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Three months after an Ohio woman kicked out part of a door to end nearly a decade of captivity, a former school bus driver who kidnapped three women and subjected them to years of sexual and physical abuse was being sentenced Thursday.

 Ariel Castro, center, listens in the courtroom during the sentencing phase Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Defense attorney's Craig Weintraub, left, and Jaye Schlachet sit beside Castro. Three... (Associated Press)

 Ariel Castro listens in the courtroom during the sentencing phase Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Three months after an Ohio woman kicked out part of a door to end nearly a decade of captivity,... (Associated Press)

 Ariel Castro enters the courtroom during the sentencing phase Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Three months after an Ohio woman kicked out part of a door to end nearly a decade of captivity, Castro,... (Associated Press)

 A close-up of a model of the house on Seymour Ave. where Ariel Castro held three women is displayed in court Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Castro, a onetime school bus driver faces sentencing... (Associated Press)

 FILE - File images from the video provided by Hennes Paynter Communications shows from left: Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight. The three women held captive in a Cleveland home for a decade... (Associated Press)

 A close-up of a model of the house on Seymour Ave. where Ariel Castro held three women is displayed in court Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Castro, a onetime school bus driver faces sentencing... (Associated Press)

 Sheriff's deputies set in place a model of the house on Seymour Ave. where Ariel Castro held three women Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Three months after an Ohio woman kicked out part of a door... (Associated Press)

 Ariel Castro sits in the courtroom during the sentencing phase Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Three months after an Ohio woman kicked out part of a door to end nearly a decade of captivity, Castro,... (Associated Press)

 Prosecutors began detailing Ariel Castro's daily assaults on the women, recounted in diaries that compared the women's experience to that of prisoners of war. With the possibility of the death penalty for a forced miscarriage taken off the table, Castro stands to get life in prison plus 1,000 years.

 Early in the hearing, Castro tried to apologize to the victims, but after speaking with the judge said he would do that later in the proceeding.

 A police officer who helped rescue the women said one was reluctant to come out of her room even when she saw the officers. They were scared even after they were taken out of the house and quickly began sharing details about the horrors they went through, saying that they had been starved and beaten.

 "They were just shouting out a lot of things," said Cleveland police officer Barb Johnson. She described the women as thin, pale and scared.

 Responding to questions from prosecutors, Cleveland police detective Andrew Harasimchuk said that the women all described a pattern of being physically, sexually and emotionally assaulted for years. He said all three women were abducted after Castro offered them a ride and that each was chained in his basement and sexually assaulted within a few hours of being kidnapped.

 Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty said in a sentencing memorandum filed Wednesday that Castro, who chained his captives and fed them only one meal a day, "admits his disgusting and inhuman conduct" but "remains remorseless for his actions."

 The memorandum says many of the specific charges in Castro's indictment reflect conduct documented by one of the women in her diary.

 "The entries speak of forced sexual conduct, of being locked in a dark room, of anticipating the next session of abuse, of the dreams of someday escaping and being reunited with family, of being chained to a wall, of being held like a prisoner of war ... of being treated like an animal," it says.

 The sentencing could take up to four hours, court officials said, with Castro, his attorneys, his victims and prosecutors getting a chance to speak. The legal team representing the women's interests declined to comment on whether they would testify or send statements to the court.

 Prosecutors brought a model of the house where Castro, 53, imprisoned the women into the courtroom Thursday ahead of the sentencing.

 In the court filing, McGinty said Castro chained his captives by their ankles, fed them only one meal a day and provided plastic toilets in their bedrooms that were infrequently emptied, the filing said. At one point, he locked all of them in a vehicle in his garage for three days while he had a visitor, according to McGinty's filing.

 The women quickly escaped after Amanda Berry kicked out the door panel on May 6 and Castro was arrested within hours. The women disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16 and 20 years old.

 Other horrific details of the women's ordeal had already emerged, including tales of being chained to poles in the basement or a bedroom heater or inside a van, with one woman forced to wear a motorcycle helmet while chained in the basement and, after she tried to escape, having a vacuum cord wrapped around her neck.

 Castro repeatedly starved and beat one of the victims each time she was pregnant, forcing her to miscarry five times.

 He forced the same woman on threat of death to safely deliver the child he fathered with another victim on Christmas Day 2006. The same day, prosecutors say, Castro raped the woman who helped deliver his daughter.

 Prosecutors will ask the judge to prohibit Castro from ever seeing his daughter, now 6.

 As part of his plea deal, Castro received a sentence of life with no chance of parole for aggravated murder in the forced miscarriage. He then received 1,000 years for the kidnapping, rape, assault and other charges.

 Berry, 27, made a surprise onstage appearance at a rap concert last weekend, and a second victim, Gina DeJesus, 23, has made a few televised comments. Knight, 32, appeared with Berry and DeJesus in a video in early July thanking the community for its support.

 Knight, the first of three to disappear, also sent police a handwritten letter thanking them for their help collecting cards and gifts for the women. In the note, Knight told Second District Cmdr. Keith Sulzer, "Life is tough, but I'm tougher!"

 ___

 Welsh-Huggins reported from Columbus, Ohio. ||||| Story highlights Judge sentences Castro to life in prison, plus 1,000 years

 Ariel Castro insists he's not a "violent sexual predator"

 He swears he didn't beat the victims

 Victim Michelle Knight reads impact statement to Castro

 When her chance came, kidnapping victim Michelle Knight lit into Ariel Castro, the man who held her captive and raped her in his Cleveland home for a decade.

 "You took 11 years of my life away," she said. "I spent 11 years in hell. Now, your hell is just beginning."

 In handing down a sentence of life without parole plus 1,000 years in prison, Judge Michael Russo told the kidnapper there was no place in the world for his brand of criminal.

 Castro's first stop after country jail will be the Lorain prison in Grafton, Ohio, where officials will evaluate him and decide where he will serve his sentence.

 "You don't deserve to be out in our community," Russo told the defendant, explaining he would never leave prison. "You're too dangerous."

 Castro pleaded guilty last week to 937 counts , including murder and kidnapping, in exchange for the death penalty being taken off the table. The charges stem from his kidnapping, rape and assault of three women: Knight, abducted in 2002; Georgina DeJesus, abducted in 2004; and Amanda Berry; abducted in 2003.

 Castro is the father of Berry's 6-year-old girl, DNA tests confirmed.

 All three women kept diaries with Castro's permission, providing many of the details of their abuse.

 Berry and DeJesus, who did not attend the hearing, sent family members to deliver impact statements on their behalves, while Knight, 32, chose to address her abductor head-on.

