Ariel Castro's bail set at $8 million in Cleveland abduction case

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The attic of Ariel Castro’s home is torn open by an excavator, exposing personal items inside. (Angelo Merendino / Getty Images)

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A sheriff’s deputy stands guard as the house of convicted kidnapper and rapist Ariel Castro is torn down in Cleveland. (David Maxwell / EPA)

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The rubble of Ariel Castro’s home is loaded into a dump truck to be hauled away. (David Maxwell / EPA)

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A demolition crew removes the remains of Ariel Castro’s home after it was torn down in Cleveland. (Angelo Merendino / Getty Images)

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Neighbors Jessica Rodriguez and Caitlin Coyne, both 19, walk last month past the house where Ariel Castro kept three women captive for a decade. The house was torn down Wednesday. (Andrew Welsh-Huggins / Associated Press)

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A model of Ariel Castro’s house was used in court. (Tony Dejak / Associated Press)

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At his sentencing on Aug. 1, Ariel Castro told Judge Michael J. Russo, “I’m not a monster, I’m sick.... I’m a happy person inside.” Castro was found hanged in his prison cell a few weeks into a life sentence without parole. (Angelo Merendino / Getty Images)

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Michelle Knight makes a statement in court before Ariel Castro was sentenced on Aug. 1. (Tony Dejak / Associated Press)

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Cuyahoga County sheriff’s booking photo of Ariel Castro. (AFP / Getty Images)

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Ariel Castro appears in Cleveland Municipal Court alongside defense attorney Kathleen DeMetz. Castro is charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape in connection with the disappearance of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight. The fourth kidnapping count applies to Berry’s 6-year-old daughter, who was born in captivity. (Tony Dejak / Associated Press)

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Ariel Castro, left of lectern, is arraigned in Cleveland Municipal Court in front of judge Lauren Moore. (Emmanuel Dunand / AFP/Getty Images)

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A police officer walks past the house in Cleveland where Ariel Castro allegedly held captive Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight. (Matt Sullivan / Getty Images)

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The upper-floor window of Ariel Castro’s house in Cleveland is covered. (David Duprey / Associated Press)

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Gina DeJesus gives a thumbs up as she is escorted toward her home in Cleveland. (Tony Dejak / Associated Press)

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Felix DeJesus pumps his fist after bringing home his daughter, Gina. (Tony Dejak / Associated Press)

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Gina DeJesus’s mother, Nancy, talks to the media after her daughter arrived at her family’s home. (Emmanuel Dunand / AFP/Getty Images)

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Gina DeJesus’ father, Felix, back to camera, hugs family members outside their home during his daughter’s homecoming. (Matt Sullivan / Getty Images)

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A car carrying Amanda Berry arrives at her sister’s house in Cleveland, Ohio. (Emmanuel Dunand / AFP/Getty Images)

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Beth Serrano, sister of Amanda Berry, reads a statement to the media outside her Cleveland home after the arrival of Berry. (Tony Dejak / Associated Press)

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John Berry holds a photo of his daughter Amanda, who was 16 when she was abducted. She was the first of the women to escape Monday. (Patrick Murphy-Racey / Associated Press)

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A tree bears a poster seeking information on Amanda Berry. (Tony Dejak / Associated Press)

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Friends and relatives stand in front of the family home of Gina DeJesus in Cleveland, Ohio. (Emmanuel Dunand / AFP/Getty Images)

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FBI forensic personnel remove evidence from the Cleveland house where three women allegedly were held captive for a decade. (Emmanuel Dunand / AFP/Getty Images)

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A man carries the front page of the Cleveland Plain Dealer with news of the missing women’s rescue as neighbors gather along Seymour Avenue near the house where the women had been held for the last decade. (Bill Pugliano / Getty Images)

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Well-wishers put up a welcome home sign at Gina DeJesus’ home in Cleveland. (David Maxwell / EPA)

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Charles Ramsey, who lives near the home where three missing women were rescued in Cleveland, speaks to reporters. (Scott Shaw / Associated Press)

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Ricardo DeJesus talks about his sister Gina at the family’s home in Cleveland. Police said Gina DeJesus and two other women who went missing separately about a decade ago were found Monday. (Tony Dejak / Associated Press)

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The home in Cleveland where three women were found alive about 10 years after they disappeared as teenagers. (Bill Pugliano / Getty Images)

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Felix DeJesus, father of Gina DeJesus, holds up an enlarged photograph of his then-14-year-old daughter next to a display in his living room shortly after she disappeared in March 2004. (Tony Dejak / Associated Press)

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An FBI evidence team removes items from the Cleveland house where three women who went missing separately about a decade ago were found. (Mark Duncan / Associated Press)

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Police officers stand outside a home where Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight were found. (Scott Shaw / Associated Press)

By Michael Muskal

May 9, 2013 9 AM PT

Ariel Castro, a former school bus driver, was arraigned Thursday on rape and kidnapping charges in connection with the disappearance of three Cleveland women, and his bail was set at $8 million.

It was the first court appearance for Castro, 52. He did not speak during the brief televised proceeding, and no plea was entered on his behalf. Wearing dark blue jail togs, he spent his time looking downward. He was handcuffed but his feet were not shackled.

Castro is charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape in connection with the disappearance of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight. The fourth kidnapping count applies to Berry’s 6-year-old daughter, who was born in captivity. Officials have said they will test to determine who is the father of Berry’s child.

Berry, now 27, was just shy of her 17th birthday when she vanished in 2003. Knight, 32, was 20 when she disappeared in 2002. DeJesus was 14 when she went missing in 2004.

Authorities say the women had been held since their abductions in horrific conditions in a house at 2207 Seymour Ave., kept mainly in the dark and allowed outside just a few times over the years.

Their ordeal at the house ended Monday when Berry broke through a screen door and with the help of neighbors contacted police who went to the home and freed the others.

Brian Murphy, a Cuyahoga County prosecutor, told the court Thursday that the women had endured a “horrifying ordeal for more than a decade” in which they were beaten repeatedly and “bound, restrained and sexually assaulted.”

The charges against Castro, Murphy said, were based his “premeditated, deliberate and depraved decisions to snatch three young ladies from Cleveland’s west side streets to use for whatever self-gratifying, self-serving ways that he saw fit.”

Castro was represented by a public defender, Kathleen DeMetz, who said he would be sent to a city jail medical unit — where those charged with sex crimes or considered suicide risks are normally taken. She said he probably would be held under suicide watch.

Cleveland Municipal Court judge Lauren Moore ordered Castro held in lieu of bail, which the judge set at $8 million -- $2 million for each of the four victims.

Thursday’s appearance was just the first in the case. A grand jury will examine the case and is expected to bring charges, officials said.

Castro and his two brothers were arrested after the women’s escape Monday. On Wednesday authorities said there was no evidence linking 54-year-old Pedro Castro and 50-year-old Onil Castro to the house or the kidnappings. However, they also appeared in court Thursday to answer previous, unrelated charges.

Pedro Castro pleaded no contest to an open container charge while two charges against Onil Castro, 50, were dismissed. Both men were expected to be released.

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