Cleveland Kidnapping Suspect’s Daughter Had Slashed Her Baby’s Throat in 2008
After a decade of having held 3 women prisoner who they had kidnapped, 3 Cleveland men have been arrested yesterday when one hostage escaped and called the police in a dramatic 911 call.Investigator Jessica Heddings discovered that one of the suspect’s daughters was convicted in 2008 for attempted murder of her one-year-old baby, when she was found with her throat slashed.
While the authorities gather evidence against the three brothers accused of kidnapping 3 girls more than a decade ago and holding them against their will, it seems like heinous crimes against children run in the family.
Through connecting various posts on facebook and twitter, investigator Jessica Heddings discovered that the daughter of Ariel Castro, the owner of the hostage house, and a suspect in the kidnapping, has a daughter who was convicted of trying to kill her own daughter, his granddaughter, in 2008.
Before she was sentenced to 25 years in prison, Emily Castro wanted a judge to know she was a good mother.
But the 20-year-old could offer no explanation for why she slashed her 11-month-old daughter’s throat last April, leading to charges of attempted murder and battery. The girl, Janyla, has since made a full recovery.
In January, in a rare trial before a judge rather than a jury, Allen Superior Court Judge John Surbeck found Castro guilty but mentally ill of attempted murder. The charge of battery was included in the more serious charge and not included at sentencing.
Surbeck sentenced Castro to 30 years in prison but suspended the last five years, to be served on probation. She will be required to seek ongoing mental health treatment as a condition of her probation.
Castro sobbed through much of the sentencing hearing.
She was arrested April 4 when police were called to the 3700 block of Parkhill Avenue on a report of a dog biting a child, a report later found to be a passer-by’s erroneous observation. When police arrived, they found 11-month-old Janyla bleeding from severe cuts on her throat and being held in her grandmother’s arms.
Prosecutors argued Castro tried to kill her daughter after breaking up with the girl’s father the day before the attack.
During the trial, defense attorneys John Bohdan and Zachary Witte produced evidence Castro suffered from serious depression for years before the birth of her daughter, and that it spiraled into paranoia, causing her to think her family was trying to kill her and the baby, at the time of the attack.
The claim in the last sentence really makes one wonder if the family had something to do with her paranoia.
