Ariel Castro Court Sentencing & Hearing Evidence Includes Diary Victims Kept of Abuse, Prosecutor Says
As Ariel Castro appears in court Thursday to face entencing for the kidnapping of three women rescued in May, prosecutors released new details from his captives' dairies that include them "being held like a prisoner of war."
Castro is expected to be sentenced to life in prison without parole, plus 1,000 years, as part of a plea deal he agreed to on July 26. He pleaded guilty to 937 counts of kidnapping, rape, assault and other charges. He abducted the three women - Amanda Berry, 27, Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michele Knight, 32, - in Cleveland between 2002 and 2004 when they were 14 to 20 years old. They escaped his home on May 6 and Castro was arrested that day.
The sentencing will begin at 9 a.m. ET and conclude by 1 p.m.
A sentencing memorandum was released Wednesday by prosecutor Tim McGinty. It outlined details of how the captives were restrained by chains attached to their ankles in Castro's home, ABC News reported. They only had access to plastic toilets in the bedrooms that were rarely emptied. Their 53-year-old kidnapper also fed the women one meal a day and used the "cold of the basement" and the "heat of the attic" as punishment techniques, the memo stated.
"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," the memorandum read.
The memo said the three women each kept daily diaries about being raped, held in captivity for nearly a decade and hoping that they would one day reunite with their families. Castro allegedly told the women that he had other victims and that "some of them made it home, but others had not." He once kept them locked in a vehicle for three days while he had a visitor at his home.
The three women have the opportunity to appear in court on Thursday and give a testimony, addressing Castro and the entire court room. Knight is expected to appear at the sentencing to read an impact statement, a source told ABC News.
