LazyLion
King of de Jungle
It is murder if the mother is not consenting to the abortion.
Remember, it's about the mothers wishes.
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The Cleveland Captive Teens Case
- Thread starter Celine
- Start date
It is murder if the mother is not consenting to the abortion.
Remember, it's about the mothers wishes.
Datura
Captain Faptastic
And that.
I don't often get worked up by these horror stories, but this one has me fuming. Hits a nerve.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/09/us/ohio-suspect-daughter/index.html
'He is dead to me,' daughter of Ohio suspect says in CNN exclusive
Cleveland (CNN) -- Seldom does a daughter use such harsh words to describe her own father.
Ariel Castro's daughter called him "the most evil, vile, demonic criminal" she ever heard of during a CNN exclusive interview Thursday.
"He is dead to me," Angie Gregg said of the father police say kidnapped, held captive, raped and beat three young women in Cleveland for about a decade.
She had known her "daddy" as a "friendly, caring, doting man."
Now shocked and in disbelief, Gregg says she never wants to see him again.
"There will be no visits; there will be no phone calls," she said. "He can never be daddy again. I have no sympathy for the man."
As she mulled the accusations against him, she asked, "How could you?"
"I wonder this whole time, how he could be so good to us, but he (allegedly) took young women, little girls, someone else's babies, away from these families and over the years never felt enough guilt to just give up and let them free."
Gregg did not think anything out of the ordinary was going on in her childhood home.
All that changed Monday when Amanda Berry broke loose. Police freed her fellow captives Georgina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, divulging the secret locked up inside the house at 2207 Seymour Ave.
When she first heard the news about their captivity, Gregg said, she "just wanted to die."
She had known Berry and DeJesus from her school days.
Peculiarities she noticed about her father over the years started falling into place in a new, grim light, and they are making her feel "horrified," she said.
"This was going on right under my nose."
An odd place to visit
When she came calling, "he would take forever to come to the door," she said. He always had the house locked up tight.
Standing at a window, Castro would often give her a hand signal indicating to her to wait. Then he'd wave her around to the back door, not letting her in through the front of the house.
Once inside, visits were fun and cordial. Gregg, her husband and Castro "ate, looked at photos and listened to music," she said. "He appeared to be happy to see us and never rushed for us to leave."
At times, he would disappear from dinner and give no explanation for his absence.
The music was usually turned up loud, but Gregg thought this to be fitting since Castro was a musician.
Once she asked if she could go upstairs to see her childhood bedroom. Castro coaxed her out of the idea, telling her, "Oh, honey, there's so much junk up there. You don't want to go up there," she said.
Again, she thought nothing of it, "besides him being a pack rat."
The basement was always locked.
Prosecutor: 'Kidnapper operated torture chamber'
Clinging to the house
The list of oddities continued.
Castro clung to home, never wanting to leave for more than a day, even to visit Gregg out of state when she lived with her family in Indiana.
"He was adamant in the fact that he wanted to leave home early morning and he had to be back by evening," Gregg said.
Her family often made travel plans with Castro that they then had to cancel because of her father's obsession with his own four walls.
Gregg said she never saw signs of the 6-year-old at her father's house and that she never saw her with him. But about two months ago, he showed her a picture in his cell phone.
Gregg asked who it was.
Her father told her that the girl was his girlfriend's child by somebody else.
"I figured at the most he had an illegitimate child out there, you know, and I would find out eventually," Gregg said.
She asked him to get a paternity test. She wanted to know if she had another sister out there somewhere.
Now she knows that she does.
Domestic violence
Gregg recalled fond memories of growing up in the house and fun times with her father. He lined up the children in the backyard and trimmed their bangs himself, she said. He took her for rides on his motorcycle.
And he never abused her, she said, or her sisters, as far as she knows.
But he beat their mother, Grimilda Figueroa, whom he accused of fooling around with neighbors. He was very jealous, Gregg said.
"When mom and dad were fighting, it's like I just wanted to melt into the ground," she said. "I've seen him basically stomp on her like she was a man," Gregg remembered.
Then after a bludgeoning, her mother had enough, and the family split up. The other children left with her mother, but Gregg stuck by Castro, believing the excuses he made for the violence. She finished growing up under his roof, she said.
A daughter divorced
Gregg is through believing in her father and is appalled at the extent of his alleged deception and cruelty.
"To go to the vigils, to show these girls the footage of their parents' pleas for their return, to rape, starve and beat innocent human beings...I am disgusted."
Gregg wants the girls who suffered in captivity to get the treatment they need, recover as well as they can and have the best lives possible. It was the first thing she mentioned during the interview.
She is relieved to see them and the little girl, her new sister, return to their families.
She hopes they can understand her father's actions are not a reflection on her family.
"We don't have monster in our blood," she said.
Gregg's mother died in 2012 after a bout with brain cancer. Now she has lost her father, too. She still cries for her mother, she said.
"I don't cry for him."
this is so shocking it's so hard even to begin to understand it all and to take it in even for a moment.
'He is dead to me,' daughter of Ohio suspect says in CNN exclusive
Cleveland (CNN) -- Seldom does a daughter use such harsh words to describe her own father.
Ariel Castro's daughter called him "the most evil, vile, demonic criminal" she ever heard of during a CNN exclusive interview Thursday.
"He is dead to me," Angie Gregg said of the father police say kidnapped, held captive, raped and beat three young women in Cleveland for about a decade.
She had known her "daddy" as a "friendly, caring, doting man."
Now shocked and in disbelief, Gregg says she never wants to see him again.
"There will be no visits; there will be no phone calls," she said. "He can never be daddy again. I have no sympathy for the man."
As she mulled the accusations against him, she asked, "How could you?"
"I wonder this whole time, how he could be so good to us, but he (allegedly) took young women, little girls, someone else's babies, away from these families and over the years never felt enough guilt to just give up and let them free."
Gregg did not think anything out of the ordinary was going on in her childhood home.
All that changed Monday when Amanda Berry broke loose. Police freed her fellow captives Georgina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, divulging the secret locked up inside the house at 2207 Seymour Ave.
When she first heard the news about their captivity, Gregg said, she "just wanted to die."
She had known Berry and DeJesus from her school days.
Peculiarities she noticed about her father over the years started falling into place in a new, grim light, and they are making her feel "horrified," she said.
"This was going on right under my nose."
An odd place to visit
When she came calling, "he would take forever to come to the door," she said. He always had the house locked up tight.
Standing at a window, Castro would often give her a hand signal indicating to her to wait. Then he'd wave her around to the back door, not letting her in through the front of the house.
Once inside, visits were fun and cordial. Gregg, her husband and Castro "ate, looked at photos and listened to music," she said. "He appeared to be happy to see us and never rushed for us to leave."
At times, he would disappear from dinner and give no explanation for his absence.
The music was usually turned up loud, but Gregg thought this to be fitting since Castro was a musician.
Once she asked if she could go upstairs to see her childhood bedroom. Castro coaxed her out of the idea, telling her, "Oh, honey, there's so much junk up there. You don't want to go up there," she said.
Again, she thought nothing of it, "besides him being a pack rat."
The basement was always locked.
Prosecutor: 'Kidnapper operated torture chamber'
Clinging to the house
The list of oddities continued.
Castro clung to home, never wanting to leave for more than a day, even to visit Gregg out of state when she lived with her family in Indiana.
"He was adamant in the fact that he wanted to leave home early morning and he had to be back by evening," Gregg said.