 Photos: Evidence photos from Castro's trial Photos: Evidence photos from Castro's trial Evidence photos from Castro's trial – Ariel Castro's sentencing for the kidnapping and rape of three women in Ohio will be issued Thursday, August 1. During the trial, the prosecution presented images from inside the house that reveal the disturbing conditions in which they were held. A model of the house was also included. Hide Caption 1 of 12 Photos: Evidence photos from Castro's trial Evidence photos from Castro's trial – Chains constrained the women in the basement. Hide Caption 2 of 12 Photos: Evidence photos from Castro's trial Evidence photos from Castro's trial – Castro had a gun in the home and told Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Detective David Jacobs he would "show to the girls as a form of control." Asked whether he had ever forced the girls to play Russian roulette, Castro told Jacobs that he didn't remember it, "but if the girls said it, it probably happened." Hide Caption 3 of 12 Photos: Evidence photos from Castro's trial Evidence photos from Castro's trial – Amanda Berry spent most of her time in this bathroom with her daughter. Hide Caption 4 of 12 Photos: Evidence photos from Castro's trial Evidence photos from Castro's trial – Stuffed animals lie on a bed in the house. Hide Caption 5 of 12 Photos: Evidence photos from Castro's trial Evidence photos from Castro's trial – Castro describes himself as a sexual predator in a letter. Hide Caption 6 of 12 Photos: Evidence photos from Castro's trial Evidence photos from Castro's trial – Berry and Michelle Knight were forced to wear a helmet the first time Castro sexually assaulted them, according to Andrew Harasimchuk, a detective with the sex crimes unit. Hide Caption 7 of 12 Photos: Evidence photos from Castro's trial Evidence photos from Castro's trial – Toys and other belongings are piled in a bedroom. Hide Caption 8 of 12 Photos: Evidence photos from Castro's trial Evidence photos from Castro's trial – The FBI agent interviewed on the stand said Castro would make the women wear a brown wig on the rare occasion he let them out of the home. Hide Caption 9 of 12 Photos: Evidence photos from Castro's trial Evidence photos from Castro's trial – Chains ran through the walls in the house, the prosecution said. Hide Caption 10 of 12 Photos: Evidence photos from Castro's trial Evidence photos from Castro's trial – The pole to which the women were chained in the basement is pictured running through an upstairs bedroom. Hide Caption 11 of 12 Photos: Evidence photos from Castro's trial Evidence photos from Castro's trial – Stairs led down to the basement. Hide Caption 12 of 12

 JUST WATCHED See photos taken inside Castro's home Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH See photos taken inside Castro's home 02:02

 JUST WATCHED Michelle Knight: 'I was so alone' Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Michelle Knight: 'I was so alone' 03:03

 "I cried every night. I was so alone. I worried what would happen to me and the other girls every day," she said, promising to overcome the experience. "I will live on. You will die a little every day."

 She said her friendship with DeJesus was the only positive element of her years in captivity and expressed gratitude that her "teammate" was there to save her when she was "dying from his abuse."

 In a pre-sentencing evaluation , Dr. Frank Ochberg, a pioneer in trauma science, wrote that Knight suffered "the longest and most severely."

 "It was Michelle who served as doctor, nurse, midwife and pediatrician during the birth (of Berry's child). She breathed life into that infant when she wasn't breathing," he wrote. "At other times, she interceded when Castro sought to abuse Gina, interposing herself and absorbing physical and sexual trauma. But each survivor had a will to prevail and used that will to live through the ordeal."

 "Happy household"

 Despite his repeated insistence that he wasn't making excuses for his conduct, Castro played the victim, saying he was addicted to porn and masturbation. In his oft-disjointed statement, he referred to himself as "very emotional" and "a happy person inside."

 Castro appeared to blame the victims and accused them of lying about their treatment. He went on to say that none of the women was a virgin when he abducted them, that they wanted sex and there was "harmony" in the "happy household."

 Castro even claimed that no one cared enough about Knight to search for her after her after she disappeared.

 "I'm not a monster. I'm just sick. I have an addiction, just like an alcoholic has an addiction," he said. "God as my witness, I never beat these women like they're trying to say that I did. I never tortured them."

 When Castro finished his statement, Russo dubbed him a "violent sexual predator" and thanked Knight for showing "remarkable restraint" during the hearing.

 Wearing eyeglasses and an orange prison uniform, the shackled Castro characterized his crimes in a far gentler light than the book-length indictment handed down against him: "I'm not a violent person. I simply kept them there so they couldn't leave."

 Testimony from authorities and mental health experts didn't jibe with Castro's recollection, however. Police recalled how the women were forced to play Russian roulette and how Castro would throw money at them after raping them.

 Det. David Jacobs of the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office testified he'd also show a gun "to the girls as a form of control."

 It was all to "purely satisfy his sexual needs," Jacobs said. " 'I knew what I did was wrong.' He said that more than once."

 Castro's 1,400-square-foot home was reconfigured to keep their whereabouts a secret, FBI agent Andrew Burke testified. The back door was outfitted with an alarm, bedspreads and curtains obscured parts of them home and a porch swing was placed in front of the stairs leading to the rooms where Castro held the women and girl hostage.

 Police also testified Castro would chain the women to objects, including a support pole in his basement.

 In the room where Berry and her daughter were held, the doorknob was removed, a lock was affixed to the outside and a hole was cut through the door for ventilation because the windows had been boarded up from the inside, Burke said.

 Burke also described a handwritten letter in which Castro claimed he had been sexually abused as a child and wrote, "I am a sexual predator."

 "You saved us!"

 The first police officer on the scene, Barbara Johnson, recalled for the court how she and another officer heard the pitter-patter of footsteps in a dark room where Knight and DeJesus were held.

 When the captive women realized they were police, Knight "literally launched herself" onto an officer, "legs, arms, just choking him. She just kept repeating, 'You saved us! You saved us!' " Johnson said.

 The women were described as scared, pale, malnourished and dehydrated when they were rescued. Dr. Gerald Maloney, who was in the emergency room when the victims arrived, said Knight requested that no male physicians attend to her.

 JUST WATCHED Photos of Castro's victims after rescue Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Photos of Castro's victims after rescue 01:37

 JUST WATCHED Officer recounts Castro victims' abuse Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Officer recounts Castro victims' abuse 02:42

 Photos: The Clark Fulton neighborhood Photos: The Clark Fulton neighborhood The Clark Fulton neighborhood – Deborah Knight, the grandmother of kidnapping victim Michelle Knight, participates in a community balloon-release service in Michelle's honor on Thursday, May 9, in Cleveland. Four females were found in a home on Seymour Avenue in the Clark Fulton neighborhood on Monday. Since then, the neighborhood and the nation have wondered how they were held captive without anyone noticing sooner. Hide Caption 1 of 15 Photos: The Clark Fulton neighborhood The Clark Fulton neighborhood – Authorities say Ariel Castro held three women -- Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight. DNA tests confirmed that he fathered a girl born to Berry, who was among those rescued, the Ohio attorney general's office said Friday. His house, third from left, is now a crime scene. Hide Caption 2 of 15 Photos: The Clark Fulton neighborhood The Clark Fulton neighborhood – 57-year-old Ronice Dunn moved into the neighborhood in 1984. For years after Berry and DeJesus disappeared, she joined in neighborhood vigils and prayer groups for their safe return. Hide Caption 3 of 15 Photos: The Clark Fulton neighborhood The Clark Fulton neighborhood – A building sits boarded up on Seymour Avenue. The Clark Fulton neighborhood is beset by nearly double-digit unemployment, and one in every five houses is in foreclosure. Hide Caption 4 of 15 Photos: The Clark Fulton neighborhood The Clark Fulton neighborhood – The media set up tents near Castro's home. Hide Caption 5 of 15 Photos: The Clark Fulton neighborhood The Clark Fulton neighborhood – Kinkel Avenue is a few blocks from Castro's home. Hide Caption 6 of 15 Photos: The Clark Fulton neighborhood The Clark Fulton neighborhood – The house of Onil Castro's two sons, where he was staying when he was arrested on Kinkel Avenue. He and his brother Pedro were arrested along with Ariel Castro, but later were released and not charged. Hide Caption 7 of 15 Photos: The Clark Fulton neighborhood The Clark Fulton neighborhood – "Why didn't I notice anything? What should I have been looking for?" asked Mickie Wodgik, who spent years living across the street from Castro and, it turns out, the three missing women. Hide Caption 8 of 15 Photos: The Clark Fulton neighborhood The Clark Fulton neighborhood – Around the corner from Seymour Avenue, graffiti is written on an abandoned building. Hide Caption 9 of 15 Photos: The Clark Fulton neighborhood The Clark Fulton neighborhood – A street view shows West 25th Street, which runs perpendicular to Seymour Avenue. Hide Caption 10 of 15 Photos: The Clark Fulton neighborhood The Clark Fulton neighborhood – Cynthia Conor, who has lived in the same house for 38 years, often drank with Castro and and his brother Pedro, she said. Her father trained Castro for his school bus job. Hide Caption 11 of 15 Photos: The Clark Fulton neighborhood The Clark Fulton neighborhood – A man stands on Clark Avenue in front of painted buildings. Hide Caption 12 of 15 Photos: The Clark Fulton neighborhood The Clark Fulton neighborhood – This boarded-up building sits across the street from Castro's house. Hide Caption 13 of 15 Photos: The Clark Fulton neighborhood The Clark Fulton neighborhood – Pastor Joe Abraham has ministered to many in this neighborhood for more than 25 years, including as the leader of Scranton Road Bible Church. Hide Caption 14 of 15 Photos: The Clark Fulton neighborhood The Clark Fulton neighborhood – People hold balloons during a community balloon-release service in kidnapping victim Michelle Knight's honor. Hide Caption 15 of 15

