10YEARS KIDNAPPING!
Satanic American Sex Predator, 52, Kidnaps, Rapes 3 Girls…Impregnate Amanda, one of the victims 5 Times
- Faces Death Penalty, On Trial *Victims Abducted after a Free Ride
- Punched Victims’ stomach severally, chained them
- Held on $8m Bond for Rape & Kidnapping *FBI remove 200 pieces of evidence
- How Castro fathers 6 year old daughter in captivity
- Suspect’s daughter: “My Father is vile, demonic & evil”
- Prosecutor: “Castro is a Captive, in Captivity & a Prisoner’
- Victims: “We’re subjected to prolonged Sexual &Psychological Abuse”
BY CLEM STWEART/DEPUTY CRIME EDITOR, OHIO
SEXUAL sins committed by Ariel Castro, an Ohio former school bus driver known as a notorious pervert in Ohio, Cleveland against three innocent ladies, namely: Amanda Berry, 27, Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32, in his Satanic hideout-the basement of his house for 10 years have attracted public condemnation and castigation for his abnormal behavior.
His Trial
Prosecutor, Naija Standard observed read that the accused (Castro) in a-4 count charge kidnapped and raped three women he held prisoner at his home for a period of 10 years, made his first court appearance on Thursday when a judge set bond for him at a cost of $8m. This notorious owner of the Cleveland home where the three women were held captive for almost a decade was arraigned same day.
Accordingly, size of the bond means Castro is likely to remain in jail for some time. His court-appointed lawyer said he was unemployed and had little money. His hands in cuffs, the suspect bowed his head and remained silent during his arraignment at Cleveland municipal court. He avoided looking at the gallery, which was packed with media and onlookers.
Ordeal of his victims
Naija Standard noted through Police statement that the ordeal of these trio victims: Berry, 27, DeJesus, 23, and Knight, 32, ended on Monday when Berry(first victim) seized a chance to break free the moment Castro was out of the house. Berry hammered on the front door, attracting the attention of passers-by who helped her escape. She emerged with a six-year-old daughter, and made a now-famous 911 phone call in which she alerted the authorities.
‘Castro Home a prison’ -Asst. Prosecuting Attorney
In the words of Brian Murphy, the assistant prosecuting attorney at Cuyahoga County to the Judge Lauren Moore, he said: “Castro’s home was a prison to these three women and the child. Today the situation is turned on him. Mr Castro stands before you a captive, in captivity, a prisoner.”
The accused did not bother to enter a plea. But Kathleen DeMetz, a public defender appointed by the court to represent Castro, said after the hearing that he would need to raise $800,000 cash to get out of jail. Her words: “The man doesn’t have any money. He clearly doesn’t have that.”
Castro’s attorney explained legal challenges
For his inadequacies in the suspect’s legal representation, DeMetz made the court realize that Castro was unemployed after being fired from his job driving school buses last November. She said he was on suicide watch in jail and was expected to be held in isolation. Police say Castro has waived his right to remain silent and has been talking extensively.
Castro’s two blood brothers, arrested, grilled & released
For want of ‘no case’ and without ‘prima facie’, the accused two blood brothers: Pedro, 54, and Onil, 50, appeared in court on Thursday to answer outstanding warrants for separate misdemeanor cases were released. Prosecutors said on Wednesday that there was no evidence that either of them were involved in the crimes allegedly committed by their brother.
Berry and DeJesus went home to relatives on Wednesday, while Knight remained in hospital at Metro Health Medical Center, where her condition was described as good. For reasons that remain unclear, the hospital had said a day earlier that all three victims had been released.
Authorities said the women, who disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, remembered leaving the confines of 2207 Seymour Avenue in west Cleveland only twice during their years in captivity. On both occasions they recalled being taken to a garage on the property, disguised in wigs and hats. At a news conference on Wednesday, the deputy police chief of Cleveland, Ed Tomba, said he would not go into details about whether there had been any other pregnancies in the years the women had been held in the house. But police said on Wednesday that they were apparently bound with ropes and chains, and a city councilman briefed on the case, Brian Cummins, said they were subjected to prolonged sexual and psychological abuse.