Her family often made travel plans with Castro that they then had to cancel because of her father's obsession with his own four walls.
Gregg said she never saw signs of the 6-year-old at her father's house and that she never saw her with him. But about two months ago, he showed her a picture in his cell phone.
Gregg asked who it was.
Her father told her that the girl was his girlfriend's child by somebody else.
"I figured at the most he had an illegitimate child out there, you know, and I would find out eventually," Gregg said.
She asked him to get a paternity test. She wanted to know if she had another sister out there somewhere.
Now she knows that she does.
Domestic violence
Gregg recalled fond memories of growing up in the house and fun times with her father. He lined up the children in the backyard and trimmed their bangs himself, she said. He took her for rides on his motorcycle.
And he never abused her, she said, or her sisters, as far as she knows.
But he beat their mother, Grimilda Figueroa, whom he accused of fooling around with neighbors. He was very jealous, Gregg said.
"When mom and dad were fighting, it's like I just wanted to melt into the ground," she said. "I've seen him basically stomp on her like she was a man," Gregg remembered.
Then after a bludgeoning, her mother had enough, and the family split up. The other children left with her mother, but Gregg stuck by Castro, believing the excuses he made for the violence. She finished growing up under his roof, she said.
A daughter divorced
Gregg is through believing in her father and is appalled at the extent of his alleged deception and cruelty.
"To go to the vigils, to show these girls the footage of their parents' pleas for their return, to rape, starve and beat innocent human beings...I am disgusted."
Gregg wants the girls who suffered in captivity to get the treatment they need, recover as well as they can and have the best lives possible. It was the first thing she mentioned during the interview.
She is relieved to see them and the little girl, her new sister, return to their families.
She hopes they can understand her father's actions are not a reflection on her family.
"We don't have monster in our blood," she said.
Gregg's mother died in 2012 after a bout with brain cancer. Now she has lost her father, too. She still cries for her mother, she said.
"I don't cry for him."
this is so shocking it's so hard even to begin to understand it all and to take it in even for a moment.
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Kidnap rescue end of long case for US police commander
When the call came that three missing women had been found alive, Cleveland police commander Keith Sulzer radioed right back: "Don't let them out of the ambulance until I see them."
Back in 2003 and 2004, Sulzer had spent countless hours combing through the city's alleys, fields and abandoned buildings looking for the trio. He'd marched with their parents, attended every vigil.
"When I walked in there it was a surreal moment," Sulzer said. "I could recognize them right off the bat -- I've known those faces for so long, even though they were a little thinner, a little older."
Amanda Berry, who was snatched the day before her 17th birthday and is now 27, still had the eyebrow piercing he'd stared at so often on her missing poster.
Gina DeJesus, kidnapped at 13 and now 23, had shorter hair, but her face was little changed. Michelle Knight, who disappeared in 2002 and is now 32, was less recognizable but equally welcomed.
But Sulzer couldn't savor the moment. He had to cordon off the crime scene, deal with the perpetrator. And, like many cops who've seen too much of the dark side of life, he was just waiting "for the shoe to drop."
It didn't take long for the police to come under fire -- first for the 911 dispatcher's apparent lack of compassion when Berry made her emergency call, and next for failing to find the three Ohio women sooner.
Neighbors told reporters that they'd called police about a naked woman in chains in the back yard but received no response.
A previous suspect said he had pointed the finger at Ariel Castro -- who has been charged with rape and kidnapping -- years ago.
Police were anxious to relieve their own doubts and "scrubbed" their files for any signs they may have missed, deputy chief Ed Tomba said. They have no record of these alleged reports.
"I'm just very, very confident in the ability of those investigators and those law enforcement officers that they checked every single lead," Tomba told reporters Wednesday.
DeJesus's family had nothing but praise for police, and her mother Nancy Ruiz gave Sulzer a huge hug when she came out to speak to reporters and well-wishers after her daughter returned home.
He was the only person she thanked by name, her voice breaking with emotion when she said, "Commander Sulzer, I always went to him."
Felix DeJesus also thanked the police and FBI for their support during his daughter's long absence.
"These people were by my side every day, every night, every hour," he said. "They had to put up with me every day. I don't know how they did it."
Around 2,900 missing person reports are filed every year in Cleveland, Sulzer told a handful of reporters after a community meeting Thursday night.
All but 70 or so usually get resolved and, of those, many are adults who just left town without telling relatives or friends.
The police department has changed how it handles missing person reports after it was accused of missing chances to catch Anthony Sowell -- the so-called "Cleveland Strangler" -- who targeted poor black women with drug and alcohol problems and in 2009 was convicted of 11 murders.
Now, Sulzer said, every report is logged -- even if it's a homeless person coming in to say someone hasn't been seen in a while.
And instead of waiting for tips, investigators visit the homes of people who've made a missing person report every month to follow up on the case.
When it's a missing child, cops really take the case to heart, Sulzer said.
"I had one recurring nightmare in my life: that they would find these girls where I searched," Sulzer told anxious residents gathered in a church hall down the street from the unassuming house where the captives were held.
Sulzer said people should understand police "can't just go kicking in doors" -- they need probable cause to search private property and nobody suspected Castro, not his neighbors, not his family, not friends who visited his home.
"He was good at what he did," Sulzer said.
Despite the previous false reports that Berry or DeJesus had been found, the police didn't hesitate to rush to Seymour Avenue when the call came in.
"That call was dispatched within 13 seconds, our guys got here within a minute and a half, we reckon we got the guy within five minutes. That's pretty good police work," Sulzer said.
"I've got to keep these guys motivated to come to work and when they do a great job and people slap them in the face, it's hard to get back up again and go back and do your job," he said.
Source : Sapa-AFP /th
Date : 10 May 2013 23:38
When the call came that three missing women had been found alive, Cleveland police commander Keith Sulzer radioed right back: "Don't let them out of the ambulance until I see them."
Back in 2003 and 2004, Sulzer had spent countless hours combing through the city's alleys, fields and abandoned buildings looking for the trio. He'd marched with their parents, attended every vigil.
"When I walked in there it was a surreal moment," Sulzer said. "I could recognize them right off the bat -- I've known those faces for so long, even though they were a little thinner, a little older."
Amanda Berry, who was snatched the day before her 17th birthday and is now 27, still had the eyebrow piercing he'd stared at so often on her missing poster.
Gina DeJesus, kidnapped at 13 and now 23, had shorter hair, but her face was little changed. Michelle Knight, who disappeared in 2002 and is now 32, was less recognizable but equally welcomed.
But Sulzer couldn't savor the moment. He had to cordon off the crime scene, deal with the perpetrator. And, like many cops who've seen too much of the dark side of life, he was just waiting "for the shoe to drop."
It didn't take long for the police to come under fire -- first for the 911 dispatcher's apparent lack of compassion when Berry made her emergency call, and next for failing to find the three Ohio women sooner.
Neighbors told reporters that they'd called police about a naked woman in chains in the back yard but received no response.
A previous suspect said he had pointed the finger at Ariel Castro -- who has been charged with rape and kidnapping -- years ago.
Police were anxious to relieve their own doubts and "scrubbed" their files for any signs they may have missed, deputy chief Ed Tomba said. They have no record of these alleged reports.
"I'm just very, very confident in the ability of those investigators and those law enforcement officers that they checked every single lead," Tomba told reporters Wednesday.
DeJesus's family had nothing but praise for police, and her mother Nancy Ruiz gave Sulzer a huge hug when she came out to speak to reporters and well-wishers after her daughter returned home.
