COLUMBUS, Ohio
(AP) -- The man accused of holding three women captive in his
Cleveland home for about a decade was charged Friday with hundreds of
additional counts covering the entire time period of the alleged
imprisonment.
The 977-count indictment against
Ariel Castro includes charges of rape and kidnapping and two counts of
aggravated murder on accusations that Castro starved and punched one of
the women while she was pregnant until she miscarried.
The
indictment does not include charges that could carry a death sentence,
but Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty said he is still reserving
that option.
Castro, 53, is charged with
kidnapping the three women and holding them captive - sometimes
restrained in chains - along with a 6-year-old girl he fathered with one
of them.
Castro pleaded not guilty to an
earlier 329-count indictment. A message was left with his attorney
Friday seeking comment on the new charges.
Castro
is charged with two counts of aggravated murder related to one act,
saying he purposely caused the unlawful termination of the pregnancy of
one of the women. The new indictment also charges him with 512 counts of
kidnapping, 446 counts of rape, seven counts of gross sexual
imposition, six counts of felonious assault, three counts of child
endangerment and one count of possessing criminal tools.
The
576-page indictment covers the period from August 2002, when the first
girl disappeared, to May, when the women were rescued. The first
indictment covered only the period from August 2002 to February 2007.
"Today's
indictment moves us closer to resolution of this gruesome case,"
McGinty said in a statement. "Our investigation continues, as does our
preparation for trial."
News that the women
had been found alive electrified the Cleveland area, where two of the
victims were household names after years of searches, publicity and
vigils. But elation soon turned to shock as allegations about their
treatment began to emerge.
The indictment
against Castro alleges he repeatedly restrained the women, sometimes
chaining them to a pole in a basement, to a bedroom heater or inside a
van. It says one of the women tried to escape and he assaulted her with a
vacuum cord around her neck.
