Convicted Kidnapper Ariel Castro Found Dead In Jail Cell
PITTSBURGH (KDKA/AP) -- Convicted kidnapper Ariel Castro was found dead in his jail cell Tuesday night.
Spokeswoman JoEllen Smith says 53-year-old Castro was found hanging in his cell around 9:20 p.m. Tuesday at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient. Prison medical staff performed CPR before Castro was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Castro was convicted August 1 of kidnapping and raping Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus in Cleveland, Ohio and keeping them in his house for a decade. They escaped May 6, when one of the women broke part of a door and yelled to neighbors for help. Castro was arrested that evening.
Castro was sentenced to life in prison, plus 1,000 years. He pleaded guilty to 937 counts including murder, kidnapping, rape and assault.
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. Castro 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.
Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty said the indictment covers only the period from August 2002, when the first of the women disappeared, to February 2007.
The indictment refers to the women as Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2 and Jane Doe 3 and gives a glimpse into the circumstances of their captivity.
The aggravated murder counts stem from the unlawful termination of Jane Doe 1′s pregnancy in late 2006 or early 2007, the indictment says.
It says Castro 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.
Stay with KDKA for more information.
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