Ohio man who held 3 women captive found hanged

FILE – This Wednesday, July 17, 2013 file photo shows Ariel Castro standing before a judge during his arraignment on an expanded 977-count indictment in Cleveland. Castro, who held 3 women captive for a decade, has committed suicide, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, file)

FILE – This Wednesday, July 17, 2013 file photo shows Ariel Castro standing before a judge during his arraignment on an expanded 977-count indictment in Cleveland. Castro, who held 3 women captive for a decade, has committed suicide, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, file)

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The man serving a life prison term for kidnapping three women and repeatedly raping them in his home for nearly a decade has been found dead and is believed to have committed suicide, a prison official said.

Ariel Castro, 53, was found hanging in his cell around 9:20 p.m. Tuesday at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient, located south of Columbus in central Ohio, JoEllen Smith, Department of Rehabilitation and Correction spokeswoman, said early Wednesday.

Prison medical staff performed CPR before Castro was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead around 10:50 p.m.

Castro’s attorneys tried unsuccessfully to have a psychological examination of Castro done at the Cuyahoga County Jail, where Castro was housed before he was turned over to state authorities following his guilty plea and conviction, his attorney, Jaye Schlachet, told The Associated Press early Wednesday. Schlachet said he could not immediately comment further.

In an interview last month after Castro’s conviction, Schlachet and attorney Craig Weintraub said their client clearly fit the profile of sociopathic disorder and that they hoped researchers would study him for clues that could be used to stop other predators.

The three women disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16 and 20 years old. They escaped from Castro’s Cleveland home May 6, when Amanda Berry, one of the women, broke part of a door and yelled to neighbors for help.

“Help me,” she said in a 911 call. “I’ve been kidnapped, and I’ve been missing for 10 years and I’m, I’m here, I’m free now.”

The two other women were so scared of Castro that they held back initially even as police officers began to swarm the house. But quickly they realized they were free.

“You saved us! You saved us!” another of the captives, Michelle Knight, told an officer as she leaped into his arms.

Castro was arrested that evening. He had also fathered a child with Berry while she was in captivity; that girl was 6 years old when freed. A judge rejected Castro’s request to have visiting rights with his daughter.

Elation over the women’s rescue soon turned to shock as details emerged about conditions of their captivity. Investigators say they were bound with chains, repeatedly raped and deprived of food and bathroom facilities. Knight told investigators she was beaten and starved several times to force her to miscarry.

Messages left for the women’s lawyers were not immediately returned early Wednesday.

Castro was sentenced Aug. 1 to life in prison plus 1,000 years on his guilty plea to 937 counts including kidnapping and rape.

In a rambling statement, he told the judge he was not a monster but a man suffering from a pornography addiction.

“I’m not a monster. I’m sick,” Castro said at his sentencing.

Knight was the only one of the three who appeared in court at his sentencing.

“You took 11 years of my life away, and I have got it back,” she said in the hushed courtroom. “I spent 11 years in hell. Now your hell is just beginning.”

Castro was in protective custody because of the notoriety of his case, meaning he was checked every 30 minutes, but was not on suicide watch, Smith said. She said suicide watch entails constant observation.

Castro was also watched closely in the Cuyahoga County Jail in the several weeks after his arrest and before his case was resolved by a guilty plea, with logs noting his activity every 10 minutes. He was taken off county jail suicide watch in early June after authorities determined he was not a suicide risk.

This is the second high-profile suicide in an Ohio prison in a month.

On Aug. 4, death row inmate Billy Slagle was found hanged in his cell just days before his scheduled execution. He was condemned to death for fatally stabbing a neighbor.

___

Andrew Welsh-Huggins can be reached on Twitter at https://twitter.com/awhcolumbus.

