hearing is set Aug. 4 in McKay’s courtroom.

Trumbull County Family Court Judge Sandra Stabile Harwood in late 2015 ruled LaRosa be tried as an adult. That decision has survived several defense appeals, including one that was refused by the Ohio Supreme Court.

In the fall of 2015, Harwood ruled LaRosa as mature and not mentally disabled, so he could be tried in the adult system. In 2016, the Ohio Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal after the 11th District Court of Appeals had denied the defense’s attempt to move the case back to juvenile court.

LaRosa knew Belcastro, who lived in Niles for decades. Witnesses said she paid him for lawn work on several occasions and the woman was also known to bake cookies for the neighborhood children.

Belcastro was found just after 5:30 p.m. the day of the murder. At 5:35 p.m., police were called to LaRosa’s home after he stumbled inside covered with blood, according to a search warrant filed in Common Pleas Court.

The teen previously had undergone seven years of failed treatment in the juvenile system, Harwood noted. The Niles Police Department had 19 reports from incidents involving LaRosa dating back to September 2013.

LaRosa remains at the Juvenile Justice Center on a $3 million bond.

gvogrin@tribtoday.com

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