 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Ariel Castro listens during the sentencing phase of his trial on August 1 in Cleveland alongside defense attorneys Craig Weintraub, left, and Jaye Schlachet. Castro held three women captive for years inside his Ohio home until their escape in May 2013. He pleaded guilty to 937 counts, including murder and kidnapping. On September 4, Castro was found dead inside his prison cell in Orient, Ohio. Hide Caption 1 of 17 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Former captive Michelle Knight, center, talks with reporters on August 7 outside convicted kidnapper Ariel Castro's house. Knight was on hand as workers began tearing down the structure. Hide Caption 2 of 17 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – A crane demolishes the Cleveland house of Castro on August 7. Plans call for the house to be torn down and the lot cleared in a single day. Hide Caption 3 of 17 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Here is a view of the house where Castro held the three women captive. He forfeited the house as part of a plea deal with prosecutors that took the death penalty off the table in exchange for a life sentence, plus 1,000 years in prison. Hide Caption 4 of 17 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Photos: Kidnapped teens found decade later – Michelle Knight speaks during the sentencing phase for Ariel Castro on August 1 in Cleveland. "I will live on," Knight said in her statement to Castro. "You will die a little every day." Hide Caption 5 of 17 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Photos: Kidnapped teens found decade later – Amanda Berry vanished a few blocks from her Cleveland home on April 21, 2003. She was 16. She spoke in a video released on YouTube on July 8, thanking people for support and privacy. Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight escaped from a Cleveland home on May 6, 2013, after being held captive for nearly a decade. Hide Caption 6 of 17 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Photos: Kidnapped teens found decade later – Georgina "Gina" DeJesus was last seen in Cleveland on April 2, 2004, on her way home from school. She was 14 when she went missing. Hide Caption 7 of 17 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Photos: Kidnapped teens found decade later – Knight was last seen on August 22, 2002, when she was 21. Hide Caption 8 of 17 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – FBI agents and other law enforcement officers stand outside Castro's home in Cleveland on May 9, 2013. Hide Caption 9 of 17 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Castro hangs his head while talking with his public defender, Kathleen DeMetz, during his arraignment on May 9, 2013. Hide Caption 10 of 17 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Ariel Castro was charged on May 8, 2013, with kidnapping the three women. Hide Caption 11 of 17 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Investigators remove evidence from the house on Seymour Avenue in Cleveland where the three women were held. Hide Caption 12 of 17 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – An FBI forensics team meets outside the house where three women were held as they investigate the property. Hide Caption 13 of 17 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Cleveland Deputy Chief of Police Ed Tomba, center, speaks at a news conference to address details of the developments. Hide Caption 14 of 17 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – FBI agents remove evidence from the house May 7, 2013. Hide Caption 15 of 17 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – A police officer stands in front of the broken front door of the house on May 7, 2013, where the kidnapped women escaped. Hide Caption 16 of 17 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Neighbor Charles Ramsey talks to media as people congratulate him on helping the kidnapped women escape on May 6, 2013. He helped knock down the door after he heard screaming inside. Hide Caption 17 of 17

 Several witnesses said the women told them stories of being physically abused and deprived of food, and Det. Andrew Harasimchuk told the judge the women were raped "vaginally, orally and anally" during their captivity.

 Multiple officers testified that Castro appeared to show no remorse for his crimes, and prosecutor Anna Faraglia said he "tormented" his victims by allowing them to watch vigils held in their honor, and he even attended some.

 Castro would talk to his victims' parents as if he were distraught by their disappearances when "they were right underneath his roof," Faraglia said.

 Outlining the emotional toll their captivity took on the women, Ochberg said the victims will be subjected to life sentences of their own, as their memories will not go away. When they were abducted, the women were all of the age at which humans are learning to be intimate in life.

 "This was not real intimacy. This was a perversion of intimacy," Ochberg said, further describing the women's survival and coping skills as "marvelous, compelling examples of resilience, of imagination, of humanity."

 Ochberg's evaluation -- using statements, medical records, videotaped interviews and transcripts -- painted a horrifying picture of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of Castro, including brutal beatings and repeated rapes that resulted in pregnancies that he would terminate by punching the women in the stomach.

 "He appeared to be evolving in an ever more dangerous direction, capturing younger and younger women, telling his captives he was hunting for replacements," Ochberg wrote before sentencing.

 Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Gregory Saathoff described the women's ordeal as a "complete and comprehensive captivity" and said when he first learned of Castro's crimes, he wrote, "The scope and magnitude of Ariel Castro's crimes is unprecedented."

 But asked if he felt Castro suffered from mental illness -- something the defendant repeatedly asserted during his statement -- Saathoff was firm that an examination showed he suffered from "no psychiatric illness whatsoever."

 "Thank you, victims"

 In addition to the guarantee from Russo that he "will never be released from incarceration during the period of his remaining natural life for any reason," Castro was also hit with a forfeiture of property and fined $100,000.

 As the judge sentenced him, Castro took issue with the aggravated murder charge related to the termination of his victim's pregnancies, saying there was no evidence those incidents occurred. Judge Michael Russo reminded him that he had already pleaded guilty, and Castro said he did so only to save his victims further trauma.

 "In your mind, there was harmony and a happy household," Russo said. "I'm not sure there's anyone else in America who would agree with you."

 As the hearing came to a close, Castro turned around and glanced at family members of the victims.

 "Thank you, victims. Please find it in your heart to forgive me," he said.

 In each case, Castro lured the women into his car with the promise of a ride, according to court documents. The women and girl were freed in May after Berry shouted for help while Castro was away.