He was the only person she thanked by name, her voice breaking with emotion when she said, "Commander Sulzer, I always went to him."
Felix DeJesus also thanked the police and FBI for their support during his daughter's long absence.
"These people were by my side every day, every night, every hour," he said. "They had to put up with me every day. I don't know how they did it."
Around 2,900 missing person reports are filed every year in Cleveland, Sulzer told a handful of reporters after a community meeting Thursday night.
All but 70 or so usually get resolved and, of those, many are adults who just left town without telling relatives or friends.
The police department has changed how it handles missing person reports after it was accused of missing chances to catch Anthony Sowell -- the so-called "Cleveland Strangler" -- who targeted poor black women with drug and alcohol problems and in 2009 was convicted of 11 murders.
Now, Sulzer said, every report is logged -- even if it's a homeless person coming in to say someone hasn't been seen in a while.
And instead of waiting for tips, investigators visit the homes of people who've made a missing person report every month to follow up on the case.
When it's a missing child, cops really take the case to heart, Sulzer said.
"I had one recurring nightmare in my life: that they would find these girls where I searched," Sulzer told anxious residents gathered in a church hall down the street from the unassuming house where the captives were held.
Sulzer said people should understand police "can't just go kicking in doors" -- they need probable cause to search private property and nobody suspected Castro, not his neighbors, not his family, not friends who visited his home.
"He was good at what he did," Sulzer said.
Despite the previous false reports that Berry or DeJesus had been found, the police didn't hesitate to rush to Seymour Avenue when the call came in.
"That call was dispatched within 13 seconds, our guys got here within a minute and a half, we reckon we got the guy within five minutes. That's pretty good police work," Sulzer said.
"I've got to keep these guys motivated to come to work and when they do a great job and people slap them in the face, it's hard to get back up again and go back and do your job," he said.
Source : Sapa-AFP /th
Date : 10 May 2013 23:38
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Suspect's brothers hope he 'rots' in jail.
The brothers of the US man charged with kidnapping and raping three women, locking them in his home for a decade, said they hope he "rots" in jail, in an interview aired on Monday.
He's a "monster. Hateful. I hope he rots in that jail," Onil Castro, 50, told CNN.
"I don't even want them to take his life like that," he said, referring to a possible death penalty charge in the case. "I want him to suffer in that jail."
"I feel the same way," added brother Pedro Castro, 54.
Onil and Pedro were arrested soon after their brother Ariel Castro on Monday, when the three women, and a daughter born to one of them while in captivity, were discovered at Ariel's home in Cleveland, Ohio.
But Pedro and Onil were later released, with police saying there was no evidence they participated in the crimes.
In the interview, both said they had no idea what was happening.
"If I knew that my brother was doing this, I would not be, not -- in a minute, I would call the cops because that ain't right," Pedro said.
"If I knew, I would have reported it, brother or no brother," he added.
The brothers said they never went past the kitchen in Ariel's house, where the three women were kept hostage, explaining Ariel kept the rest of the house blocked off with curtains and played the television or radio to block out sounds.
"Something had to be on at all times in the kitchen. So I could hear nothing else but the radio or the TV," Pedro said.
The two said they were kept separate from Ariel at the jail, but Onil saw him at least once.
Ariel said "Onil you're never going to see me again. I love you, bro," the brother recounted.
Ariel Castro, a 52-year-old unemployed bus driver, was arrested after one of the victims, 27-year-old Amanda Berry, managed to call out to a neighbor, who kicked in the door to the suspect's home and rescued her and her six-year-old daughter.
Police arrived on the scene and entered the house, finding two more women: 23-year-old Gina DeJesus and 32-year-old Michelle Knight. All three had been snatched in separate incidents around a decade earlier.
Onil said he was especially horrified because they knew the father of DeJesus and Ariel even went to vigils for the teen girl and hugged her mother.
"Felix, I know that you are out there listening, and you know that I was concerned about your daughter, and I had not even the slightest idea that this would be going on with," he said, according to an excerpt posted on CNN's website.
But both brothers said the feared they would never fully be freed of the suspicion raised after police announced their arrest and made their mug shots public.
The two, and their 71-year-old mother, are in hiding, saying people have thrown rocks at their homes and sent them death threats over the Internet, CNN reported.
The prosecutor has said investigators would go back over the many torments Castro allegedly inflicted on the women during their long ordeal, with the aim of bringing additional charges, including ones that may carry the death penalty.
Castro was ordered held on an $8 million bond on Thursday.
Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 13 May 2013 14:01
The brothers of the US man charged with kidnapping and raping three women, locking them in his home for a decade, said they hope he "rots" in jail, in an interview aired on Monday.
He's a "monster. Hateful. I hope he rots in that jail," Onil Castro, 50, told CNN.
"I don't even want them to take his life like that," he said, referring to a possible death penalty charge in the case. "I want him to suffer in that jail."
"I feel the same way," added brother Pedro Castro, 54.
Onil and Pedro were arrested soon after their brother Ariel Castro on Monday, when the three women, and a daughter born to one of them while in captivity, were discovered at Ariel's home in Cleveland, Ohio.
But Pedro and Onil were later released, with police saying there was no evidence they participated in the crimes.
In the interview, both said they had no idea what was happening.
"If I knew that my brother was doing this, I would not be, not -- in a minute, I would call the cops because that ain't right," Pedro said.
"If I knew, I would have reported it, brother or no brother," he added.
The brothers said they never went past the kitchen in Ariel's house, where the three women were kept hostage, explaining Ariel kept the rest of the house blocked off with curtains and played the television or radio to block out sounds.
"Something had to be on at all times in the kitchen. So I could hear nothing else but the radio or the TV," Pedro said.
The two said they were kept separate from Ariel at the jail, but Onil saw him at least once.
Ariel said "Onil you're never going to see me again. I love you, bro," the brother recounted.
Ariel Castro, a 52-year-old unemployed bus driver, was arrested after one of the victims, 27-year-old Amanda Berry, managed to call out to a neighbor, who kicked in the door to the suspect's home and rescued her and her six-year-old daughter.
Police arrived on the scene and entered the house, finding two more women: 23-year-old Gina DeJesus and 32-year-old Michelle Knight. All three had been snatched in separate incidents around a decade earlier.
Onil said he was especially horrified because they knew the father of DeJesus and Ariel even went to vigils for the teen girl and hugged her mother.
"Felix, I know that you are out there listening, and you know that I was concerned about your daughter, and I had not even the slightest idea that this would be going on with," he said, according to an excerpt posted on CNN's website.
But both brothers said the feared they would never fully be freed of the suspicion raised after police announced their arrest and made their mug shots public.
The two, and their 71-year-old mother, are in hiding, saying people have thrown rocks at their homes and sent them death threats over the Internet, CNN reported.
The prosecutor has said investigators would go back over the many torments Castro allegedly inflicted on the women during their long ordeal, with the aim of bringing additional charges, including ones that may carry the death penalty.
Castro was ordered held on an $8 million bond on Thursday.
Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 13 May 2013 14:01
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Kidnapper had social contact with victim's families
He took their daughter and kept her hidden for 10 years.
All the while, Ariel Castro, 52, who has been charged with abducting three young women and holding them for a decade or more in Cleveland, Ohio, kept up contacts with the family of Gina DeJesus as if nothing had happened.
For his brothers, Onil and Pedro, who were initially arrested with him, that's one of the especially revolting aspects of his crimes.
