Judge orders Ariel Castro to undergo competency evaluation

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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 Associated Press

June 26, 2013 12:28 PM PT

CLEVELAND — A man charged with holding three women captive in his Cleveland home for over a decade will undergo an evaluation to determine if he is mentally competent to stand trial, a judge ordered Wednesday.

Although both the defense and prosecution agree Ariel Castro is competent, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Michael Russo said he wants to make sure the 52-year-old man is able to understand the charges and assist attorneys in his defense.

The examination by a court-appointed doctor will probably take place Thursday, the judge said.

PHOTOS: Kidnapping victims found

Castro has pleaded not guilty to 329 counts in an indictment that covers August 2002, when the first woman disappeared, to February 2007. More charges could be filed in the case cracked May 6 when one woman escaped from Castro’s house, leading to the rescue of the other two.

Prosecutor Tim McGinty told the judge he would be going back to the grand jury soon to seek the additional charges. Ohio Atty. Gen. Mike DeWine said this month that a state crime laboratory is checking new evidence to determine if there were additional victims.

McGinty said he believes Castro understood what he was doing when the crimes were committed and that he is competent now.

“We have absolutely no doubt … that he’s entirely competent, knows exactly what he’s doing now and did then,” McGinty said in court Wednesday.

Photos: Long-term abductions

Castro’s attorney, Craig Weintraub, told reporters afterward that he believes his client is competent for trial.

A brief statement issued Wednesday by attorneys on behalf of the women suggested that they want a quick resolution of the case.

“The longer this process lasts, the more painful it is for them. And the more sordid details of this horror that get disclosed in this process, the more painful it is for them,” said Kathy Joseph, attorney for Michelle Knight.

James Wooley, representing Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus, said the women have faith in the legal process but added, “The simple, honest truth is they would like it to be over. They want this whole thing behind them. Any date set by which this may end is like light at the end of a tunnel.”

The indictment alleges that Castro held the women captive, sometimes chaining them to a pole in a basement, to a bedroom heater or inside a van. One of the women had a child by Castro. The indictment says that when one of the women tried to escape, he assaulted her with a vacuum cord around her neck.

McGinty hasn’t said if he’ll pursue a death sentence for a charge of forced miscarriage involving one woman.

Castro is being held in lieu of $8-million bail and has turned down media interview requests.

The trial has been scheduled for early August, but that could change to give attorneys more time to prepare. Another pretrial hearing was set for July 3.

Weintraub said he received 900 documents from prosecutors Tuesday night but he doesn’t think “there’s any information in there that we don’t already know.”

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