Cummins’ words: “We know that the victims have confirmed miscarriages, but with who, how many and what conditions we don’t know. It sounds pretty gruesome.”
Victim’s baby born in a plastic
To avoid the eagle eyes of the police, Berry’s baby was born in Castro’s house in a plastic inflatable children’s swimming pool on Christmas Day, 2006. A paternity test will be conducted to determine the identity of her father. Authorities say Castro has consented to a DNA test.
Cummins said the victims were kept in separate parts of the house until at some point their alleged captor was satisfied that he had enough control over them to allow them to see each other. Police have said that, while separated in the house, the three women were held in different rooms but were aware of the others’ presence. The women told police their abductions occurred when they accepted offers of rides by Castro.
Naija Standard learnt in a news report that Castro was accused of twice breaking the nose of his children’s mother, knocking out a tooth, dislocating each shoulder and threatening to kill her and her daughters. In 2005 domestic-violence filing in Cuyahoga County domestic relations court, Grimilda Figueroa alleged that Castro frequently abducted her daughters and kept them from her. Figueroa died in April 2012 after a battle with cancer.
Figueroa’s father, Ismail Figueroa, said Wednesday that Castro would regularly lock his daughter inside a second-floor apartment in the house where they lived when they were first together. Grimilda was “not allowed to go nowhere,” said Angel Villanueva, who is married to Grimilda’s sister. No matter where she wanted to go, “it had to be with him.”
‘Death penalty against Castro is imminent’-Prosecutors
As a lesson to all other Sexual Predators, the Prosecutors said Thursday they may seek the death penalty against Castro as a police report alleged that he impregnated one of his captives at least five times and made her miscarry by starving her and punching her in the stomach. The police report also said another one of the women; Berry was forced to give birth in a plastic kiddie pool.
Timothy McGinty, Cuyahoga County prosecutor reportedly said his office will decide whether to bring aggravated murder charges punishable by death in connection with the pregnancies that were terminated by force. McGinty added Castro will be charged for every act of sexual violence, assault and other crimes committed against the women, suggesting the counts could number in the hundreds, if not thousands.
Castro, 52, is being held on $8 million bail under a suicide watch in jail, where he is charged with rape and kidnapping. “Capital punishment must be reserved for those crimes that are truly the worst examples of human conduct. The reality is we still have brutal criminals in our midst who have no respect for the rule of law or human life.”
Fathers Berry 6 year old daughter in captivity
Authorities confirmed that tests on a sample of Castro’s DNA showed that he is the father of Berry’s 6-year-old daughter, who was rescued from his house. Officials also were entering the DNA profile into a national database to see if it links him to other crimes. The three women said Castro chained them up in the basement but eventually let them live on the home’s second floor. Each woman told a similar story about being abducted after accepting a ride from him.
Berry, now 27, told officers that she was forced to give birth in a plastic pool in the house so it would be easier to clean up. Berry said none of the women — or her daughter — went to a doctor during their captivity. Knight, now 32, said her five pregnancies ended after Castro starved her for at least two weeks and “repeatedly punched her in the stomach until she miscarried.” She also said Castro forced her to deliver Berry’s baby under threat of death if the baby died. When the newborn stopped breathing, Knight said, she revived her through mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Castro’s daughter speaks
For Castro’s daughter, “My father is evil, vile and wicked. I regretted ever having his as a biological father.”
FBI Steps in
Naija Standard investigation confirmed that Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has removed 200 pieces of evidence and has not recovered human remains in its search of the house, according to spokeswoman Vicki Anderson on Friday. Her words: “Agents have removed more than 200 pieces of evidence, she added, declining to say what was found.”