Cleveland kidnapper sentenced to life plus 1,000 years

The Cleveland man accused of holding three women captive in his home for about a decade pleaded guilty yesterday in a deal to avoid the death penalty.

In exchange, prosecutors recommended Ariel Castro be sentenced to life without parole plus 1,000 years.

Castro, 53, said he understood that he would never get out of prison, saying he expected he was “going to get the book thrown at me”. He later added, “I knew that when I first spoke to the FBI agent when I first got arrested.”