Associated Press

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

U.S. Headlines

Ohio man who held 3 women captive found hanged

Former Ohio captive says she knew she"d escape

Michelle Knight leaves the courtroom after the sentencing phase for Ariel Castro Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Knight, 32, was the first woman abducted Castro in 2002. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Michelle Knight leaves the courtroom after the sentencing phase for Ariel Castro Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Knight, 32, was the first woman abducted Castro in 2002. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Ariel Castro, center, adjusts his glasses during the sentencing phase Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Defense attorney’s Craig Weintraub, left, and Jaye Schlachet listen. Castro, convicted of holding three women captive in a house he turned into a prison and raping them repeatedly for a decade, was sentenced Thursday to life without parole plus 1,000 years. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Ariel Castro leaves the courtroom after the sentencing phase Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Castro, convicted of holding three women captive in a house he turned into a prison and raping them repeatedly for a decade, was sentenced to life without parole plus 1,000 years. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Ariel Castro adjusts his glasses during the sentencing phase Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Castro was sentenced to life in prison plus 1,000 years. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Ariel Castro looks at Michelle Knight as he speaks during the sentencing phase Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Castro convicted of holding three women captive in his Cleveland house over a decade and raping them repeatedly was sentenced to life in prison plus 1,000 years. . (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

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CLEVELAND (AP) — Free and safe, one of three women kidnapped and raped over a decade in a ramshackle home smiled lightly as her tormentor was led out of court in chains, a method he had used to control them.

Michelle Knight, the first of the victims kidnapped after accepting a ride from Ariel Castro, spoke in a soft but determined voice Thursday in front of a judge who followed a plea deal and gave Castro life in prison without parole plus 1,000 years.

“We said we’ll all get out alive someday, and we did,” Knight said.

“You took 11 years of my life away, and I have got it back,” she said in the hushed courtroom. “I spent 11 years in hell. Now your hell is just beginning.”

Knight, who spoke just a few feet from Castro in the courtroom, finished her statement and returned to her seat without looking at him. Earlier, he had tried to make eye contact, but deputies quickly stepped into his line of vision.

Knight, 32, belittled Castro’s routine of going to church and returning to abuse the women in the darkened Cleveland home, which was equipped with chains, locked doors and windows boarded up from the inside.

“What does God think of you hypocritically going to church each Sunday and then coming home to torture us?” she said. “The death penalty would be the easy way out. You don’t deserve that. We want you to spend the rest of your life in prison.”

Castro, a 53-year-old former school bus driver, pleaded guilty last week to 937 counts including aggravated murder, kidnapping, rape and assault. A deal struck with prosecutors spared him from a possible death sentence for beating and starving Knight until she miscarried.

Castro apologized to his victims briefly in a rambling, defiant statement before he was sentenced, quibbling with the judge on whether rape is a violent crime. As people in the gallery watched wide-eyed, Castro repeatedly blamed his sex addiction, his former wife and others while claiming most of the sex was consensual and the women he held were never tortured.

“These people are trying to paint me as a monster,” he said. “I’m not a monster. I’m sick.”

He pointed out that the FBI was once close to him when agents talked with his daughter, who was walking home with victim Gina DeJesus on the day she disappeared.

“The FBI let these girls down when they questioned my daughter,” he said. “They failed to question me.”

He also said he was never abusive until he met his former wife, who is now dead.

“I am not a violent person,” Castro said repeatedly.

Assistant prosecutor Anna Faraglia said Knight’s appearance in court showed her resilience.

“She will survive, but she has gone through a lot of physical and emotional pain,” Faraglia said.

All three women were willing to testify at trial about their ordeals if needed, she said.

The three women disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16 and 20 years old. Each had accepted a ride from Castro. They escaped May 6, when Amanda Berry, now 27, broke part of a door to Castro’s house in a tough neighborhood and yelled to neighbors for help. Castro was arrested that evening.

The escape electrified Cleveland, where photos of the missing women still hung on utility posts. Elation turned to despair as details of their ordeal emerged.

At the sentencing, prosecutors detailed Castro’s repeated sexual assaults and how he chained the women and denied them food or fresh air. They displayed photos that gave a first glimpse inside the rooms where the women lived.

Stuffed animals lined the bed and crayon drawings were taped to the wall where Berry lived with her young daughter, who was fathered by Castro. One of the drawings on a shelf said, “Happy Birthday.”

But in the room, the window was boarded shut and door knobs had been removed and replaced with multiple locks. Saucer-size holes in inside doors were meant for circulation.

Another room, shared by Knight and DeJesus, had a portable toilet, a clock radio and several chains.