Police have confirmed that the two had no knowledge of or involvement in the abductions and brought no charges against the brothers in connection with the kidnappings and ensuing rapes.
In an attempt to clear their names of the deeds of their brother, the men talked to CNN about their astonishment that Ariel had kept the three women hidden in the very house where they sometimes visited - and that he maintained contact with the DeJesus family, who were long-time acquaintances of the Castros.
"When I found out that Ariel had Gina, I just broke down, 'cause it's shocking," said Pedro Castro.
He said the Castro brothers had closely known Gina's father, Felix DeJesus.
Addressing his comments to his jailed brother, Pedro Castro said with a voice full of outrage: "Ariel, we know this guy (Felix) for a long time. ... And you got his daughter? And you go around like it's nothing? You even went to the vigils? You had posters, you gave his mama a hug, and you've got his daughter captive?"
A flood of revelations have followed the rescue of the three on May 6, after Amanda Berry, abducted in April 2003 at age 16, stuck her arm out of Ariel Castro's barred front door and shouted for help.
DeJesus was kidnapped at age 14 in 2004, and Amanda Knight at age 20 in 2002. Berry gave birth to a child while in captivity.
Cleveland police on Monday released reports dating back to 1989 that show a pattern of violence by Ariel Castro that included beatings of his common-law wife and threatening a neighbour with a shovel, the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper reported.
Castro has been jailed on 8 million dollars in bond and charged with multiple counts of kidnapping and rape while the investigation continues.
His family say they want nothing to do with him.
"I could never forgive him," his daughter, Angie Gregg, told CNN in interviews broadcast over the weekend.
She recalled beatings of her mother in which her father would "stomp on her like she was a man."
Onil said he hopes Ariel Castro "rots in that jail."
"I don't want them to take his life. I want him to suffer in that jail to the last extent," he told CNN.
Family members said there were no signs at the house on Seymour Avenue that anything was amiss but confirmed that the basement was always kept locked and they were not allowed to go upstairs. Mostly, visitors were confined to the kitchen.
"He used to turn the music up really loud," Gregg recalled. "He cooked things and fed me, played with the dog. I had the boys (her sons) over."
"Last week, I would have told you he is the best dad, the best grandpa, kind, loving. ... I would have never seen this coming."
Source : Sapa-dpa /pd
Date : 14 May 2013 04:06
He took their daughter and kept her hidden for 10 years.
All the while, Ariel Castro, 52, who has been charged with abducting three young women and holding them for a decade or more in Cleveland, Ohio, kept up contacts with the family of Gina DeJesus as if nothing had happened.
For his brothers, Onil and Pedro, who were initially arrested with him, that's one of the especially revolting aspects of his crimes.
Police have confirmed that the two had no knowledge of or involvement in the abductions and brought no charges against the brothers in connection with the kidnappings and ensuing rapes.
In an attempt to clear their names of the deeds of their brother, the men talked to CNN about their astonishment that Ariel had kept the three women hidden in the very house where they sometimes visited - and that he maintained contact with the DeJesus family, who were long-time acquaintances of the Castros.
"When I found out that Ariel had Gina, I just broke down, 'cause it's shocking," said Pedro Castro.
He said the Castro brothers had closely known Gina's father, Felix DeJesus.
Addressing his comments to his jailed brother, Pedro Castro said with a voice full of outrage: "Ariel, we know this guy (Felix) for a long time. ... And you got his daughter? And you go around like it's nothing? You even went to the vigils? You had posters, you gave his mama a hug, and you've got his daughter captive?"
A flood of revelations have followed the rescue of the three on May 6, after Amanda Berry, abducted in April 2003 at age 16, stuck her arm out of Ariel Castro's barred front door and shouted for help.
DeJesus was kidnapped at age 14 in 2004, and Amanda Knight at age 20 in 2002. Berry gave birth to a child while in captivity.
Cleveland police on Monday released reports dating back to 1989 that show a pattern of violence by Ariel Castro that included beatings of his common-law wife and threatening a neighbour with a shovel, the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper reported.
Castro has been jailed on 8 million dollars in bond and charged with multiple counts of kidnapping and rape while the investigation continues.
His family say they want nothing to do with him.
"I could never forgive him," his daughter, Angie Gregg, told CNN in interviews broadcast over the weekend.
She recalled beatings of her mother in which her father would "stomp on her like she was a man."
Onil said he hopes Ariel Castro "rots in that jail."
"I don't want them to take his life. I want him to suffer in that jail to the last extent," he told CNN.
Family members said there were no signs at the house on Seymour Avenue that anything was amiss but confirmed that the basement was always kept locked and they were not allowed to go upstairs. Mostly, visitors were confined to the kitchen.
"He used to turn the music up really loud," Gregg recalled. "He cooked things and fed me, played with the dog. I had the boys (her sons) over."
"Last week, I would have told you he is the best dad, the best grandpa, kind, loving. ... I would have never seen this coming."
Source : Sapa-dpa /pd
Date : 14 May 2013 04:06
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Ex-daughter in law says that Ariel Castro gave her the 'heebie jeebies'...
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/15/u...e/index.html?sr=fb051513castrodaughterinlaw9a
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/15/u...e/index.html?sr=fb051513castrodaughterinlaw9a
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Ariel Castro intends to plead 'not guilty'...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/15/ariel-castro-not-guilty-plea_n_3278844.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/15/ariel-castro-not-guilty-plea_n_3278844.html
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Suspect Expected to Enter Plea
A Cleveland man accused of holding three young women captive for a decade is expected to plead not guilty Wednesday to charges of kidnapping, rape and murder for beating one pregnant captive until she miscarried.
The stunning case came to light after Amanda Berry, 27, managed to escape with her six-year-old daughter by calling out to a neighbor for help through a locked front door.
Police found two more women huddled in the house: Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32. All three had been snatched in separate incidents in 2002, 2003 and 2004.
Ariel Castro, 52, could face the death penalty if convicted of the aggravated murder charge, which is a capital offense in Ohio if it occurs in connection with a kidnapping.
Most US states have fetal homicide laws which allow prosecutors to punish those who harm pregnant women while also protecting the woman's right to carry out a lawful abortion.
Kidnapping and rape are not capital offenses despite the horrifying ordeal imposed on the three women who were snatched off the street with a promise of a ride home at the ages of 14, 16 and 20.
The 329-count indictment handed down last week offers glimpses of their suffering even though it only covers the first five years of their captivity.
Knight -- who was the first to be snatched -- was chained to a post in the basement, repeatedly raped and beaten and impregnated at least four times.
Berry tried to escape the night she was kidnapped but was overwhelmed and then raped. Her legs and mouth were bound with tape, she was chained to a pole in the basement and Castro put a motorcycle helmet on her head, the indictment said. At one point that night, he wrapped a vacuum cord around her neck.
DeJesus was also chained and bound with tape in the basement, beaten and sexually assaulted on the night she was kidnapped. But it was about a month before Castro forced the 14-year-old to have sexual intercourse.
A leaked police report revealed even more horrifying details.
Knight told police that Castro "would make her abort the baby," the police report read. "He starved her for at least two weeks and then repeatedly punched her in stomach until she miscarried."
Castro brought in a plastic kiddie pool and forced Berry to give birth in it in order to contain the inevitable mess, the women told police. He also forced Knight to assist and told her "if baby died... he'd kill her."
At one point on that terrifying December 25, 2006, the newborn girl stopped breathing and Knight "breathed for her," giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. A DNA test proved that the child is Castro's daughter.
