Cleveland kidnapping suspect competent to stand trial

Donna Leinwand Leger | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Judge: Ariel Castro competent, can't see daughter A judge declared Ariel Castro competent to go to trial. Jury selection is scheduled to start in early August. The judge denied Castro's request to see his child.

Ariel Castro has pleaded not guilty to murder%2C rape and kidnapping charges

Prosecutors say he held three Cleveland women captive for a decade

Jury selection is set for Aug. 5

Ariel Castro, charged with holding three Cleveland women captive for more than a decade, is mentally competent to stand trial, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Court-appointed psychiatrists, who evaluated Castro for two hours, found Castro competent and capable of assisting his attorneys with his defense, Cuyahoga County Judge Michael Russo said Wednesday. Castro answered "yes" when the judge asked him whether he understood the purpose of the evaluation and the court proceedings.

The judge denied Castro's request to see the elementary-school-aged child he fathered with one of the captive women.

"I won't be allowing that, not during the pendency of this case," Russo said. "I just don't think that would be appropriate."

The judge said Castro's adult children could visit him in jail if they wished. Castro is being held on $8 million bail.

Castro, 52, a former school bus driver, has pleaded not guilty to 329 charges that include kidnapping, hundreds of counts of rape and one murder charge for allegedly beating one of his victims so severely that she had a miscarriage. If convicted of the murder charge, Castro, who is being held on $8 million bail, could face the death penalty.

The state's capital review committee meets July 11 and will determine whether the state will seek the death penalty for Castro. Castro can submit mitigating evidence, the judge said. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for July 24. The judge scheduled jury selection for the trial to begin Aug. 5.

Prosecutors said a grand jury will issue a superseding indictment that will add more charges for the most recent years of the women's captivity.

Castro allegedly kidnapped Amanda Berry, then 14, Gina DeJesus, then 16, and Michelle Knight, then 20, between 2002 and 2004 and held them captive until one of the women escaped his Cleveland home May 6 and led police to the other women.