Prosecutors said the women were chained to a pole in the basement and to a bedroom heater. One woman had a motorcycle helmet placed on her head while chained in the basement; later, when she tried to escape, she had a vacuum cleaner cord wrapped around her neck.

FBI agent Andrew Burke said Castro would occasionally pay his victims after raping them. But he then would require them to pay him if they wanted something special from the store.

Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty said in a court filing that the women kept diaries.

“The entries speak of forced sexual conduct, of being locked in a dark room, of anticipating the next session of abuse, of the dreams of someday escaping and being reunited with family, of being chained to a wall, of being held like a prisoner of war … of being treated like an animal,” the filing said.

Knight was lured into Castro’s house with the promise of a puppy for her young son. She said she cried every night and her years in captivity “turned into eternity.”

“He tormented me constantly, especially on holidays,” Knight said. “Christmas was the most traumatic day because I didn’t get to spend it with my son.”

She sat quietly as Castro claimed the women lived happy lives with him.

“We had a lot of harmony that went on in that home,” Castro said.

Castro called his daughter with Berry a “miracle child” and argued with the judge that he didn’t commit a violent crime.

Once Castro finished, Judge Michael Russo thanked Knight for showing “remarkable restraint” during his statement. The judge then dismissed Castro’s claims that the women lived happy lives with him.

“I’m not sure there’s anyone in America that would agree with you,” he said.

None of Castro’s relatives was in the courtroom. Berry and DeJesus also stayed away. Instead, their family members read statements on their behalf.

“We stand before you and promise you that our beloved family member thrives,” said Sylvia Colon, DeJesus’ cousin. “She laughs, swims, dances and, more importantly, she loves and is loved.”

Outside court, assistant prosecutor Blaise Thomas responded to Castro’s claim of creating a harmonious family life for the women by recounting how Castro cried several days ago when he signed over the deed to his house as part of the plea deal. Castro was sorry to lose the house and mentioned “the many happy memories” he had there with the three women, Thomas said.

“That’s how he views the world,” she said. “That’s how distorted and twisted he is.”

The house, a drive-by attraction, has been fenced off and under police guard since the women escaped and will be demolished.

The women have begun emerging from the privacy they had sought after they escaped to freedom.

Berry made a surprise onstage appearance at a rap concert last weekend, and DeJesus made a few televised comments as a privacy fence was being erected around her house.

___

Seewer reported from Toledo. Andrew Welsh-Huggins in Columbus contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Top Headlines

Former Ohio captive says she knew she"d escape

Former Ohio captive says she knew she"d escape

CLEVELAND (AP) — Free and safe, one of three women kidnapped and raped over a decade in a ramshackle home smiled lightly as her tormentor was led out of court in chains, a method he had used to control them.

Michelle Knight, the first of the victims kidnapped after accepting a ride from Ariel Castro, spoke in a soft but determined voice Thursday in front of a judge who followed a plea deal and gave Castro life in prison without parole plus 1,000 years.

“We said we’ll all get out alive someday, and we did,” Knight said.

“You took 11 years of my life away, and I have got it back,” she said in the hushed courtroom. “I spent 11 years in hell. Now your hell is just beginning.”

Knight, who spoke just a few feet from Castro in the courtroom, finished her statement and returned to her seat without looking at him. Earlier, he had tried to make eye contact, but deputies quickly stepped into his line of vision.

Knight, 32, belittled Castro’s routine of going to church and returning to abuse the women in the darkened Cleveland home, which was equipped with chains, locked doors and windows boarded up from the inside.

“What does God think of you hypocritically going to church each Sunday and then coming home to torture us?” she said. “The death penalty would be the easy way out. You don’t deserve that. We want you to spend the rest of your life in prison.”

Castro, a 53-year-old former school bus driver, pleaded guilty last week to 937 counts including aggravated murder, kidnapping, rape and assault. A deal struck with prosecutors spared him from a possible death sentence for beating and starving Knight until she miscarried.

Castro apologized to his victims briefly in a rambling, defiant statement before he was sentenced, quibbling with the judge on whether rape is a violent crime. As people in the gallery watched wide-eyed, Castro repeatedly blamed his sex addiction, his former wife and others while claiming most of the sex was consensual and the women he held were never tortured.

