Dad kills 3 kids to Punish Mom/Pleads Guilty/Gets 3 Life Terms

[Sumanadevii]

BALTIMORE - A man killed his three young children at a downtown hotel room, then called the front desk to report their deaths Sunday afternoon, authorities said.

Police officers who responded to the 10th-floor room at the Baltimore Marriott Inner Harbor at Camden Yards found the three children's bodies and Mark Castillo, 41, with minor cuts that appeared to have been self-inflicted, police spokesman Sterling Clifford said. He did know how the children were killed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23870763/

[Roamer]

:1222423::1222423::1222423: For Heaven's newest angels.

I will never understand why, if someone is so unappy and/or disturbed, that they don't just kill themselves, instead of their children.

[TigressPen]

:1222423::1222423::1222423: For Heaven's newest angels.

I will never understand why, if someone is so unappy and/or disturbed, that they don't just kill themselves, instead of their children.


They chicken out when it comes to killing themself. This one reeks of a mental defense with his self inflicted cuts.

[Try2Win]

many people use their kids as "pawns" in divorce/custody proceedings. that is a real shame.

[Sumanadevii]

The poor babies. I can only think of how afraid they must have been.....:1222423:

At a news conference Monday, Baltimore City police Commissioner Fred Bealefeld said, "We believe the children were drowned, one at a time in the tub."

http://www.wbaltv.com/news/15745572/detail.html

[Roamer]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/03/31/children.killed.ap/index.html

, Maryland (AP) -- A man who had argued with his estranged wife over the custody of their three children has confessed to drowning them in a hotel bathtub on the night they were to go back with their mother, police said Monday.


Blinds are closed at the Castillo home in Silver Spring, Maryland, on Monday.

Mark A. Castillo will be charged after he is released from a hospital where he is being treated for self-inflicted cuts on his neck, Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld said at a news conference.

Police did not cite a motive.

But Castillo's wife wrote in court documents that her husband had threatened to make her suffer by killing the children. She sought a protective order December 25, 2006, and asked that the court order Castillo to receive counseling.

"He has never actually hurt [the children], but did tell me that the worst thing he could do to me would be to kill the children and not me so I could live without them," she wrote in the petition.

She also wrote that when her husband took the children for visits, he would not tell her where they were staying.

A temporary protective order was approved three days after the petition was filed, but Circuit Judge Joseph Dugan rejected a permanent order January 10, 2007. In explaining his decision, Dugan wrote there was "no clear or convincing evidence that the alleged acts of abuse occurred."

Police identified the children as Anthony, 6, Austin, 4, and Athena, 2.

Castillo, 41, of Rockville, Maryland, and the children spent time Saturday afternoon at Baltimore's Inner Harbor, then checked into the Baltimore Marriott Inner Harbor. The children were drowned, one at a time, in the tub that night, Bealefeld said. Watch police describe what they found in hotel room »

Police said Castillo called the hotel front desk Sunday afternoon, saying he'd killed the children and was going to commit suicide. Baltimore police and firefighters were sent to their 10th-floor room and discovered the bodies, Bealefeld said.

Castillo was supposed to have returned the children to their mother in Silver Spring at 8:30 p.m. Saturday. His wife called Montgomery County police shortly after that time to say that her husband had not returned the children, Bealefeld said.


Baltimore police did not know how Montgomery County police responded, but said the cases were not connected until after the children's bodies were found.

Bealefeld wouldn't discuss the crime scene in detail but said police seized a laptop from the hotel room and were searching Castillo's home.

[kindee]

The system let these kids and their mom down.

[Roamer]

The system let these kids and their mom down.

Again. :mad:

[rem16]

Amy Castillo is on Larry King now..

[packy]

The system let these kids and their mom down.

Seems that way. So horrible.

[London Lass]

Update...http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-castillo0530,0,7051829.story?track=rss

[grammybears]

Darn it all for these three precious angels. This man should never had the opportunity to take these children without being supervised. I just cannot even imagine what their poor mother is going through. I guess we will have to wait and see about his mental capabilities. I get so tired of hearing that those people who committ crimes especially against children using the insanity defense.
If this man was so unhappy with his life then kill himself, but leave these kids alone.

It seems to me like he just wanted to make his ex wifes life miserable. He is selfish and a coward in my book to do such a horrible thing to those precious children.

jmoo

[Oceanblueeyes]

Darn it all for these three precious angels. This man should never had the opportunity to take these children without being supervised. I just cannot even imagine what their poor mother is going through. I guess we will have to wait and see about his mental capabilities. I get so tired of hearing that those people who commit crimes especially against children using the insanity defense.
If this man was so unhappy with his life then kill himself, but leave these kids alone.

It seems to me like he just wanted to make his ex wifes life miserable. He is selfish and a coward in my book to do such a horrible thing to those precious children.

jmoo

Actually I haven't heard of too many cases like this where the father is possibly going to use insanity as a defense.

That is the defense more commonly used when a mother kills her child or children.

Personally I am sick of it no matter which side uses it.

To me as long as this is so readily available as an excuse then these children will never have equal worth in the justice system for the loss of their innocent lives will never see full justice done.

imoo

[Faith]

Jury selection begins in trial of man accused of drowning children

1:11 p.m. EDT, October 8, 2009

Finding panelists who are uninformed about case proves to be challenge

http://i991.photobucket.com/albums/af35/missingpersonscases/Various%20Photos/fatherkilledkids.jpg

Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Wanda K. Heard knew it would be difficult to find a panel of jurors who hadn't heard about the case of Mark Castillo, who's charged with murder in the drowning deaths of his three children at an Inner Harbor hotel last year.

