CLEVELAND, Ohio — Ariel Castro went to prison for the rest of his life today insisting he is "not a monster" despite imprisoning and repeatedly raping three women at his West Side home over a decade.
The sentence of life plus 1,000 years imposed by Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Michael Russo followed a rambling 16-minute statement in which Castro blamed his actions on a sexual addiction that led to compulsive behavior.
"I do want to let you know there was harmony in that home," the 53-year-old former school bus driver told a courtroom packed with media as well as Michelle Knight, one of his three victims. "I was a good person."
But Knight, who was abducted by Castro in 2002 at age 21, as well as family members of the other victims - Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus - gave a strikingly different account of their years of captivity.
Knight faced the judge with her back to a seated and shackled Castro and turned the tables on her former tormentor
"I spent 11 years in hell," she said. "Now your hell is just beginning,"
The more than four-hour hearing capped a nearly three months of revelations that began May 6 when Berry banged on a locked storm door of Castro's Seymour Avenue home and asked someone to help her escape.
Michelle Knight gives statement at Ariel Castro's sentencing Michelle Knight gives her statement at the sentencing of Ariel Castro before Judge Michael Russo. Castro, who held Knight captive for 11 years in his Seymour Avenue Cleveland home, was sentenced to life in prison without a chance for parole plus 1000 years. Neighbors spotted the frantic Berry and helped her break out. After Berry called police, officers entered the home, finding Knight and DeJesus upstairs.
Castro admitted last week that he kidnapped the women and raped them repeatedly while holding them - sometimes in chains - in his home,
He pleaded guilty to hundreds of counts if kidnapping and rape, as well as two counts of aggravated murder.
The charges of aggravated murder stem from Castro's admission that he forced one of the women into suffering a miscarriage.
Speaking before his sentencing, Castro apologized to his victims but also was defiant, saying he objected to being called a "monster" and saying that some of the sex he had with the women was consensual.
He also said he was a "happy person" who drove a school bus for 21 years. He insisted that the 6-year-old daughter he had with Berry led a "normal life."
"She would probably say my daddy is the best daddy in the world," Castro said.
Castro also denied physically abusing and torturing the three women, and pointed to Berry's
recent appearance at a concert as evidence that she was never physically abused.
"That proves it wasn't torture," Castro said.
After Castro finished, Russo turned to Knight, who remained in the courtroom after she spoke.
"Miss Knight, thank you for your remarkable restraint during that statement," the judge said.
"You're welcome," she said, drawing a few laughs.
Assistant County Prosecutor Blaise Thomas scoffed at Castro's claims of mental illness and said during a break in the sentencing that when Castro was forced to sign over the deed of his home to the Cleveland Land Bank, he broke down in tears.
"He started saying 'I don't understand why you have to tear my house down,' " Thomas said. " 'I have so many happy memories there with Gina, Amanda and Michele."
But DeJesus' cousin, Sylvia Colon, and Berry's sister, Beth Serrano, said in court that the emotional damage to the the victims and their families is real.
"I lost my sister for all these years and I thought it was forever," Serrano said. She mentioned how their mother, Louwana Miller, died in 2006 without knowing what happened to Berry.
"It is impossible to put into words how much it hurts," Serrano said.
Colon said DeJesus continues to live as a "survivor, not a victim," and ended by turning toward Castro and saying to him in Spanish, "May God have mercy on your soul."
Serrano asked that people respect the family's privacy, saying Berry is concerned her daughter will hear the "wrong things" from the "wrong people." Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson also urged privacy in a statement released after the hearing.
"Today, justice was served for these three brave young women," Jackson said in the release. "They are survivors. I hope the sentencing of their captor brings them and their families the closure they need to continue moving forward and healing."
Prosecutors offered several experts (see PowerPoint presentation) to describe what the women endured during their years of captivity. They described how Castro took advantage of their trust, lured them into his home, then chained them in his basement and sexually assaulted them.
Ariel Castro sentenced to life in prison without parole Judge Michael Russo sends Ariel Castro to prison for life without the chance of parole for the abduction and rape of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight. The three women were held captive in his Seymour Avenue home for over a decade. Frank M. Ochberg, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Michigan State University, praised the victims for their resilience, but said their recovery will not be easy.
"The damage done to them will not go away," he said. "They have life sentences."
Ochberg said the three women suffered from Stockholm Syndrome, a condition in which they began to emotionally connect with Castro because over time they realized he held their lives in his hands.
Prosecutors showed photos of the women shortly after they were rescued and also pictures taken from inside the house.
Berry shared a room with her daughter and Knight and DeJesus were kept in an adjoining room.
Knight said in court that DeJesus became her "teammate."
"We said some day we would make it out alive," she said, "and we did."
Police and investigators testified about finding the women on May 6, describing them as happy to be free, but also malnourished, pale and emotionally fragile.
Investigators told of how Castro kept the women locked in the house and used a .357 Magnum to intimidate them.
Joshua Barr, a forensic scientist with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, said Castro would sometimes hand the women the handgun, which had been emptied without them knowing, and tell them to put it to his head and squeeze the trigger in a form of Russian roulette.
Castro admitted kidnapping the women - Knight in 2002, followed by Berry in 2003 and DeJesus in 2004. Their rescue created an international sensation and prompted questions about how the imprisonment could have gone undetected for so long.
Dr. Greg Saathoff, a forensic psychiatrist who often works with the FBI, said Castro's crimes were "completely unprecedented" given that his victims were unrelated and that they were kept in a neighborhood setting for so long.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys began working toward a plea agreement early on that would spare Berry, DeJesus and Knight from having to testify at trial. Defense lawyer Craig Weintraub had said repeatedly that a deal was possible as long as Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty did not pursue the death penalty.
Legal experts did not think McGinty had a strong case for the death penalty because of what they believe is a lack of physical evidence, and also because it would have likely meant the three women taking the stand.
When it came time Thursday to be sentenced on the murder charge, Castro was again defiant, saying there was no evidence of such a crime.
"I never killed anyone and I'm not a murderer," he said.
Weintraub said after the hearing that nobody coached Castro about what to say and that his client exhibits the behavior of a "sociopath." He also maintained that Castro suffers from mental illness.
"Look, it was a house of horrors," he said. " . . . but he tried to make it as normal as possible."
Reporters Cliff Pinckard and James Ewinger contributed to this report.
