Cleveland kidnapping: Suspect Ariel Castro's daughter in prison for slashing her baby's throat
Emily Castro was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2008 for attempted murder of her 11-month-old daughter. Prosecutors argued Castro, then 19, was mentally ill and paranoid when she attacked the child.
By Philip Caulfield / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, May 7, 2013, 1:24 PM
Emily Castro, apparently the daughter of Ariel Castro, a former school bus driver accused of kidnapping three women and keeping them at his West Cleveland home. She is serving 25 years in prison for the attempted murder of her baby in 2007.
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The daughter of Ariel Castro, the main suspect in the kidnapping and decade-long imprisonment of three Cleveland women, is serving 25 years in jail for slashing her baby daughter's throat.
Emily Castro was convicted in Indiana in February 2008 of trying to kill her 11-month-old daughter Janyla, according to an Indiana newspaper and court reports.
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Castro, then 19, slashed the little girl's neck four times and then sliced herself in the neck and wrists during a grisly attack at her Fort Wayne home in April 2007, a court document said.
Cops who visited the home on reports of an injured child found the young mother smeared with blood, mud and water, the document said.
PHOTOS: THREE WOMEN, MISSING FOR A DECADE, FOUND ALIVE IN CLEVELAND HOME
Paramedics were called, and on the way to the hospital, Castro told police she cut herself with the same knife she used to attack the baby and then tried to drown herself in a creek, according to a 2008 appeal document.
Anthony Castro via Facebook
Emily Castro was convicted in 2008 of trying to kill her daughter, Janyla, above. According to court reports and a local newspaper, Castro cut the little girl's throat and then cut herself in the throat and wrists.
Little Janyla survived the attack and made a full recovery, the local Journal Gazette newspaper reported.
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During the trial in Allen Superior Court, defense attorneys argued Castro suffered from manic depression and was paranoid that her family was trying to kill her baby.
The brutal attack occurred amid some trouble between Castro and Janyla's father, Deangelo Gonzalez.
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The day before, Gonzalez, Castro's boyfriend since 2005, had moved out of their apartment for the third time, according to the appeal document. Prosecutors argued the attempted murder was payback.
At the trial, Castro told the court, "I don't know how this happened. I want you to know I am a very good mom," according to the Journal Gazette.
CNN
Castro, 52, a former school bus driver, as been arrested for the abduction of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight.
RELATED: CASTRO BROTHERS ARRESTED IN CONNECTION WITH MISSING CLEVELAND WOMEN
Her brother, Anthony Castro, also spoke on her behalf, saying his sister was not an "animal who tried to kill her daughter out of revenge."
"What happened to Janyla was serious, unthinkable and irreversible," he told the court, according to the newspaper. "What happened to my sister is no less serious."
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"Emily's mental illness was something the family saw every day, and it was regrettable it failed to meet the legal definition of insanity," he said.
In an odd twist to the Cleveland kidnapping case, Antony Castro, 31, penned a 2004 article for a local Cleveland newspaper about the disappearance Gina DeJesus, who was found Monday at his father's home.
RELATED: KIDNAPPING VICTIM AMANDA BERRY REUNITES WITH FAMILY
Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
A view of the house where the three women were found on Monday.
De Jesus, now 23, Amanda Berry, 27, and Michelle Knight, 32, were found at the West Cleveland home after Berry alerted a neighbor, police said.
All three women went missing in their teens or early 20s and were being held only a few miles from where they were last seen.
A photo on Anthony Castro's Facebook page appeared to show the troubled family in happier times.
In it, he appeared to be posing with little Janyla on her birthday.
Ariel Castro, whose own Facebook page says he has five grandchildren, commented on the pic.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Grand baby Janyla, love the flower on your hair...I Love You!" the elder Castro wrote.
With News Wire Services
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