 Neighbors heard her cries and came to her aid as she tried to break through a door. One neighbor gave her a cell phone to call authorities.

 "Help me, I am Amanda Berry," she frantically told a 911 operator. "I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years. And I'm here, I'm free now."

 In early July, Berry, DeJesus and Knight released a YouTube video offering their thanks to all those who have helped them since they were freed. Berry and DeJesus have not faced their tormentor since their rescue.

 "I want to thank everyone who has helped me and my family through this entire ordeal. Everyone who has been there to support us has been a blessing," Berry said in the video. "I'm getting stronger each day." ||||| Ariel Castro sits in the courtroom during the sentencing phase Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Three months after an Ohio woman kicked out part of a door to end nearly a decade of captivity, Castro,... (Associated Press)

 Sheriff's deputies set in place a model of the house on Seymour Ave. where Ariel Castro held three women Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Three months after an Ohio woman kicked out part of a door... (Associated Press)

 Ariel Castro rubs his nose in the courtroom during the sentencing phase Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Three months after an Ohio woman kicked out part of a door to end nearly a decade of captivity,... (Associated Press)

 Chains found in an upstairs bedroom at the Seymour Ave. house are shown on a television monitor during the sentencing phase of Ariel Castro Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Three months after an... (Associated Press)

 Michelle Knight sits in the courtroom during a break in the sentencing phase for Ariel Castro Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Knight one of the victims of Castro testified at the sentencing Thursday.... (Associated Press)

 A close-up of a model of the house on Seymour Ave. where Ariel Castro held three women is displayed in court Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Castro, a onetime school bus driver faces sentencing... (Associated Press)

 FILE - File images from the video provided by Hennes Paynter Communications shows from left: Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight. The three women held captive in a Cleveland home for a decade... (Associated Press)

 Ariel Castro sits close to a model of the house on Seymour Ave. , where three women were held in the courtroom during the sentencing phase Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Three months after an Ohio... (Associated Press)

 A close-up of a model of the house on Seymour Ave. where Ariel Castro held three women is displayed in court Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Castro, a onetime school bus driver faces sentencing... (Associated Press)

 Ariel Castro, center, listens in the courtroom during the sentencing phase Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Defense attorney's Craig Weintraub, left, and Jaye Schlachet sit beside Castro. Three... (Associated Press)

 Ariel Castro listens in the courtroom during the sentencing phase Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Three months after an Ohio woman kicked out part of a door to end nearly a decade of captivity,... (Associated Press) ||||| Ariel Castro has been sentenced to life in prison plus 1,000 years for abducting three women in Cleveland and subjecting them to unspeakable torture for over a decade. Today is Castro's sentencing and law enforcement agents are testifying to what they discovered in the house and by interviewing the women, Amanda Berry, Georgina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight. As might be expected, some horrific details are coming out about their time in captivity. Many have wondered how Ariel managed to get three women into his house to begin with. Well, he used his children. That's right, he used the names of his children -- all of whom were well-known to his victims -- to lure them inside his chamber of horrors. In short, the women trusted him. Because they knew his children. They felt they knew him. They were wrong.

 Michelle, who was the first to be kidnapped when she was 20, says she was walking to visit the social worker who was in charge of her child, reportedly the child of rape, and who had been taken away from her. This girl had already seen a lot of heartbreak in her life, and she was about to get a whole lot more thanks to the monster Ariel Castro.

 Castro saw her walking and pulled up alongside her in his car. Michelle knew Castro's daughter, Emily, and therefore knew Castro. So when he asked if she needed a ride, she got in his car. He then asked her if she would like a puppy for her son. She agreed to go look at puppies, and so they went to his house. Inside the house, she saw a dog but no puppies. Beginning to become fearful, she tried to leave, but was then forced into the basement, restrained with chains and plastic ties, and raped.

 The stories are similar with Amanda and Gina. Amanda, then aged 16, had just gotten off work at Burger King and was walking when she saw Castro and what she thought was a woman she knew in a car. So she smiled. Later on, Castro reappeared with his car and asked if she needed a ride. Thinking she knew Castro, since she knew the woman he was with earlier, she got into his car, which was a van. Inside, she realized there was no other woman. But Ariel put her at ease by asking her if she knew his son -- who also worked at Burger King. She said she did.

 He then asked her if she knew his daughter Angie, and she replied that she did. He asked if she would like to see Angie, who was at his house. She said sure. So they went to his house, and soon Amanda was restrained and raped too.

 Gina, the youngest of the victims, was only 14 when she was kidnapped. She had been walking with Castro's daughter, Rosie (full name is Arlene), who was her good friend, and they called Rosie's mother to ask if Rosie could stay over Gina's house. The answer was no, so the two separated. Soon Castro appeared in his car and asked Gina if she knew where his daughter was. Assuming that he meant Rosie, she agreed to look for her with him and got in his car.

 Castro then said he needed to get money first and asked if she would mind going to his house. She agreed. They got to his house and then Castro asked if she would help him carry out a speaker and put it into his car. She agreed. Soon she was in the house and also trapped.

 It's sickening to think that he used his own sons and daughters to lure the women into a false sense of security that led to their entrapment. Which one of us wouldn't have felt safe? Which one of us wouldn't have felt that since Castro was the father of friends, was a local from the neighborhood, not to mention his general demeanor, which is calm and nonthreatening, that it would be okay to get into his vehicle? "They were very trusting," said an agent who testified at the sentencing.

 These girls could have been any one of us -- or any of our children. We warn our children about strangers. We don't warn them about parents of friends.

 Unfortunately, perhaps we should.

 What do you tell your children about getting into cars or going with parents of friends of theirs?

 Image via ABC News

  ||||| A former school bus driver being sentenced Thursday for kidnapping three women and subjecting them to years of sexual and physical abuse left behind a letter that said "I'm a sexual predator," an FBI agent testified.

 Ariel Castro, center, listens in the courtroom during the sentencing phase Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Defense attorney's Craig Weintraub, left, and Jaye Schlachet sit beside Castro. Three... (Associated Press)

 Ariel Castro listens in the courtroom during the sentencing phase Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Three months after an Ohio woman kicked out part of a door to end nearly a decade of captivity,... (Associated Press)

 Ariel Castro sits close to a model of the house on Seymour Ave. , where three women were held in the courtroom during the sentencing phase Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Three months after an Ohio... (Associated Press)

 Ariel Castro rubs his nose in the courtroom during the sentencing phase Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Three months after an Ohio woman kicked out part of a door to end nearly a decade of captivity,... (Associated Press)

 Prosecutors detailed Ariel Castro's assaults and law enforcement witnesses described the jury-rigged prison he built in his ramshackle home. With the possibility of the death penalty for a forced miscarriage taken off the table, Castro stands to get life in prison plus 1,000 years.

 FBI agent Andrew Burke said Castro turned his house into a prison by creating a makeshift alarm system and chaining them inside bolted bedrooms.

 Bedroom windows were boarded shut from the inside with heavy closet doors and doorknobs had been removed and replaced with multiple locks, he said. The house was divided in ways to make it more secure and to hide the existence of rooms, he said.

 Burke also testified that Castro would occasionally pay his victims after raping them. But he then would require them to pay him if they wanted something special from the store.

 The letter written by Castro was found in his home and shown in court. It read "Confession and Details" at the top.

 Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Detective Dave Jacobs said he talked with Castro a few days after the women escaped and that Castro said, "I knew what I did was wrong."

