Whether Ariel Castro accepted a plea bargain to avoid the death penalty or to avoid hearing the testimony of the three women he is responsible for kidnapping and torturing for years in his home on Seymour Avenue in Cleveland Ohio, no one will ever know for sure his reason behind the decision. On Friday July 26, 2013, CNN News reports that Ariel Castro was present in an Ohio courtroom to face over 900 criminal charges filed against him by the State of Ohio. The charges range from sexual assault, kidnapping, and aggravated murder.

The aggravated murder charge stems from the physical abuse he inflicted on one of his victims causing her to have a miscarriage. CNN is reporting he may be responsible for four other miscarriages or pregnancy losses during the time he held three women captive in his house on Seymour Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. Authorities have identified Ariel Castro through DNA tests as the biological father of the six-year-old child rescued with the three women.

In a previous article “Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus”, the emerging story dubbed the “Miracle in Ohio” highlighting the breaking news story detailing the escape of the three women and a six year old child on May 6, 2013. Multiple news sources covered breaking news reports of “three women and a six-year-old child who had been rescued from a house on Seymour Avenue in Cleveland Ohio. Authorities quickly acknowledged that the three women rescued were reported missing according to the information provided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

At the age of twenty, Michelle Knight disappeared August 23, 2002. Then sixteen-year-old Amanda Berry disappeared April 21, 2003, followed by fourteen-year-old Georgina “Gina” DeJesus who went missing April 2, 2004. Ironically, all three girls resided on Lorain Avenue living a few blocks apart from each other prior to their disappearance. They were located less than five miles from their homes when rescued from the house of horrors at 2207 Seymour Avenue almost a decade later.

According to CNN News, Judge Michael J. Russo went over the deal with Ariel Castro in court Friday. “The plea recommends that he be sentenced to life in prison without parole -- that he never get a parole hearing. It would also mean that a trial Castro was facing on August 5 would not happen and he would not face the possibility of being sentenced to death”. The judge also informed Castro he is a sexual predator. To ensure there is no way Ariel Castro will ever step outside of prison walls alive the plea adds 1000 years to his life sentence.

In closing, newsnet5.com, reports that today “Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty made the announcement Friday after court adjourned that the house at 2207 Seymour Avenue will be demolished along with the two abandoned homes directly to the west of Castro’s house in the coming months. The demolition of the house will put an end to a decade long horror story where three incredibly strong women came out as survivors. In addition, the little girl born to Amanda Berry will grow up in a safe home free from the terror of a man who in court blames his victimization in childhood for his behavior in adulthood.

Please pray that that Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, Amanda’s daughter, and Gina DeJesus are surrounded in the warm white healing light of angel wings as they begin to live a life of freedom.