Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro sentenced to life in jail

Castro, 53, agreed to a plea deal which would allow him to avoid the death penalty and instead receive life in prison, plus 1,000 years, without parole.

He pleaded guilty to 937 charges, including kidnapping, rape, assault and aggravated murder.

Castro, wearing leg shackles and dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, listened to the testimony without expression.

Michelle Knight (pictured below), who was the first woman to be abducted by Castro, testified on Thursday about the abuse she endured. Miss Knight, 32, spoke in a strong voice but at times choked back tears.

She said: “I served 11 years of hell. Now your hell is just beginning.”

A police officer, a psychiatrist and a detective were also among those who testified at the court hearing over the kidnapping of the three women, who were subjected to years of sexual and physical abuse.

Castro made a rambling statement in which he blamed his sex addiction, his former wife and even the FBI for not thoroughly investigating the abductions.

Amanda Berry, 27, and Gina DeJesus, 23, and Miss Knight all went missing from the west side of Cleveland between 2002 and 2004 and were discovered in May after neighbours heard cries for help from Miss Berry coming from Castro’s home.

They were imprisoned for a decade in Castro’s Cleveland home.

Castro pleaded guilty in July to the criminal charges including the kidnapping and rape of the three women, the kidnapping of a six year old girl he fathered in captivity with one of the women and murder for forcing one of the women to abort during a pregnancy.

Cleveland policewoman Barbara Johnson, one of the first officers to arrive that day, testified that she had found two of the women in the dark house, up a staircase and behind a thick curtain, after she responded to a 911 call.

She and a male officer walked up the stairs, saying they were from the Cleveland police. There was no immediate response, but after a short time, they heard footsteps and saw Miss Knight.

“She literally launched herself into (the male policeman’s) arms,” Johnson said. She said Miss DeJesus emerged timidly from another room and identified herself.

‘Remorseless’

Prosecutor Tim McGinty said in a sentencing memorandum filed on Wednesday that Castro, who chained his captives and fed them only one meal a day, “admits his disgusting and inhuman conduct” but “remains remorseless for his actions.”

The memorandum says many of the specific charges in Castro’s indictment reflect conduct documented by one of the women in her diary.

“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,” it says.

The sentencing could take up to four hours, court officials said, with Castro, his attorneys, his victims and prosecutors getting a chance to speak. The legal team representing the women’s interests declined to comment in advance on whether they would testify or send statements to the court.

In the court filing, McGinty offered new details of Castro’s treatment of the women, who he said were kept “in a state of powerlessness” through physical, sexual and psychological violence.

“He made them believe that their physical survival depended on him, and he threatened to end their lives if they did not comply with his every demand,” McGinty said.

Puppy trap

Castro lured one of the women into his Cleveland home with the promise of a puppy for her son and tricked another by saying she could see his daughter, McGinty said.

He chained his captives by their ankles, fed them only one meal a day and provided plastic toilets in their bedrooms that were infrequently emptied, the filing said.

He menaced them with a gun, threatened them with tales of other captives, some of whom had not made it home, and at one point locked all of them in a vehicle in his garage for three days while he had a visitor.

Castro claimed he didn’t have an exit strategy from his complicated double life and finally gave the women a chance to escape by leaving a door unlocked, the court filing said.

The women, each kidnapped separately when they accepted a ride from Castro on Cleveland’s blue-collar west side, quickly escaped after Miss Berry kicked out the door panel on May 6 and Castro was arrested within hours.

The women disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16 and 20 years old.

There was no comment from Castro’s defence team on the eve of sentencing.