Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty said Thursday that based on the facts of the case, his office intends to seek charges not only for the sexual assaults endured by the victims, but also "each act of aggravated murder he committed by terminating pregnancies." Castro is accused of separately abducting two teenage girls and a young woman and holding them in his home for about 10 years. One of the victims, Amanda Berry, escaped with her 6-year-old daughter. Castro is set to undergo a paternity test to confirm he is the girl's father. Another victim, Michelle Knight, alleges she became pregnant five times and that each time Castro starved her and punched her in the stomach until she miscarried, according to a police report reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.
McGinty said he may seek the death penalty against Castro. Castro was arraigned Thursday in Cleveland Municipal Court, where the judge set bail at $8 million. Castro wore a navy blue jumpsuit and tucked his chin inside his collar as the charges against him were read. He was charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape. The total bond set was $8 million. Prosecutors had requested bond be set at $5 million, Reuters reported. Suspects do not enter a plea on felony charges in the Cleveland municipal court. "He did not want to be on camera," Kathleen DeMetz, his court-appointed lawyer, said after the hearing. Once back in jail, he was reportedly placed on "suicide precaution."
Brian Murphy, the assistant prosecutor from Cuyahoga County, told the courtroom that Ariel Castro kidnapped the three women to use them in a "self-gratifying," "self-serving" way. "Two of these victims endured this horrifying ordeal for over a decade, a third for close to a decade," he said, while Ariel Castro looked toward the floor. Murphy said the victims were bound, sexually assaulted and beaten. They were not allowed to leave the home, he said. "Today the situation has turned, your honor: Mr. Castro stands before you a captive, in captivity, a prisoner, and the women are free," he said.
Ariel Castro lured all three women by offering them a ride, according to court papers. Authorities say Michelle Knight, now 32, was kidnapped in 2002, followed by Amanda Berry, now 27, in 2003, then Gina DeJesus, now 23, in 2004. Investigators said that the women could recall being outside only twice in the past decade and that they were apparently bound with ropes and chains. Berry gave birth to a daughter, now 6, while in captivity. The Plain Dealer in Cleveland reported Thursday that Berry gave birth in an inflatable swimming pool. A police report obtained by the newspaper said Castro forced another of his alleged captives, Michelle Knight, to deliver the baby and threatened to kill her if the infant did not survive. The baby stopped breathing, and Knight resuscitated the child by mouth-to-mouth, the report said.
Read more: Cleveland man could face aggravated murder charges for allegedly terminating pregnancies | Fox News
The charges would stem from the forced miscarriages that police say were suffered by one of the women at the hands of Ariel Castro, who is accused of holding them captive at his house in a low-income neighborhood of Cleveland. Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty told a news conference that his office intends to pursue charges of kidnapping and sexual assault as well as aggravated murder.
Prosecutors also planned to file charges relating to the many abuses endured by Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight as well as Berry's 6-year-old daughter who was born in captivity, he said. "I fully intend to seek charges for each and every act of sexual violence, rape, each day of kidnapping, every felonious assault, and each act of aggravated murder for terminating pregnancies that the offender perpetrated," he said.
Missing women found alive in Cleveland
The prosecutor's office will launch the official process to determine if the death penalty is appropriate, he said. "Capital punishment must be reserved for those crimes that are truly the worst examples of human conduct," McGinty said. Knight suffered at least five miscarriages that she told police were intentionally caused by Castro starving her and beating her in the abdomen, according to an initial police report.
The three women and child escaped on Monday from the house, where police said Castro used ropes and chains to hold them captive for around a decade, inflicting starvation, beatings and sexual abuse. Berry, now 27, disappeared in 2003, the day before her 17th birthday. DeJesus, 23, vanished in 2004, and Knight, 32, went missing in 2002. The city of Cleveland has already filed kidnapping and rape charges against Castro, who appeared briefly in a municipal court on Thursday. Felony charges stemming from crimes that occurred in the city are first handled in municipal court and then transferred to the county court.
FIRST PUBLIC APPEARANCE
Natascha Kampusch had just made her dramatic dash for freedom after eight years in captivity in a cellar in a suburban house just outside Vienna. Photos of her being escorted to a police station were published. But her face remained covered in a blanket. A couple of days later, she released a written statement. But the question for many of us in the media - and in the public - was "Will she speak?"
Compelling viewing
As it turned out, we didn't have to wait very long. Two weeks after her escape, she gave a long interview to Austrian television. It was compelling viewing. Since then she has rarely been out of the media spotlight, hosting a television series, writing a globally best-selling autobiography and approving a feature film about her story. Natascha Kampusch has said talking about her experiences has had a therapeutic effect, but she has also spoken of the difficulties she has faced dealing with the intense public scrutiny of her affairs. It was very different with the Amstetten incest case, which broke in May 2008.
Psychiatrists say Gina DeJesus, Michelle Knight and Amanda Berry need to be protected from the media
The media storm over Josef Fritzl, who imprisoned his daughter Elisabeth in a cellar for 24 years and had seven children with her, was, if anything, even more intense that that surrounding Natascha Kampusch. Paparazzi climbed trees around the clinic where Elisabeth and her six surviving children were first taken; journalists put in frantic bids for interviews. But the family did not emerge into public view - either then or since. It is understood Elisabeth and her children were given new identities. With the exception of the British tabloid The Sun, no media outlet is believed to have published photos of them. How they are coping with the aftermath of their ordeal is a matter for speculation.
Learning to trust
Either you're against the death penalty or you're not, chump. Make up your mind.
Wrong, treason as well, though it hasn't been used since the Rosenbergs.
Seriously, stop being an asshole. I owned you on this and you know it. Read your own God damned link. I've already highlighted the relevant part above to help you with your inadequacies.
