31-03-2025
10 years after her death, family remembers murdered woman and speaks out against law that could free her killer
NILES, Ohio (WKBN) – Monday marks 10 years since the brutal murder of Marie Belcastro, but her family continues to remember her for her sense of humor, patience and loving nature.
'When we remember my grandmother, it's happy memories,' said Brian Kirk, Belcastro's grandson. 'She was little; she was feisty and just had a heart full of love.'
'I think she was one of the sweetest people to ever live in Niles, and I think everybody loved her, and they were all huge fans of her,' said Angelina Kirk, Belcastro's great-granddaughter. 'She was an angel on Earth, I think.'
Belcastro was 94 when she died on March 31, 2015, at the hands of Jacob LaRosa. The then-15-year-old beat and tried to rape her in her own home on Cherry Street.
'Some cases stick with you for… forever,' said Assistant Prosecutor Chris Becker.
Becker said it was one of the most brutal murders that he has ever seen.
'It tells you a couple of things when you see that. First of all, you know you're dealing with a psychopath, just an absolute animal that needs to be locked up forever… No person, no matter what, treats another human being this way,' he said
Becker added that it wasn't a random crime; LaRosa knew Belcastro and had been to the house previously.
'Jacob snuffed out that life basically for just a couple bottles of booze,' he said.
LaRosa was prosecuted as an adult. In 2018, he pleaded no contest and was ultimately convicted of the charges. His sentence was life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 30 years.
'That gave us a great sense of closure,' Brian Kirk recalled.
For Belcastro's family, that feeling only lasted until 2021 when legislation signed into law gave most juvenile offenders, including LaRosa, a chance at parole after 25 years and if denied every five years after that.
'It feels like the whole situation really definitely ripped open old wounds,' Angelina Kirk said.
'I think it's unfair to families who have already been through enough,' Brian Kirk said.
It is something that Becker also spoke out against.
'Our Ohio legislature then retroactively gave murderers like Jacob LaRosa really a break and a reduction in sentence. They retroactively reduced the sentence and threw out all the hard work of the law enforcement officers, the crime scene investigators, the people at BCI, the prosecutors, the judges — all the hard work that these people had done,' he said.
Brian Kirk has been fighting this law.
An amendment included in Senate Bill 288 two years later only slightly walked back the change by extending the time frame between parole hearings to every 10 years.
'It's not enough. It certainly, in my personal opinion, it's like putting your finger in a hole as big as a car trying to stop the dam leak,' Becker said. 'It still means that these families every 10 years are going to have to relive that crime and relive that tragedy.'
'If it's that loosey-goosey and flexible, I would like to shame these people in Columbus into doing their best to rescind it,' Brian Kirk said.
As it stands now, LaRosa will be 40 years old at his first parole hearing in 2040. Brian Kirk said he plans to speak at that time.
'I forgive Jacob on a spiritual basis, and I hope God can use him where he is, but I think society needs to be protected from him and he needs to serve his time,' he said. 'I'm still working on forgiveness for the Ohio legislature.'
As Belcastro's family pushes to right what they thought was justice, her memory lives on.
'I know she's in a better place,' Brian Kirk said.
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