Ariel Castro

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(Gallery by Plain Dealer staff and wire reports)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cuyahoga County grand jury returned a 329-count indictment this afternoon against Ariel Castro, charging the 52-year-old Cleveland man with the kidnapping and rape of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight.

Two counts of the indictment charged Castro with aggravated murder for "purposely and with prior calculation and design causing the unlawful termination of another's pregnancy," County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty said in a prepared statement. The counts refer to the same incident, but involve different sections of the Ohio criminal code.

The indictments cover only the period from August of 2002, when the first of the three women discovered in his Seymour Avenue house disappeared, until February of 2007. The women were held as prisoners for a decade.

Castro also was indicted on 139 counts of rape, 177 counts of kidnapping, seven counts of gross sexual imposition, three counts of felonious assault and one count of possession of criminal tools.

He will be arraigned on those charges next week, and a trial judge will be assigned at that time, McGinty said.

“Today’s indictments represent a first major step in the criminal justice process,’’ said McGinty. “Our investigation continues, and we will present our findings to the grand jury.’’

``When the indictment process is complete, the County Prosecutor’s Capital Review Committee will consider whether this case is appropriate to attach a death penalty specification," McGinty said.

Castro's attorney said he had not yet seen a copy of the 142-page indictment, but was aware that the document contained charges against his client of aggravated murder and others that covered a ``portion of the dates the women were held in captivity."

``Although our client was charged with aggravated murder for the death of a fetus, we are pleased that Mr. McGinty has not rushed to a decision and did not seek a death specification that would have made this a death penalty case," said defense lawyer Craig Weintraub.

``It would be unprecedented to pursue the death penalty for the alleged death of a fetus, without the death of the mother. We are hopeful that the prosecutor's office and the public understand and agree that the death penalty should never be used as leverage to attempt to obtain a plea bargain," Weintraub said.

The indictments offer new insight into the horrors the three women said they suffered at the hands of Castro.



One of the women, identified as Jane Doe 2, tried to escape from the home in 2003, and was later chained to a pole in the basement with motorcycle helmet on her head, according to the charge. She also had her legs and mouth taped, she was chained to a heater in a bathroom, and assaulted with a vacuum cleaner cord around her neck, the indictments said.



Castro assaulted a woman identified as Jane Doe 3 with a pillow, and restrained her with chains and tape, the charges said.



A woman identified as Jane Doe 1 was restrained in an upstairs bedroom and chained to a pole in the basement, the charges said.



At times, the women were taken out of the house to Castro's garage and chained inside a van, the charges said.



Castro is charged with two counts of aggravated murder -- each of the charges for the same act of terminating the pregnancy of Jane Doe 1 between Nov. 1, 2006, and Feb. 28, 2007. It was the woman's fourth lost child during her captivity, according to the indictment.



An attorney for the three women and their families said they would not comment about the indictments. ``They will defer to Prosecutor McGinty and his staff, and they have all the confidence in him to represent their interests," said attorney Henry Hilow.

McGinty, who called Castro's home on Seymour Avenue a ``torture chamber," said he would seek to charge Castro for every day the women were held captive and for every time they were raped.

The women were rescued May 6 after Berry escaped from Castro’s home with the help of several neighbors who heard her cries for help. She then directed police to the two other women in the home, and to Castro, who was captured a few streets away driving a blue Mazda Miata convertible.

Berry gave birth to a daughter during her years of captivity, who is now 6. According to police reports, Castro forced Knight to deliver the baby in an inflatable swimming pool and threatened to kill Knight if the baby did not survive. At one point the newborn stopped breathing, but Knight provided artificial respiration and saved the child.

Castro, an unemployed school bus driver, is being held in the County Jail on $8 million bond.

Berry, 27, and her daughter, DeJesus, 23, and Knight, 32, have returned to their families’ homes. Their attorneys pleaded with the media and the public to grant the women peace and privacy during their time of readjustment and while the criminal case is being pursued.

Knight was 21 when she was reported missing in August 2002. Berry was 16 when she disappeared in April 2003. DeJesus was 14 when she failed to come home from Wilbur Wright school in April 2004.