 Early in the hearing, Castro tried to apologize to the victims, but after speaking with the judge said he would do that later in the proceeding.

 A police officer who helped rescue the women said one was reluctant to come out of her room even when she saw the officers. They were scared even after they were taken out of the house and quickly began sharing details about the horrors they went through, saying that they had been starved and beaten.

 "They were just shouting out a lot of things," said Cleveland police officer Barb Johnson. She described the women as thin, pale and scared.

 Responding to questions from prosecutors, Cleveland police detective Andrew Harasimchuk said that the women all described a pattern of being physically, sexually and emotionally assaulted for years. He said all three women were abducted after Castro offered them a ride and that each was chained in his basement and sexually assaulted within a few hours of being kidnapped.

 Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty said in a sentencing memorandum filed Wednesday that Castro, who fed his captives only one meal a day, "admits his disgusting and inhuman conduct" but "remains remorseless for his actions."

 The memorandum described a diary kept by one of the women.

 "The entries speak of forced sexual conduct, of being locked in a dark room, of anticipating the next session of abuse, of the dreams of someday escaping and being reunited with family, of being chained to a wall, of being held like a prisoner of war ... of being treated like an animal," it says.

 The sentencing could take up to four hours, court officials said, with Castro, his attorneys, his victims and prosecution witnesses getting a chance to speak. The legal team representing the women's interests declined to comment on whether they would testify or send statements to the court.

 Prosecutors used a model of the house where Castro, 53, imprisoned the women to present their case. They also showed photos taken from inside the disheveled home.

 The women quickly escaped after Amanda Berry kicked out the door panel on May 6 and Castro was arrested within hours. The women disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16 and 20 years old.

 Some horrific details of the women's ordeal had already emerged, including tales of being chained to poles in the basement or a bedroom heater or inside a van, with one woman forced to wear a motorcycle helmet while chained in the basement and, after she tried to escape, having a vacuum cord wrapped around her neck.

 Castro repeatedly starved and beat one of the victims each time she was pregnant, forcing her to miscarry five times.

 He forced the same woman on threat of death to safely deliver the child he fathered with another victim on Christmas Day 2006. The same day, prosecutors say, Castro raped the woman who helped deliver his daughter.

 As part of his plea deal, Castro was to receive a sentence of life with no chance of parole for aggravated murder in the forced miscarriage. He would then receive 1,000 years for the kidnapping, rape, assault and other charges.

 Berry, 27, made a surprise onstage appearance at a rap concert last weekend, and a second victim, Gina DeJesus, 23, has made a few televised comments. Knight, 32, appeared with Berry and DeJesus in a video in early July thanking the community for its support.

 Knight, the first of three to disappear, also sent police a handwritten letter thanking them for their help collecting cards and gifts for the women. In the note, Knight told Second District Cmdr. Keith Sulzer, "Life is tough, but I'm tougher!"

 ___

 Welsh-Huggins reported from Columbus, Ohio. |||||
What is a summary?

– Ariel Castro has been sentenced to life without parole for kidnapping and other charges related to the three women he held captive in his home for 10 years, the AP reports. Castro spoke at his sentencing hearing today, insisting that "these people are trying to paint me as a monster and I'm not a monster. I'm sick," CNN reports. "I believe I am addicted to porn to the point that it makes me impulsive and I lost it." He also described himself as "a happy person," a "very emotional person," and said he's "not trying to make excuses." (Click for the heartbreaking testimony of Michelle Knight, one of the victims.) More of the testimony coming out, per the AP: A letter left behind by Castro and found in his house read, "I'm a sexual predator," an FBI agent testified. It was titled "Confession and Details." A Cleveland police officer says two of the women rescued from Castro's house jumped into her arms, crying "Save us, save us!" and that one of the victims was reluctant to leave her room at first while another had difficulty breathing. A Cleveland police detective said all three women were abducted after Castro offered them a ride and that each was chained in his basement and sexually assaulted within a few hours of being kidnapped. The FBI agent testified that Castro created a makeshift alarm system and removed doorknobs, among other things, to turn his house into a prison. He also testified that Castro would occasionally pay his victims after raping them, but he then would require them to pay him if they wanted something special from the store. In a court filing, the Cuyahoga County prosecutor said Castro chained his captives by their ankles, fed them only one meal a day, and provided plastic toilets in their bedrooms that were infrequently emptied. At one point, he locked all of them in a vehicle in his garage for three days while he had a visitor, according to the filing. Details also came out of how Castro used his own children to lure the victims into his car and home.


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– Iran today denied reports that an explosion had ripped through its Fordow nuclear site, which is buried 300 feet underground and considered safe from air strikes, the Telegraph and Reuters report. "The false news of an explosion at Fordow is Western propaganda ahead of nuclear negotiations to influence their process and outcome," state media quoted a nuclear official as saying. Seems the story started on a right-wing website called WND, which attributed it to an unnamed "former intelligence officer" in Iran—but that hasn't quelled speculation entirely. "Any explosion in Iran that doesn't hurt people but hurts its assets is welcome," said Israel's defense minister. And an Israeli foreign policy expert said Iran may have cooked up the story to keep inspectors from entering Fordow. After all, the story broke right after Iranian state media reported that talks could resume between Tehran and Western powers, although the EU quickly said no such agreement existed. Also note that Fordow started making uranium at 20% fissile purity in 2011, far higher than the 3.5% needed at nuclear energy plants.

A report published on Right-wing news website WND on Friday, quoting a defected Iranian intelligence officer, claimed that a massive blast had ripped through the nuclear facility, buried deep within the guts of a large mountain.

 The alleged blast was said to have erupted at 11.30am last Monday – on the eve of the Israeli election – partially destroyed the nuclear site and trapped 240 people underground. Tehran held Israel responsible, the report said.

 More than a week later, the report is yet to be verified by a single independent source. If true, it would be the most significant attack on Iranian nuclear capabilities to date and could spark a fierce reaction from the Islamic State.

 And yet on Sunday evening, Shamseddin Barbroudi, deputy head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation, assured Iranian reporters there had been no explosion at the nuclear facility whatsoever.

 Earlier the same day, Avi Dichter, Israel's home defence minister, had been unable to confirm the unsubstantiated reports but nonetheless, welcomed them. "Any explosion in Iran that doesn't hurt people but hurts its assets is welcome," he said.

 Speaking privately, officials in Israel's foreign ministry – known to have an extensive surveillance network monitoring Iran's key nuclear sites – claimed they had no reliable intelligence of an explosion at Fordow.

 One theory put forward by Shlomo Aronson, an expert in Israeli foreign security policy at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, is that Tehran had deliberately leaked false reports about a blast to prevent international inspectors from entering the site.

 "They [Tehran] are more than capable of inventing such a story – although if it's true, a damaged Fordow would definitely benefit Israel," Mr Aronson conceded.

 "Israel would do anything within its power to stop the Iranian nuclear programme. This includes tactics that fall just short of, or substitute, a direct attack, such as the cyber war that has been raging for the past few years or acts of sabotage on Iran's nuclear facilities."

 Buried 300 feet underground, the nuclear fortress at Fordow is immune to air strikes or bunker bombs. It contains more than 2,700 centrifuges enriching uranium to more than 20 per cent.