The women said they were chained in the basement during their early years of captivity, but eventually were allowed to live unchained upstairs behind locked doors.
Police were unsure how it was that none of the people who would visit the unassuming house at 2207 Seymour -- including Castro's family -- realized what was going on behind closed doors.
"Ariel kept everybody at a distance," deputy police chief Ed Tomba said shortly after the arrest.
"The control that he may have had over those girls, we don't know that yet. I think that's going to be -- take us a long time to figure that out."
Source : Sapa-AFP /mom
Date : 12 Jun 2013 04:01
A Cleveland man accused of holding three young women captive for a decade is expected to plead not guilty Wednesday to charges of kidnapping, rape and murder for beating one pregnant captive until she miscarried.
The stunning case came to light after Amanda Berry, 27, managed to escape with her six-year-old daughter by calling out to a neighbor for help through a locked front door.
Police found two more women huddled in the house: Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32. All three had been snatched in separate incidents in 2002, 2003 and 2004.
Ariel Castro, 52, could face the death penalty if convicted of the aggravated murder charge, which is a capital offense in Ohio if it occurs in connection with a kidnapping.
Most US states have fetal homicide laws which allow prosecutors to punish those who harm pregnant women while also protecting the woman's right to carry out a lawful abortion.
Kidnapping and rape are not capital offenses despite the horrifying ordeal imposed on the three women who were snatched off the street with a promise of a ride home at the ages of 14, 16 and 20.
The 329-count indictment handed down last week offers glimpses of their suffering even though it only covers the first five years of their captivity.
Knight -- who was the first to be snatched -- was chained to a post in the basement, repeatedly raped and beaten and impregnated at least four times.
Berry tried to escape the night she was kidnapped but was overwhelmed and then raped. Her legs and mouth were bound with tape, she was chained to a pole in the basement and Castro put a motorcycle helmet on her head, the indictment said. At one point that night, he wrapped a vacuum cord around her neck.
DeJesus was also chained and bound with tape in the basement, beaten and sexually assaulted on the night she was kidnapped. But it was about a month before Castro forced the 14-year-old to have sexual intercourse.
A leaked police report revealed even more horrifying details.
Knight told police that Castro "would make her abort the baby," the police report read. "He starved her for at least two weeks and then repeatedly punched her in stomach until she miscarried."
Castro brought in a plastic kiddie pool and forced Berry to give birth in it in order to contain the inevitable mess, the women told police. He also forced Knight to assist and told her "if baby died... he'd kill her."
At one point on that terrifying December 25, 2006, the newborn girl stopped breathing and Knight "breathed for her," giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. A DNA test proved that the child is Castro's daughter.
The women said they were chained in the basement during their early years of captivity, but eventually were allowed to live unchained upstairs behind locked doors.
Police were unsure how it was that none of the people who would visit the unassuming house at 2207 Seymour -- including Castro's family -- realized what was going on behind closed doors.
"Ariel kept everybody at a distance," deputy police chief Ed Tomba said shortly after the arrest.
"The control that he may have had over those girls, we don't know that yet. I think that's going to be -- take us a long time to figure that out."
Source : Sapa-AFP /mom
Date : 12 Jun 2013 04:01
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
A man accused of holding three women captive for about a decade faces a court appearance Wednesday to answer to hundreds of charges including rape and kidnapping.
Ariel Castro is charged with kidnapping the three women and keeping them - sometimes restrained in chains - along with a 6-year-old girl he fathered with one of them.
A grand jury charged Castro with two counts of aggravated murder for allegedly causing the unlawful termination of one of the women's pregnancies. He also was indicted on 139 counts of rape, 177 counts of kidnapping, seven counts of gross sexual imposition, three counts of felonious assault, and one count of possession of criminal tools.
Last week's 142-page indictment covers the period from August 2002, when the first victim disappeared, to February 2007. Prosecutors say the investigation will continue and they are leaving the door open to pursuing a death penalty case against Castro.
News that the women had been found alive electrified the Cleveland area, where two of the victims were household names after years of searches, publicity and vigils.
The indictment against Castro alleges he repeatedly restrained the women, sometimes chaining them to a pole in a basement, to a bedroom heater or inside a van. It says one of the women tried to escape and he assaulted her with a cord around her neck.
Later, he moved them to upstairs rooms where they were kept as virtual prisoners, according to investigators.
All the while, Castro continued driving a school bus and playing bass in local bands - fellow musicians said they never suspected a thing. He was fired as a bus driver last fall after leaving his bus unattended for several hours.
Castro has been held on $8 million bail. Last week he was taken off suicide prevention watch in jail. Cuyahoga County jail logs show him spending most of his time sleeping, lying on his bunk, watching TV and occasionally drawing.
Castro was arrested May 6, shortly after one of the women broke through a door and yelled to neighbors for help.
She told a police dispatcher in a dramatic 911 call: "Help me. I'm Amanda Berry. I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years, and I'm, I'm here, I'm free now."
The women - Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight - disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16 and 20 years old. Each said they had accepted a ride from Castro, who remained friends with DeJesus' family and even attended vigils over the years marking her disappearance.
The women haven't spoken publicly since their rescue.
Castro's two brothers were arrested the same day but were released at a hearing a few days later after it was determined they weren't aware of their brother's activities. They denounced him in later interviews.
The Associated Press does not usually identify people who may be victims of sexual assault, but the names of the three women were widely circulated by their families, friends and law enforcement authorities for years during their disappearances and after they were found.
Source : Sapa-AP /pk
Date : 12 Jun 2013 11:51
Ariel Castro is charged with kidnapping the three women and keeping them - sometimes restrained in chains - along with a 6-year-old girl he fathered with one of them.
A grand jury charged Castro with two counts of aggravated murder for allegedly causing the unlawful termination of one of the women's pregnancies. He also was indicted on 139 counts of rape, 177 counts of kidnapping, seven counts of gross sexual imposition, three counts of felonious assault, and one count of possession of criminal tools.
Last week's 142-page indictment covers the period from August 2002, when the first victim disappeared, to February 2007. Prosecutors say the investigation will continue and they are leaving the door open to pursuing a death penalty case against Castro.
News that the women had been found alive electrified the Cleveland area, where two of the victims were household names after years of searches, publicity and vigils.
The indictment against Castro alleges he repeatedly restrained the women, sometimes chaining them to a pole in a basement, to a bedroom heater or inside a van. It says one of the women tried to escape and he assaulted her with a cord around her neck.
Later, he moved them to upstairs rooms where they were kept as virtual prisoners, according to investigators.
All the while, Castro continued driving a school bus and playing bass in local bands - fellow musicians said they never suspected a thing. He was fired as a bus driver last fall after leaving his bus unattended for several hours.
Castro has been held on $8 million bail. Last week he was taken off suicide prevention watch in jail. Cuyahoga County jail logs show him spending most of his time sleeping, lying on his bunk, watching TV and occasionally drawing.
Castro was arrested May 6, shortly after one of the women broke through a door and yelled to neighbors for help.
She told a police dispatcher in a dramatic 911 call: "Help me. I'm Amanda Berry. I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years, and I'm, I'm here, I'm free now."
The women - Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight - disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16 and 20 years old. Each said they had accepted a ride from Castro, who remained friends with DeJesus' family and even attended vigils over the years marking her disappearance.
The women haven't spoken publicly since their rescue.
Castro's two brothers were arrested the same day but were released at a hearing a few days later after it was determined they weren't aware of their brother's activities. They denounced him in later interviews.