“These people are trying to paint me as a monster,” he said. “I’m not a monster. I’m sick.”

He pointed out that the FBI was once close to him when agents talked with his daughter, who was walking home with victim Gina DeJesus on the day she disappeared.

“The FBI let these girls down when they questioned my daughter,” he said. “They failed to question me.”

He also said he was never abusive until he met his former wife, who is now dead.

“I am not a violent person,” Castro said repeatedly.

Assistant prosecutor Anna Faraglia said Knight’s appearance in court displayed her resilience.

“She will survive, but she has gone through a lot of physical and emotional pain,” Faraglia said.

All three women were willing to testify at trial about their ordeals if needed, she said.

The three women disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16 and 20 years old. Each had accepted a ride from Castro. They escaped May 6, when Amanda Berry, now 27, broke part of a door to Castro’s house in a tough neighborhood and yelled to neighbors for help. Castro was arrested that evening.

The escape electrified Cleveland, where photos of the missing women still hung on utility posts. Elation turned to despair as details of their ordeal emerged.

At the sentencing, prosecutors detailed Castro’s repeated sexual assaults and how he chained the women and denied them food or fresh air. They displayed photos that gave a first glimpse inside the rooms where the women lived.

Stuffed animals lined the bed and crayon drawings were taped to the wall where Berry lived with her young daughter, who was fathered by Castro. One of the drawings on a shelf said, “Happy Birthday.”

But in the room, the window was boarded shut and door knobs had been removed and replaced with multiple locks. Saucer-size holes in inside doors were meant for circulation.

Another room, shared by Knight and DeJesus, had a portable toilet, a clock radio and several chains.

Prosecutors said the women were chained to a pole in the basement and to a bedroom heater. One woman had a motorcycle helmet placed on her head while chained in the basement; later, when she tried to escape, she had a vacuum cleaner cord wrapped around her neck.

FBI agent Andrew Burke said Castro would occasionally pay his victims after raping them. But he then would require them to pay him if they wanted something special from the store.

Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty said in a court filing that the women kept diaries.

“The entries speak of forced sexual conduct, of being locked in a dark room, of anticipating the next session of abuse, of the dreams of someday escaping and being reunited with family, of being chained to a wall, of being held like a prisoner of war … of being treated like an animal,” the filing said.

Knight was lured into Castro’s house with the promise of a puppy for her young son. She said she cried every night and her years in captivity “turned into eternity.”

“He tormented me constantly, especially on holidays,” Knight said. “Christmas was the most traumatic day because I didn’t get to spend it with my son.”

She sat quietly as Castro claimed the women lived happy lives with him.

“We had a lot of harmony that went on in that home,” Castro said.

Castro called his daughter with Berry a “miracle child” and argued with the judge that he didn’t commit a violent crime.

Once Castro finished, Judge Michael Russo thanked Knight for showing “remarkable restraint” during his statement. The judge then dismissed Castro’s claims that the women lived happy lives with him.

“I’m not sure there’s anyone in America that would agree with you,” he said.

None of Castro’s relatives was in the courtroom. Berry and DeJesus also stayed away. Instead, their family members read statements on their behalf.

“We stand before you and promise you that our beloved family member thrives,” said Sylvia Colon, DeJesus’ cousin. “She laughs, swims, dances and, more importantly, she loves and is loved.”

Outside court, assistant prosecutor Blaise Thomas responded to Castro’s claim of creating a harmonious family life for the women by recounting how Castro cried several days ago when he signed over the deed to his house as part of the plea deal. Castro was sorry to lose the house and mentioned “the many happy memories” he had there with the three women, Thomas said.

“That’s how he views the world,” she said. “That’s how distorted and twisted he is.”

The house, a drive-by attraction, has been fenced off and under police guard since the women escaped and will be demolished.

The women have begun emerging from the privacy they had sought after they escaped to freedom.

Berry made a surprise onstage appearance at a rap concert last weekend, and DeJesus made a few televised comments as a privacy fence was being erected around her house.

___

Seewer reported from Toledo. Andrew Welsh-Huggins in Columbus contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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Former Ohio captive says she knew she"d escape