 Tehran has repeatedly blamed Israel for a string of explosive disasters that have hit Iranian nuclear targets, including the death of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, one of Natanz's top nuclear scientists, killed when his car exploded in January last year.

 Whilst pleading ignorance of last Monday's alleged blast, a senior Israeli official conceded that penetrating a fortified facility such as Fordow would be neither impossible nor without precedent for Israeli's intelligence services.

 "Anything man-made, we can penetrate," one Israeli official told The Daily Telegraph. ||||| DUBAI |

 DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran has denied media reports of a major explosion at one of its most sensitive uranium enrichment sites, describing them as Western propaganda designed to influence upcoming nuclear negotiations.

 Reuters has been unable to verify reports since Friday of an explosion early last week at the underground Fordow bunker, near the religious city of Qom, that some Israeli and Western media have said caused significant damage.

 "The false news of an explosion at Fordow is Western propaganda ahead of nuclear negotiations to influence their process and outcome," state news agency IRNA quoted the deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Saeed Shamseddin Bar Broudi, as saying late on Sunday.

 Iran's ISNA news agency quoted military commander Massoud Jazayeri as saying: "I deny an explosion at the Fordow site."

 In late 2011 the plant at Fordow began producing uranium enriched to 20 percent fissile purity, compared with the 3.5 percent level needed for nuclear energy plants. Several U.N. Security Council resolutions have ordered Iran to suspend all uranium enrichment.

 Speculation of an explosion at Fordow followed an Iranian news agency report that global powers and Tehran could resume talks on Iran's disputed nuclear program on Monday and Tuesday. The European Union, the lead negotiator on the nuclear talks, said there was no such agreement.

 Diplomats in Vienna, where the United Nations' nuclear agency is based, said on Monday they had no knowledge of any incident at Fordow but were looking into the reports. One Western diplomat said he did not believe them to be correct.

 The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which regularly inspects Iranian nuclear sites including Fordow, had no immediate comment.

 Iran has accused Israel and the United States of trying to sabotage its nuclear program, which the West suspects hides an attempt to develop atom bomb capability. The Islamic republic says its atomic program is entirely peaceful.

 "BEHAVING LIKE CHILDREN"

 Tehran has accused Israel and the United States of being behind cyber attacks on its nuclear program and the assassination of its nuclear scientists.

 Washington has denied any role in the killings, while Israel has declined to comment. No government has taken responsibility for the Stuxnet computer virus that destroyed centrifuges at Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment facility in 2010, but it has been widely reported to have been a U.S.-Israeli project.

 Israel, believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear-armed state, has hinted at possible military action against Iran if sanctions and diplomacy fail to resolve the decade-old dispute.

 Israeli Civil Defence Minister Avi Dichter told Israel's Army Radio he could not say anything about the reported Fordow blast "beyond what I heard in the media."

 He added: "Any explosion in Iran which does not harm people but, rather, harms assets, is a blessing."

 Western governments say the higher-grade enrichment at Fordow is a significant step towards weapons-grade material, even though it is below the 90 percent level required for nuclear bombs.

 The Islamic state says it is producing 20 percent uranium to make fuel for a research reactor in Tehran that produces medical isotopes.

 Wrangling over dates and location have delayed resumption of talks between global powers and Iran, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday both sides should "stop behaving like little children" and start work.

 Three rounds of talks last year between Iran and the six powers - Russia, the United States, China, Britain, France and Germany - produced no breakthrough, increasing speculation Israel could attack Iranian nuclear installations.

 (Additional reporting by Fredrik Dahl in Vienna and Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Editing by Jon Boyle) |||||

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 An explosion deep within Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility has destroyed much of the installation and trapped about 240 personnel deep underground, according to a former intelligence officer of the Islamic regime.

 The previously secret nuclear site has become a center for Iran’s nuclear activity because of the 2,700 centrifuges enriching uranium to the 20-percent level. A further enrichment to weapons grade would take only weeks, experts say.

 The level of enrichment has been a major concern to Israeli officials, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly has warned about the 20-percent enriched stockpile.

 The explosion occurred Monday, the day before Israeli elections weakened Netanyahu’s political control.

 Iran, to avoid alarm, had converted part of the stockpile to fuel plates for use in the Tehran Research Reactor. However, days after the recent failed talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iranian officials announced the enrichment process will not stop even “for a moment.”

 The regime’s uranium enrichment process takes place at two known sites: the Natanz facility with more than 10,000 centrifuges and Fordow with more than 2,700. The regime currently has enough low-grade (3.5 percent) uranium stockpiled for six nuclear bombs if further enriched.

 Get the inside story in Reza Kahlili’s “A Time To Betray” and learn how the Islamic regime “bought the bomb” in “Atomic Iran.”

 However, more time is needed for conversion of the low-grade uranium than what would be needed for a stockpile at 20 percent. It takes 225 kilograms of enriched uranium at the 20-percent level to further enrich to the 90-percent level for one nuclear bomb.

 According to a source in the security forces protecting Fordow, an explosion on Monday at 11:30 a.m. Tehran time rocked the site, which is buried deep under a mountain and immune not only to airstrikes but to most bunker-buster bombs. The report of the blast came via Hamidreza Zakeri, formerly with the Islamic regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and National Security,

 The blast shook facilities within a radius of three miles. Security forces have enforced a no-traffic radius of 15 miles, and the Tehran-Qom highway was shut down for several hours after the blast, the source said. As of Wednesday afternoon, rescue workers had failed to reach the trapped personnel.

 The site, about 300 feet under a mountain, had two elevators which now are out of commission. One elevator descended about 240 feet and was used to reach centrifuge chambers. The other went to the bottom to carry heavy equipment and transfer uranium hexafluoride. One emergency staircase reaches the bottom of the site and another one was not complete. The source said the emergency exit southwest of the site is unreachable.

 The regime believes the blast was sabotage and the explosives could have reached the area disguised as equipment or in the uranium hexafluoride stock transferred to the site, the source said. The explosion occurred at the third centrifuge chambers, with the high-grade enriched uranium reserves below them.

 The information was passed on to U.S. officials but has not been verified or denied by the regime or other sources within the regime.

 Though the news of the explosion has not been independently verified, other sources previously have provided WND with information on plans for covert operations against Iran’s nuclear facilities as an option before going to war. The hope is to avoid a larger-scale conflict. Israel, the U.S. and other allies already have concluded the Islamic regime has crossed its red line in its quest for nuclear weapons, other sources have said.

 However, this information was not revealed for security reasons until several days ago when sources said the regime’s intelligence agency, through an alleged spy in the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, had learned of the decision to conduct sabotage on Iran’s nuclear sites on a much larger scale than before.

 As reported, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called an urgent meeting Tuesday with the intelligence minister, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization and other officials to discuss the threat, and now it’s clear the meeting included the sabotage at Fordow.

 Several Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated in recent years. Last year, saboteurs struck the power supply to the Fordow facility, temporarily disrupting production. And a computer worm called Stuxnet, believed to have originated in the U.S., set Iran’s plans for nuclear weapons back substantially.

 The 5+1 (the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany) hope to resume talks with Iran over its illicit nuclear program. The talks ended last year after regime officials refused to negotiate.

