Life in prison for women’s captor
By pleading guilty, Ariel Castro avoids the death penalty
Ariel Castro avoided the death penalty Friday by pleading guilty in the imprisonment of three Cleveland victims.
CLEVELAND The U.S. man who imprisoned three women in his home, subjecting them to a decade of rapes, beatings and miscarriages, pleaded guilty Friday in a deal to avoid the death penalty.
Ariel Castro told the judge he was addicted to pornography, had a “sexual problem” and had been a sexual abuse victim long ago. In exchange, prosecutors recommended that Castro be sentenced to life without parole, plus 1,000 years.
Castro, 53, said he understood that he would never get out of prison. “I knew that when I first spoke to the FBI agent when I first got arrested,” he said.
Castro, who was born in Puerto Rico, said he could read and understand English well but had trouble with comprehension.
“My addiction to pornography and my sexual problem has really taken a toll on my mind,” he said. He later said he had been a sexual abuse victim as a child, but the judge cut him off.
Sentencing was set for Thursday.
The three women said they are relieved that Castro has pleaded guilty to charges that will keep him in prison for life. A statement released by a law firm representing the women says they are satisfied by the resolution. Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight are continuing to ask for privacy.
The three women disappeared separately from 2002 to 2004 when they were 14, 16 and 20 years old. Each said they had accepted a ride from Castro, who remained friends with the family of one of the women and even attended vigils marking her disappearance.
The women escaped Castro’s house May 6 when one of them kicked out part of a door and called to neighbours for help. Castro was arrested within hours and has remained behind bars.
Castro pleaded guilty to 937 counts, including two counts of aggravated murder related to accusations that he punched and starved one woman until she miscarried. The former school bus driver also was charged with hundreds of counts of kidnapping and rape, plus assault and other counts.
He was accused of repeatedly restraining the women, sometimes chaining them to a pole in a basement, to a bedroom heater or inside a van. The charges alleged Castro assaulted one woman with a vacuum cord around her neck when she tried to escape.
Castro fathered a six-yearold daughter with Berry, authorities said. They allege that on the day the child was born, Christmas 2006, Castro raped one of the other women, who had helped deliver the baby.
Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Blaise Thomas said he’s making sure Castro will never see the girl he fathered with Berry.