Ariel Castro, center, stands before a judge with his defense attorneys, Jaye Schlachet, left, and Craig Weintraub during Castro＇s arraignment on an expanded 977-count indictment, July 17, 2013, in Cleveland.
Prison officials in the midwestern U.S. state of Ohio say the man who held three women captive for over a decade in his home has been found dead.
Ariel Castro was found hanging in his prison cell late Tuesday night. Officials say the 53-year-old Castro was taken to nearby hospital for emergency treatment, where he was pronounced dead.
The former school bus driver was arrested in May after one of his female captives escaped from his Cleveland home and ran to neighbors for help. Authorities say he kidnapped the women separately between 2002 and 2004, and raped them repeatedly during their captivity. One of the women, Amanda Berry, gave birth to Castro＇s daughter.
Castro pleaded guilty last month to over 900 criminal charges, including kidnapping and rape. The charges also included murder of an unborn child one of the women was carrying. He had severely beat the woman.
Castro was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 1,000 years, in exchange for prosecutors dropping the threat of a death sentence. |
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