The Associated Press does not usually identify people who may be victims of sexual assault, but the names of the three women were widely circulated by their families, friends and law enforcement authorities for years during their disappearances and after they were found.
Source : Sapa-AP /pk
Date : 12 Jun 2013 11:51
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Castro Pleads Not Guilty
A Cleveland man accused of holding three young women captive for a decade pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of kidnapping, rape and murder for beating one victim until she miscarried.
Ariel Castro, 52, could face the death penalty if convicted of the aggravated murder charge, which is a capital offense in Ohio if it occurs in connection with a kidnapping.
Castro shuffled into the courtroom in an orange prison jumpsuit with his head bowed and did not say a word. His lawyers entered the plea on his behalf.
The stunning case came to light after Amanda Berry, 27, managed to escape with her six-year-old daughter by calling out to a neighbor for help through a locked front door.
Police found two more women huddled in the house: Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32. All three had been snatched in separate incidents in 2002, 2003 and 2004.
Most US states have fetal homicide laws which allow prosecutors to punish those who harm pregnant women while also protecting the woman's right to carry out a lawful abortion.
However, Castro's lawyers questioned whether there was sufficient "medical and forensic evidence" to prove that he forcibly terminated the pregnancies.
"It is our hope that we can continue to work toward a resolution to avoid having an unnecessary trial about aggravated murder and the death penalty," defense attorney Craig Weintraub told reporters.
"We are very sensitive to the emotional strain and impact that a trial would have on the women, their families and this community."
Kidnapping and rape are not capital offenses despite the horrifying ordeal imposed on the three women, who were snatched off the street with promises of rides home at the ages of 14, 16 and 20.
The 329-count indictment handed down last week offered a glimpse of their suffering even though it only covers the first five years of their captivity.
Knight -- who was the first to be snatched -- was chained to a post in the basement, repeatedly raped and beaten, and impregnated at least four times.
Berry tried to escape the night she was kidnapped but was overpowered and then raped, according to the indictment.
Her legs and mouth were bound with tape, she was chained to a pole in the basement and Castro put a motorcycle helmet on her head, the indictment said. At one point that night, he wrapped a vacuum cord around her neck.
DeJesus was also chained and bound with tape in the basement, and was beaten and sexually assaulted on the night she was kidnapped. But it was about a month before Castro forced the 14-year-old to have sexual intercourse.
A leaked police report revealed even more horrifying details.
Knight told police that she was impregnated on five different occasions and that Castro "would make her abort the baby," the police report read.
"He starved her for at least two weeks and then repeatedly punched her in stomach until she miscarried."
Castro brought in a plastic kiddie pool and forced Berry to give birth in it on Christmas Day, 2006, the women told police. He forced Knight to assist and told her "if baby died... he'd kill her."
At one point during the terrifying ordeal, the newborn girl stopped breathing and Knight "breathed for her," giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. A DNA test proved that the child is Castro's daughter.
The women said they were chained in the basement during their early years of captivity, but eventually were allowed to live unchained upstairs behind locked doors.
Police do not yet know why none of the people who visited the unassuming house at 2207 Seymour -- including Castro's family -- realized what was going on there.
"Ariel kept everybody at a distance," deputy police chief Ed Tomba said shortly after the arrest.
"The control that he may have had over those girls, we don't know that yet. I think that's going to be -- take us a long time to figure that out."
Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 12 Jun 2013 16:16
A Cleveland man accused of holding three young women captive for a decade pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of kidnapping, rape and murder for beating one victim until she miscarried.
Ariel Castro, 52, could face the death penalty if convicted of the aggravated murder charge, which is a capital offense in Ohio if it occurs in connection with a kidnapping.
Castro shuffled into the courtroom in an orange prison jumpsuit with his head bowed and did not say a word. His lawyers entered the plea on his behalf.
The stunning case came to light after Amanda Berry, 27, managed to escape with her six-year-old daughter by calling out to a neighbor for help through a locked front door.
Police found two more women huddled in the house: Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32. All three had been snatched in separate incidents in 2002, 2003 and 2004.
Most US states have fetal homicide laws which allow prosecutors to punish those who harm pregnant women while also protecting the woman's right to carry out a lawful abortion.
However, Castro's lawyers questioned whether there was sufficient "medical and forensic evidence" to prove that he forcibly terminated the pregnancies.
"It is our hope that we can continue to work toward a resolution to avoid having an unnecessary trial about aggravated murder and the death penalty," defense attorney Craig Weintraub told reporters.
"We are very sensitive to the emotional strain and impact that a trial would have on the women, their families and this community."
Kidnapping and rape are not capital offenses despite the horrifying ordeal imposed on the three women, who were snatched off the street with promises of rides home at the ages of 14, 16 and 20.
The 329-count indictment handed down last week offered a glimpse of their suffering even though it only covers the first five years of their captivity.
Knight -- who was the first to be snatched -- was chained to a post in the basement, repeatedly raped and beaten, and impregnated at least four times.
Berry tried to escape the night she was kidnapped but was overpowered and then raped, according to the indictment.
Her legs and mouth were bound with tape, she was chained to a pole in the basement and Castro put a motorcycle helmet on her head, the indictment said. At one point that night, he wrapped a vacuum cord around her neck.
DeJesus was also chained and bound with tape in the basement, and was beaten and sexually assaulted on the night she was kidnapped. But it was about a month before Castro forced the 14-year-old to have sexual intercourse.
A leaked police report revealed even more horrifying details.
Knight told police that she was impregnated on five different occasions and that Castro "would make her abort the baby," the police report read.
"He starved her for at least two weeks and then repeatedly punched her in stomach until she miscarried."
Castro brought in a plastic kiddie pool and forced Berry to give birth in it on Christmas Day, 2006, the women told police. He forced Knight to assist and told her "if baby died... he'd kill her."
At one point during the terrifying ordeal, the newborn girl stopped breathing and Knight "breathed for her," giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. A DNA test proved that the child is Castro's daughter.
The women said they were chained in the basement during their early years of captivity, but eventually were allowed to live unchained upstairs behind locked doors.
Police do not yet know why none of the people who visited the unassuming house at 2207 Seymour -- including Castro's family -- realized what was going on there.
"Ariel kept everybody at a distance," deputy police chief Ed Tomba said shortly after the arrest.
"The control that he may have had over those girls, we don't know that yet. I think that's going to be -- take us a long time to figure that out."
Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 12 Jun 2013 16:16
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Women thank public for their support
Three women held captive in a Cleveland home for a decade are thanking the public for their support in a YouTube video.
Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight broke their public silence in the video posted late Monday, saying the encouragement of family, friends and the public has enabled them to restart their lives.
Former bus driver Ariel Castro has pleaded not guilty to a 329-count indictment alleging he kidnapped the women off the streets between 2002 and 2004 and held them captive in his two-story home.
He fathered a 6-year-old daughter with Berry and is accused of starving and punching Knight, causing her to miscarry. He was arrested May 6, shortly after Berry broke through a door at the home and yelled to neighbors for help.
Source : Sapa-AP /pk
Date : 09 Jul 2013 08:43
Three women held captive in a Cleveland home for a decade are thanking the public for their support in a YouTube video.
Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight broke their public silence in the video posted late Monday, saying the encouragement of family, friends and the public has enabled them to restart their lives.
Former bus driver Ariel Castro has pleaded not guilty to a 329-count indictment alleging he kidnapped the women off the streets between 2002 and 2004 and held them captive in his two-story home.
