Cleveland kidnapper dodges death penalty with guilty plea

Ariel Castro, who was accused of kidnapping three Ohio women and holding them captive for nearly 10 years, has accepted a plea deal to avoid the death penalty, a judge said Friday.

Castro, 53, will serve life plus 1,000 years in prison without parole under the agreement with prosecutors for kidnapping three women -- Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight -- holding them captive in his home and raping them repeatedly for about a decade, fathering a child with Berry.

"Amanda, Gina, and Michelle are relieved by today's plea," the three women said in a statement released by their lawyers. 

"They are satisfied by this resolution to the case, and are looking forward to having these legal proceedings draw to a final close in the near future."

Castro is accused of repeatedly restraining the women, sometimes chaining them to a pole in a basement, to a bedroom heater or inside a van. The charges say one of the women tried to escape and he assaulted her by wrapping a vacuum cord around her neck. Castro was charged with 977 counts.

The women disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were in their teens or early 20s. Each said she had accepted a ride from Castro.

The women escaped to freedom on May 6 after Berry kicked out part of a door, called to neighbors for help and frantically told an emergency dispatcher, "I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years, and I'm, I'm here. I'm free now."

Joy surged through the Cleveland area when news broke that the women had been found alive. The two women had become household names after years of public vigils and fruitless searches. But elation soon turned to shock as allegations about their treatment began to emerge.

Castro fathered a 6-year-old daughter with Berry, authorities said. They also allege that on the day the child was born, Christmas 2006, Castro raped one of the other women, who had helped deliver the baby.

Berry told authorities that she, her child and the other women never saw a doctor during their captivity.

Knight said her five pregnancies ended after Castro starved and repeatedly punched her.

Source: News wires