 Sources in the Islamic regime previously have revealed exclusively to WND the existence of: |||||


American says she will not return to Italy if appeal court upholds conviction for murder of Meredith Kercher

 Amanda Knox says she will be fugitive from justice if court decides she is guilty

 Amanda Knox, the American accused of killing her British flatmate Meredith Kercher, has said she will become a fugitive from justice if an Italian court decides to uphold her murder conviction later this month.

 Knox, 26, is facing the possible reinstatement of a hefty sentence for her alleged part in the death of the 21-year-old Leeds University student in Perugia in 2007. She and her co-defendant, Raffaele Sollecito, are in the final stretches of a second appeal against convictions handed down in 2009.

 On Thursday the 29-year-old Italian sat in court as his defence lawyer argued that he was the innocent victim of a deeply flawed prosecution and should be allowed to walk free.

 But the Seattle-based student, as is her right under Italian law, has not returned to Italy for the new proceedings at the Florence appeals court, saying she fears being found guilty and sent back to jail.

 In an interview on Thursday, she appeared to confirm that she has no intention of returning to Italy if the verdict goes against her. Asked by the daily newspaper La Repubblica what she would do if her conviction were upheld, she was quoted as saying: "In that case I will be – how do you put it? – a fugitive."

 If the court, which is expected to rule on 30 January, upholds the guilty verdicts its judgment will still have to be validated by Italy's supreme court. If that happens, Italy could request Knox's extradition from the US, a move her lawyers would challenge, at least in part on the US legal principle of double jeopardy – the premise that someone cannot be tried for a crime of which they have been acquitted.

 Legal experts, however, say the picture is by no means clear cut as the 2011 appeal verdict that quashed Knox and Sollecito's convictions was not confirmed by the supreme court, which ruled last year that the decision to acquit was flawed.

 On Thursday, Sollecito's defence lawyer Giulia Bongiorno wrapped up her argument for why he should again be cleared of the 2007 murder, insisting that police and prosecutors overlooked signs of his innocence because they were keen to avoid public fright over "a monster" on the loose. "For some investigators, the first suspects are like first loves: never forgotten," she said, Reuters reported. Both defendants insist they are innocent.

 In her interview Knox said that although she was reasonably optimistic about the verdict, she was also approaching it with trepidation as "every time that I've thought my innocence would be acknowledged I have been convicted".

 She said she badly wanted to talk directly to Kercher's family, but was aware that such a move would not be welcome.

 "I still want to talk with them, tell them directly that I had nothing to do with Meredith's death, that I cared about her and that we were friends," she was quoted as saying. "But I know that they see me as their daughter's murderer [and] are convinced that it was me who killed her, and so it is still not the moment to speak with them. But that day will come."

 The comments were not welcomed by Francesco Maresca, the Kercher family's lawyer, who told the Ansa news agency: "Amanda must act like a defendant … she should stop making these statements."

 Another man, Rudy Guede, from Ivory Coast, is serving a 16-year sentence, cut from 30 years on appeal, for Kercher's killing. But tThe Italian supreme court, in the reasoning for its decision last year, said the Florence court should re-examine the possibility that Guede did not act alone. ||||| share tweet pin email

 Amanda Knox has reportedly told an Italian newspaper that if she is again convicted of murder, she will become a fugitive rather than return to an Italian prison.

 A representative for Knox, 26, confirmed the interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica and released a statement to TODAY on Friday clarifying her comments.

 “[If convicted] legally I'll be defined a ‘fugitive,’ but I will continue to fight for my innocence,’’ Knox said in the statement. “I will not willingly submit myself to injustice."

 The current trial is Knox's third for the alleged murder of British roommate Meredith Kercher while both were students in Perugia, Italy, in 2007. Knox was convicted in 2009 and spent nearly four years in an Italian prison before she and ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were acquitted on appeal and released on Oct. 4, 2011. In March of last year, the Italian Supreme Court ordered a new trial for Knox, rejecting the appeals court ruling.

 Knox has remained at her home in Seattle during the proceedings in Italy. She has suggested that she will not leave there even if the Italian court finds her guilty again, telling La Repubblica, “In that case, I will become, what do you call it? A fugitive.”

 Slideshow Photos Oli Scarff / Getty Images Europe Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga The long legal saga of Amanda Knox, an American student accused of the violent death of her roommate, British student Meredith Kercher, has made headlines around the world since it began in Perugia, Italy, in late 2007. Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga The long legal saga of Amanda Knox, an American student accused of the violent death of her roommate, British student Meredith Kercher, has made headlines around the world since it began in Perugia, Italy, in late 2007.

 Reversal of fortune From left, Pierluigi Puglia, member of the British consulate in Italy; Stephanie Kercher, sister of the late Meredith Kercher; her brother, Lyle Kercher, and lawyer Francesco Maresca speak to the press in Florence on Jan. 31, 2014, the day after the guilty verdicts against Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito for the murder of UK student Meredith Kercher in 2007 were reinstated in Italy. The verdict overturned Knox and Sollecito's successful appeal in 2011, which released them after four years in jail. Getty Images / Getty Images

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Reconvicted Amanda Knox is shown here in Seattle after serving four years in prison after being convicted in a case involving the murder of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher. Her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito is shown here in Florence, Italy, on Jan. 20, 2014. Though both were acquitted on appeal and released in 2011, they were re-convicted of the murder on Jan. 30, 2014. Splash News, AP file / Splash News, AP file

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Awaiting another verdict Raffaele Sollecito leaves court in Florence, Italy, on Jan. 30, 2014. The Italian ex-boyfriend of Amanda Knox awaited the court's verdict in the retrial of both Knox and himself for the murder of Meredith Kercher more than two years after they were acquitted. EPA / EPA

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of A new trial Francesco Maresca, lawyer for the family of Meredith Kercher, talks to reporters as he arrives for the start of Amanda Knox's second appeals trial in Florence, Italy, Monday, Sept. 30, 2013. Italy's highest court ordered a new trial for Knox and her former Italian boyfriend, overturning their acquittals in the 2007 slaying of Kercher. AP / AP

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Not going back Amanda Knox appeared on TODAY on Sept. 20, 2013, to discuss her upcoming retrial in Florence for the murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher. Knox maintained that she would not go back to Italy to face trial again: "It's not a possibility, as I was imprisoned as an innocent person and I just can't relive that," she told Matt Lauer. NBC / NBC

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of A memoir Filled with details first recorded in the journals Amanda Knox kept while in Italy, "Waiting to be Heard," Knox's memoir, is set to be released on April 30, 2013. HarperCollins via AP / HarperCollins via AP

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Acquittal overturned Luciano Ghirga, lawyer of Amanda Knox, center, talks to journalists as he leaves Italy's Court of Cassation in Rome on March 26, 2013. Italy's highest criminal court overturned the acquittal of Amanda Knox in the slaying of her British roommate and ordered a new trial. The court ruled that an appeals court in Florence would have to re-hear the case against the American and her Italian-ex-boyfriend for the murder of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher. AP / AP

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Home at last Amanda Knox makes remarks after arriving in Seattle a day after her release from prison in Italy on Oct. 4, 2011. She was acquitted of murder and sexual assault by an Italian appeals court after spending four years in custody over the killing of her British housemate, Meredith Kercher. At left is her father, Kurt Knox. EPA / EPA

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Welcome home Well-wishers greet Amanda Knox upon her arrival at Sea-Tac Airport in Seattle a day after her release from prison in Italy on Oct. 4, 2011. EPA / EPA