He fathered a 6-year-old daughter with Berry and is accused of starving and punching Knight, causing her to miscarry. He was arrested May 6, shortly after Berry broke through a door at the home and yelled to neighbors for help.
Source : Sapa-AP /pk
Date : 09 Jul 2013 08:43
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
[video=youtube;oG0WePdZoxg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG0WePdZoxg[/video]
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
(=(VIDEO+PICTURE)=)
Three US women who spent a decade of captivity in a Cleveland home have spoken publicly for the first time since their escape, thanking supporters and asking for continued privacy to rebuild their lives.
The woman who reportedly suffered the most violent abuse at the hands of their captor said she had been to "hell and back" but could now smile about the future.
"Thank you for all your prayers. I am looking forward to my brand new life," said Michelle Knight, who was snatched off the street at the age of 20 and is now 32.
The three women each spoke briefly from notes in the three-minute video posted Tuesday on YouTube by a public relations firm. They thanked people for donating to a fund to help them rebuild their lives after their ordeal.
The women, kidnapped in separate incidents in 2002, 2003 and 2004, escaped in May from the ramshackle house where they had been held in a working class area of Cleveland, Ohio.
The alleged abductor, former school bus driver Ariel Castro, 52, has pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping, rape and aggravated murder for beating a pregnant Knight until she miscarried.
The stunning case came to light after Amanda Berry, 27, managed to escape with her young daughter by calling out to a neighbor for help through a locked front door.
Berry, who was snatched after leaving work at a fast food restaurant the night before her 17th birthday, did not mention her daughter in the video.
"I want everyone to know how happy I am to be home with my family, my friends. It's been unbelievable," she said, still wearing an eyebrow piercing like the one shown in her missing poster.
"I am getting stronger each day, and having my privacy has helped immensely," Berry said. "I ask that everyone continues to respect our privacy and give us time to have a normal life."
Knight -- who told police that Castro impregnated her five times and then starved and beat her until she miscarried -- smiled repeatedly as she spoke, and said she did not want to be consumed by hatred.
"I may have been through hell and back, but I am strong enough to walk through hell with a smile on my face, and with my head held high and with my feet held firmly on the ground," she said, reading slowly and carefully from her notes.
"We have been hurt by people but we need to rely on God as being the judge."
The third woman, Gina DeJesus, now 23, seemed the most shy of the three, simply thanking people for their support.
She was accompanied by her parents, who did the same and urged parents who have missing children to rely on their neighbors for help.
The women told police they were chained in the basement during their early years of captivity, but eventually were allowed to live unchained upstairs behind locked doors.
They also said that Castro brought in a plastic kiddie pool and forced Berry to give birth in it on Christmas Day 2006. He allegedly forced Knight to assist and told her he would kill her if the baby died.
A DNA test proved that the child is Castro's daughter, and a judge denied his request last week for a prison visit with the girl.
In earlier proceedings, Castro's attorneys conceded many of the more than 300 charges against him. They offered to plead guilty if prosecutors dropped efforts to seek the death penalty with the aggravated murder charges.
Prosecutors have shown no public interest in the offer to avoid a possibly traumatic trial despite the complexities of proving that the fetuses were killed and are preparing to present additional charges to a grand jury.
The judge in the case has tentatively scheduled a jury summons to go out on August 5 but no date for trial has yet been set.
Source : Sapa-AFP /dm
Date : 09 Jul 2013 18:00
Three US women who spent a decade of captivity in a Cleveland home have spoken publicly for the first time since their escape, thanking supporters and asking for continued privacy to rebuild their lives.
The woman who reportedly suffered the most violent abuse at the hands of their captor said she had been to "hell and back" but could now smile about the future.
"Thank you for all your prayers. I am looking forward to my brand new life," said Michelle Knight, who was snatched off the street at the age of 20 and is now 32.
The three women each spoke briefly from notes in the three-minute video posted Tuesday on YouTube by a public relations firm. They thanked people for donating to a fund to help them rebuild their lives after their ordeal.
The women, kidnapped in separate incidents in 2002, 2003 and 2004, escaped in May from the ramshackle house where they had been held in a working class area of Cleveland, Ohio.
The alleged abductor, former school bus driver Ariel Castro, 52, has pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping, rape and aggravated murder for beating a pregnant Knight until she miscarried.
The stunning case came to light after Amanda Berry, 27, managed to escape with her young daughter by calling out to a neighbor for help through a locked front door.
Berry, who was snatched after leaving work at a fast food restaurant the night before her 17th birthday, did not mention her daughter in the video.
"I want everyone to know how happy I am to be home with my family, my friends. It's been unbelievable," she said, still wearing an eyebrow piercing like the one shown in her missing poster.
"I am getting stronger each day, and having my privacy has helped immensely," Berry said. "I ask that everyone continues to respect our privacy and give us time to have a normal life."
Knight -- who told police that Castro impregnated her five times and then starved and beat her until she miscarried -- smiled repeatedly as she spoke, and said she did not want to be consumed by hatred.
"I may have been through hell and back, but I am strong enough to walk through hell with a smile on my face, and with my head held high and with my feet held firmly on the ground," she said, reading slowly and carefully from her notes.
"We have been hurt by people but we need to rely on God as being the judge."
The third woman, Gina DeJesus, now 23, seemed the most shy of the three, simply thanking people for their support.
She was accompanied by her parents, who did the same and urged parents who have missing children to rely on their neighbors for help.
The women told police they were chained in the basement during their early years of captivity, but eventually were allowed to live unchained upstairs behind locked doors.
They also said that Castro brought in a plastic kiddie pool and forced Berry to give birth in it on Christmas Day 2006. He allegedly forced Knight to assist and told her he would kill her if the baby died.
A DNA test proved that the child is Castro's daughter, and a judge denied his request last week for a prison visit with the girl.
In earlier proceedings, Castro's attorneys conceded many of the more than 300 charges against him. They offered to plead guilty if prosecutors dropped efforts to seek the death penalty with the aggravated murder charges.
Prosecutors have shown no public interest in the offer to avoid a possibly traumatic trial despite the complexities of proving that the fetuses were killed and are preparing to present additional charges to a grand jury.
The judge in the case has tentatively scheduled a jury summons to go out on August 5 but no date for trial has yet been set.
Source : Sapa-AFP /dm
Date : 09 Jul 2013 18:00
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Hundreds of New Charges Filed
A man accused of holding three women captive in his Cleveland home for about a decade was charged Friday with hundreds of additional counts covering the entire time period of the alleged imprisonment.
The 977-count indictment against Ariel Castro includes charges of rape and kidnapping and two counts of aggravated murder related to the alleged termination of one of the women's pregnancies. The indictment does not include charges that could carry a death sentence, but Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty said he is still reserving that option.
Castro, 53, is charged with kidnapping the three women and keeping them - sometimes restrained in chains - along with a 6-year-old girl he fathered with one of them.
Castro pleaded not guilty to an earlier 329-count indictment. A message was left with his attorney Friday.
The grand jury charged Castro with two counts of aggravated murder related to one act, saying he purposely caused the unlawful termination of one of the women's pregnancies. The indictment also charges him with 512 counts of kidnapping, 446 counts of rape, seven counts of gross sexual imposition, six counts of felonious assault, three counts of child endangerment and one count of possessing criminal tools.
The 576-page indictment covers the period from August 2002, when the first victim disappeared, to May, when the women were rescued.