But if Thursday morning is an indicator, it might just be impossible.

Jury selection began about 10:30 a.m., when 145 people filed into room 400 of the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse, two floors down from Heard's usual courtroom and at least two times bigger. She needed the space: Heard had asked for extra people to appear during the selection process -- a so-called juror "overcall" -- in an effort to find uninformed people.

But when she explained the particulars of the case -- that Castillo is "alleged to have drowned his three children" -- a murmur spread through the crowd, which included Robert M. Bell, Chief Judge of Maryland's Court of Appeals. And when she asked those who knew "anything about the case" to stand, nearly all of them did, leaving fewer than 20 people sitting.

Castillo's case has been widely publicized since the crime was discovered in late March 2008.

Police say the 43-year-old Montgomery County man confessed to drowning his two boys and daughter, ages 6, 4 and 2, in a Marriott bathtub to punish his estranged wife, with whom he'd been having a lengthy divorce and custody battle, and that he tried to take his own life as well. A tape of the confession was played in court Wednesday. Castillo's attorneys, both public defenders, have filed a motion to suppress his statements to police, though Heard has yet to rule on the matter.

She plans to conclude jury selection Thursday, and begin the trial with opening statements Tuesday. Jurors will not sit on Friday, she said, so that she and the attorneys can finish up "housekeeping matters." It's likely the motions to suppress Castillo's statements will be considered then if she doesn't get to them Thursday.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bal-castillo-jury1008,0,4543061.story

[Pandabear]

How could a person hate so much that he would take the lives of the very children he claimed to want custody of? How could a person look into the face of their precious child and then take that child's life? I will never understand that...never. :1187603408.CR.Mothe

[Buffalogirl]

how sad...

[Roamer]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091014/ap_on_re_us/us_children_killed

Md. father pleads guilty to drowning 3 children

http://l.yimg.com/a/i/us/nws/p/ap_logo_106.png (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/brand/SIG=br2v03/*http://www.ap.org)

By BEN NUCKOLS, Associated Press Writer Ben Nuckols, Associated Press Writer – Wed Oct 14, 4:57 pm ET

BALTIMORE – A man with a history of mental illness pleaded guilty Wednesday to drowning his three young children one by one in a Baltimore hotel bathtub during a custody dispute with his former wife, who said she still cries every day over the deaths.

Mark A. Castillo, 43, told police and a fellow inmate that he wanted to cause anguish for his pediatrician ex-wife when he killed the children in March 2008.

Dr. Amy Castillo, a born-again Christian, said in court that she has compassion for her former husband and believes the family will be reunited after death, but she remains overwhelmed by grief.

"I have flashbacks, nightmares, chest pains — it's terrible — and some days I feel like I can't live," Amy Castillo said outside court. "Sometimes I get tired of the amount of time that it takes to get better."

In statements to police, Mark Castillo said he spent "a good day" with the children — Anthony, 6, Austin, 4, and Athena, 2 — at the Maryland Science Center before checking into a downtown hotel. He calmly described how he held them underwater for 10 minutes each, using a stopwatch, and laid their bodies on a bed.

Castillo then tried to commit suicide by stabbing himself in the neck with a steak knife.

He was sentenced to three consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole, and Baltimore Circuit Judge Wanda K. Heard recommended that he be committed to the Patuxent Institution, a maximum-security psychiatric facility.

"You have chosen to not make a spectacle," the judge told Castillo. "Your family can try to mend and move forward."

In his statement to the court, Castillo said, "I was wrong," then quoted from the Book of Ecclesiastes: "No man has authority to restrain the wind with the wind, or authority over the day of death."

Castillo's attorneys had planned to argue that he was not criminally reponsible for the killings — Maryland's version of an insanity plea.

He withdrew the plea last year before his public defenders reinstated it, and after some discussion in court Wednesday morning, he said he wanted to dismiss them. Heard tried to dissuade him, and Castillo then announced that he was pleading guilty.

It was the latest in a series of unpredictable moves by Castillo, who frequently wept during his court appearances and told a different judge last year, "You can give me the death penalty if you want."

Assistant State's Attorney Julie Drake, the lead prosecutor, said she was "shocked" when Castillo announced his intention to plead guilty. Attorneys had been picking a jury and arguing motions to suppress his statements to police.

Castillo's attorneys, Natasha D. Moody and Joan Fraser, declined interview requests but said in a brief statement that it was Castillo's "independent decision" to admit guilt.

Castillo's mother, sister and 21-year-old daughter from a previous relationship were in court Wednesday for the first time since his arrest. Amy Castillo said she thought their presence might have influenced him to accept responsibility for his actions.

"He has the love and support of his family, and he always will," Castillo's sister, Marisol Lopez, said in a brief statement to the court. His relatives did not speak to reporters.

Amy Castillo said she visited her ex-husband — a former gymnastics instructor and computer network technician — several times last year in a psychiatric facility to begin the process of forgiving him. She urged prosecutors to recommend that he serve his sentence at Patuxent in the hope that he could make something productive out of his confinement.

She said he had apologized to her several times, both in person and in writing.
"I know it doesn't sound like much, but a lot of people never get an apology from the person who's done something against them, and for me it really was better than nothing," Amy Castillo said. "God forgives me and has given me the power to forgive him. I'm not a bitter person, and that's going to help me move forward."