Ariel Castro sentenced to life without parole

[bettyellen]

Source: USA TODAY

Russo said Castro's "merciless acts deserve maximum prison time. "No single prison term adequately reflects the enormity of your conduct."

"I still feel based upon the information you've provided to the court that you feel you are a victim,' Russo told Castro, who blamed his problems on sexual abuse as a child and a long-time addiction to pornography. "You haven't been a victim, you've been a victimizer. The three young women should have been free to live their lives. They shouldn't have been locked in a house, in deplorable conditions."

Castro fathered a Christmas Day child with Berry, now 6. Knight was impregnated repeatedly by Castro, who beat and starved her, resulting in her miscarrying five times. A tearful Knight, now 32, testified earlier Thursday that Castro had put her through hell. "Your hell is just beginning,'' she said.

"I will live on. You will die a little bit every day,'' said Knight. She told Castro he was a hypocrite for going to church on Sundays, then returning home "to torture" her, Berry and DeJesus.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/08/01/castro-sentencing-could-reveal-details-of-kidnap-victims-ordeal/2603725/

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He wanted contact will his daughter, claimed they asked for "sex". Make a laundry list of excuses for his behavior. Including the fact that his victims were already sexually experienced.

[iandhr]

1. I guess its good the victims will be spared the ordeal of a trial.

[alp227]

2. Victim impact statements were published in the Plain Dealer (Cleveland paper)

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/08/judge_sends_ariel_castro_to_pr.html

His sentencing by Judge Michael Russo followed emotional statements from Michelle Knight, the first person abducted by Castro in 2002, as well as family members of Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus.

"You took 11 years of my life away. I spent 11 years in hell, now your hell is just beginning," Knight said, composed but also shedding tears. "I will overcome all this that has happened, but you will face hell for eternity.

"I will live on, you will die a little very day as you think of the 11 years of atrocities that you inflicted on us. ... I can forgive you, but I will never forget."

But DeJesus' cousin, Sylvia Colon, and Berry's sister, Beth Serrano, speaking for them in court, said the emotional damage to the the victims and their families is very 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 at one point addressed Castro in Spanish. She said her family is "saddened" Castro's family has been "burdened with this horror."

[47of74]

3. I hope when they demolish the house they salt the goddamn ground too.

[CTyankee]

4. Rev. Al's show tonight was tought to take. My god, what those young women went through!

I had to turn it off. My stomach was sick. Castro is a vile beast. I truly would not protest his execution and I am usually against capital punishment...

[derby378]

5. Something tells me that if I were Michelle Knight, I wouldn't have held back in that courtroom

I would have unleashed fucking Hell on Castro. A half-dozen officers would have to subdue me in front of the bench.

Contrary to what she said in court, she will never get those 11 years back.