"Today's indictment moves us closer to resolution of this gruesome case," McGinty said in a statement. "Our investigation continues, as does our preparation for trial."
News that the women had been found alive electrified the Cleveland area, where two of the victims were household names after years of searches, publicity and vigils. But elation soon turned to shock as allegations about their treatment began to emerge.
The indictment against Castro alleges he repeatedly restrained the women, sometimes chaining them to a pole in a basement, to a bedroom heater or inside a van. It says one of the women tried to escape and he assaulted her with a vacuum cord around her neck.
Source : Sapa-AP /clh
Date : 12 Jul 2013 21:45
A man accused of holding three women captive in his Cleveland home for about a decade was charged Friday with hundreds of additional counts covering the entire time period of the alleged imprisonment.
The 977-count indictment against Ariel Castro includes charges of rape and kidnapping and two counts of aggravated murder related to the alleged termination of one of the women's pregnancies. The indictment does not include charges that could carry a death sentence, but Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty said he is still reserving that option.
Castro, 53, is charged with kidnapping the three women and keeping them - sometimes restrained in chains - along with a 6-year-old girl he fathered with one of them.
Castro pleaded not guilty to an earlier 329-count indictment. A message was left with his attorney Friday.
The grand jury charged Castro with two counts of aggravated murder related to one act, saying he purposely caused the unlawful termination of one of the women's pregnancies. The indictment also charges him with 512 counts of kidnapping, 446 counts of rape, seven counts of gross sexual imposition, six counts of felonious assault, three counts of child endangerment and one count of possessing criminal tools.
The 576-page indictment covers the period from August 2002, when the first victim disappeared, to May, when the women were rescued.
"Today's indictment moves us closer to resolution of this gruesome case," McGinty said in a statement. "Our investigation continues, as does our preparation for trial."
News that the women had been found alive electrified the Cleveland area, where two of the victims were household names after years of searches, publicity and vigils. But elation soon turned to shock as allegations about their treatment began to emerge.
The indictment against Castro alleges he repeatedly restrained the women, sometimes chaining them to a pole in a basement, to a bedroom heater or inside a van. It says one of the women tried to escape and he assaulted her with a vacuum cord around her neck.
Source : Sapa-AP /clh
Date : 12 Jul 2013 21:45
Shake&Bake
Party Liaison
I hope this damned retard gets the death penalty, but faces at least 10 years on death row - and not in solitary confinement.
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Cleveland kidnapping suspect battles to keep his eyes open in court
(CNN) -- A Cleveland man accused of murder, rape and holding three women captive for about a decade in his home pleaded not guilty Wednesday to the 977 counts against him.
Ariel Castro's plea is his second in a month, necessitated by a fresh indictment issued by a grand jury last week. The 977-count indictment added 648 counts to the 329 to which he pleaded not guilty in June.
Castro, wearing an orange jumpsuit and flanked by two defense attorneys, kept his eyes closed during most of Wednesday's proceedings in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas.
The judge periodically instructed him to open his eyes to make sure he understood the charges and his rights as she summarized them.
"I'm trying," Castro responded at one point, looking at the judge for a time before closing his eyes again.
Authorities said Castro abducted Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Georgina "Gina" DeJesus separately in a two-year period starting in 2002.
The women, as well as Berry's 6-year-old daughter, who authorities say was fathered by Castro, were freed in May after one of the women shouted for help while Castro was away from his 1,400-square-foot home.
The judge on Wednesday ordered that bail remain at $8 million and that a previous order prohibiting Castro from contacting his alleged victims remain in place.
Castro, a former school bus driver, is awaiting trial at a Cleveland jail.
'Please don't let me go,' Cleveland kidnap victim told officers
The new indictment encompasses all the years of the women's alleged captivity, whereas the previous indictment covered only the first four and a half years, the Cuyahoga County prosecutor's office said.
Among the charges are two counts of aggravated murder, in which Castro is accused of intentionally causing the termination of a pregnancy.
Castro also faces 512 counts of kidnapping, 446 counts of rape, seven counts of gross sexual imposition, six counts of felonious assault, three counts of child endangerment and one count of possessing criminal tools.
After Castro pleaded not guilty to the first 329 charges last month, one of his attorneys, Craig Weintraub, told reporters that although some of the charges "cannot be disputed," the plea was an effort to seek a deal that would avoid a trial and take the prospect of the death penalty off the table.
Prosecutors have not decided whether to seek the death penalty, Maria Russo, a spokeswoman for the Cuyahoga County prosecutor's office, said Wednesday.
She declined to comment on whether a plea deal might be in the works and said that the state will be ready for an August 5 trial date previously set by the judge.
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/17/justice/ohio-castro/index.html?sr=fb071813clevandsuspectcounts10a
(CNN) -- A Cleveland man accused of murder, rape and holding three women captive for about a decade in his home pleaded not guilty Wednesday to the 977 counts against him.
Ariel Castro's plea is his second in a month, necessitated by a fresh indictment issued by a grand jury last week. The 977-count indictment added 648 counts to the 329 to which he pleaded not guilty in June.
Castro, wearing an orange jumpsuit and flanked by two defense attorneys, kept his eyes closed during most of Wednesday's proceedings in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas.
The judge periodically instructed him to open his eyes to make sure he understood the charges and his rights as she summarized them.
"I'm trying," Castro responded at one point, looking at the judge for a time before closing his eyes again.
Authorities said Castro abducted Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Georgina "Gina" DeJesus separately in a two-year period starting in 2002.
The women, as well as Berry's 6-year-old daughter, who authorities say was fathered by Castro, were freed in May after one of the women shouted for help while Castro was away from his 1,400-square-foot home.
The judge on Wednesday ordered that bail remain at $8 million and that a previous order prohibiting Castro from contacting his alleged victims remain in place.
Castro, a former school bus driver, is awaiting trial at a Cleveland jail.
'Please don't let me go,' Cleveland kidnap victim told officers
The new indictment encompasses all the years of the women's alleged captivity, whereas the previous indictment covered only the first four and a half years, the Cuyahoga County prosecutor's office said.
Among the charges are two counts of aggravated murder, in which Castro is accused of intentionally causing the termination of a pregnancy.
Castro also faces 512 counts of kidnapping, 446 counts of rape, seven counts of gross sexual imposition, six counts of felonious assault, three counts of child endangerment and one count of possessing criminal tools.
After Castro pleaded not guilty to the first 329 charges last month, one of his attorneys, Craig Weintraub, told reporters that although some of the charges "cannot be disputed," the plea was an effort to seek a deal that would avoid a trial and take the prospect of the death penalty off the table.
Prosecutors have not decided whether to seek the death penalty, Maria Russo, a spokeswoman for the Cuyahoga County prosecutor's office, said Wednesday.
She declined to comment on whether a plea deal might be in the works and said that the state will be ready for an August 5 trial date previously set by the judge.
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/17/justice/ohio-castro/index.html?sr=fb071813clevandsuspectcounts10a
Datura
Captain Faptastic
I don't understand how so many counts are against him for the same thing. I need to research US law...
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
repeated instance of the same crime...
e.g. he punched her in the stomach on Tuesday, thursday, and Friday...
That's three counts of assault with GBH.
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Ariel Castro is set to Accept Plea Deal in exchange for life without parole
http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/26/justice/ohio-castro/index.html?sr=fb072613castroagreepleadeal1115a
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/...ilty_n_3658874.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009
http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/26/justice/ohio-castro/index.html?sr=fb072613castroagreepleadeal1115a
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/...ilty_n_3658874.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009