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Tears of relief Amanda Knox cries after hearing the verdict that overturned her conviction and acquits her of murdering her British roommate Meredith Kercher, at the Perugia court on Monday, Oct. 3. The Italian appeals court threw out Amanda Knox's murder conviction and ordered the young American freed after nearly four years in prison. AP / AP

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Home front Supporters of Amanda Knox react as they watch a news broadcast about her appeal verdict from a hotel suite in downtown Seattle on Oct. 3. AP / AP

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Sisterly support Amanda Knox's sister Deanna Knox, center, cries tears of joy in Perugia's Court of Appeal after hearing that Amanda won her appeal against her murder conviction on Monday in Perugia, Italy. Getty Images / Getty Images

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Closing arguments Amanda Knox, accused of the 2007 murder of her housemate Meredith Kercher, arrives in court as her appeal trial resumes in Perugia, on Sept. 30, 2011. Wrapping up the defense case, Knox's lawyer, Carlo Dalla Vedova, points to alleged errors by police and urges a panel of lay and professional judges to look beyond how Knox has been portrayed by the media and the prosecution. AFP - Getty Images / AFP - Getty Images

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Hoping for her release Amanda Knox's lawyer, Luciano Ghirga (left), and her father, Curt Knox (right), use their mobile phones at the court during her Sept. 30, 2011, appeal trial session in Perugia. Reuters / Reuters

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Her fate in the balance Amanda Knox arrives at the court during her appeal trial session in Perugia, Italy, on Sept. 30, 2011. Reuters / Reuters

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito attends his appeal hearing at Perugia's Court of Appeal on Sept. 29, 2011 in Perugia, Italy. Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito are awaiting the verdict of their appeal that could see their conviction for the murder of Meredith Kercher overturned. Getty Images / Getty Images

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of He calls her 'she-devil' Carlo Pacelli (center), lawyer for Patrick Lumumba, (left) -- a barman who is seeking damages from Amanda Knox as part of a civil case running alongside her murder appeal -- speaks outside the Perugia courthouse on Sept. 26, 2011. Pacelli called Knox a "she-devil" and told the appeals court she destroyed Lumumba's image by falsely accusing him of the murder, testimony that helps prosecutors attack her credibility. Knox has said she wrongly implicated Lumumba under pressure from police. . AFP - Getty Images / AFP - Getty Images

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Legal battleground Through the bars of holding cells, a view of the courtroom in Perugia on Sept. 6, 2011, before the resumption of the appeal trial of Amanda Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. AFP - Getty Images / AFP - Getty Images

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Making her appeal On Nov. 24, 2010, Amanda Knox leaves court after a trial session in Perugia, Italy. Knox and former lover Raffaele Sollecito returned to court to appeal their conviction for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher. Reuters / Reuters

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of New 'do Sporting a new, short haircut, jailed Amanda Knox attends a preliminary hearing in Perugia, Italy, on June 1, 2010. AP / AP

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Awaiting sentence Amanda Knox is driven into court at midnight to hear the sentence in her murder trial on Dec. 5, 2009, in Perugia, Italy. Knox was convicted of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher was sentenced to 26 years in prison. Her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, was also convicted of the murder charges. He was sentenced to 25 years. Getty Images / Getty Images

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Pleading her case Amanda Knox looks on during a break in the closing arguments of the murder trial in Perugia, Italy on Dec. 3, 2009. She read a statement during her murder trial on Dec. 3, in Italiian saying, "I am afraid of having the mask of a murderer forced onto my skin." Reuters / Reuters

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Police escort Murder suspect Amanda Knox, right, is escorted by a police officer as she arrives at Perugia's court, Italy, Friday, Nov. 20, 2009. Italian prosecutors have begun their closing arguments in her trial. AP / AP

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of The murder weapon? Prosecutor Manuela Comodi shows a knife during a hearing in the murder trial for Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, on Sept. 19, 2009. The knife, wrapped in plastic and kept in a white box, was shown to the eight-member jury during the trial of Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. AP / AP

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Victim in video At the trial of Amanda Knox, a music video that included an appearance by slain student Meredith Kercher was shown June 8, 2009. Kercher played the love interest in the video for the song "Some Say" by London musician Kristian Leontiou. The 2007 video was shot only weeks before Kercher died in Perugia, Italy, at age 21. TODAY / TODAY

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Boning up? Amanda Knox holds the Italian penal code book at the trial of slain British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, on Jan. 16, 2009. Reuters / Reuters

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Back in court Amanda Knox, one of three suspects in the murder of Meredith Kercher, arrives at a Sept. 27, 2008 court hearing in Perugia, Italy. Kercher, a British student, was found dead in her Perugia flat on Nov. 1, 2007 with her throat cut. AFP - Getty Images / AFP - Getty Images

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Sister speaks out Stephanie Kercher reads a statement during a Sept. 15, 2008 press conference in Perugia, Italy as legal proceedings connected to the death of her sister, Meredith Kercher, approach a critical phase. AP / AP

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of The victim's family Arline, mother of Meredith Kercher, answers newsmen questions flanked by Meredith's sister Stephanie, left, and brother Lyle, during a press conference in Perugia, Italy on April 18, 2008. AP / AP

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Headed to a hearing Amanda Knox's ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, who along with Knox and Rudy Hermann Guede was held on suspicion in the murder of Knox’s housemate Meredith Kercher, is escorted by Italian police to a January 2008 hearing with magistrates. AFP - Getty Images / AFP - Getty Images

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Remembering Meredith A floral tribute with photographs of Meredith Kercher is shown at her funeral at Croydon Parish Church, South London on December 14, 2007. Getty Images / Getty Images

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Another suspect In December 2007, police in Germany arrested Rudy Hermann Guede, a native of the Ivory Coast, in connection with Meredith Kercher's murder. Here Guede is shown being led away by Italian police after arriving in Rome from prison in Germany. AP / AP

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Arrested, then released Patrick Lumumba Diya, a Congolese man who owned a small bar in Perugia where Amanda Knox sometimes worked as a barmaid, was arrested after being implicated in the Meredith Kercher murder by Knox. However, he was released after another suspect, Rudy Hermann Guede, was arrested in the case. He is shown here leaving police headquarters with his lawyer on Nov. 20, 2007. AFP - Getty Images / AFP - Getty Images

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Under arrest Her cap pulled low, American student Amanda Knox was arrested on Nov. 6, 2007, for her alleged involvement in the brutal murder of her housemate, Meredith Kercher. EPA / EPA

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Searching for clues Police forensics investigators examined Meredith Kercher's Italian house while a coroner conducted a post-mortem investigation on the slain student's body. AP / AP

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of The murder scene On Nov. 5, 2007, the rented hillside home that murder victim Meredith Kercher had shared with fellow student Amanda Knox in Perugia, Italy was a crime scene. AFP - Getty Images / AFP - Getty Images

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Front-page news By Saturday, Nov. 3, 2007 Meredith Kercher's gruesome murder was front-page news in the central Italian city of Perugia. AP / AP

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of The day after Amanda Knox, a student from Seattle who had been living with Meredith Kercher in Perugia, was arrested Nov. 6, 2007 for her alleged involvement in Kercher’s murder. Also held by police was Knox’s Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. Taken Nov. 2, the day Kercher was found dead, this picture shows the pair outside the rented house Knox shared with Kercher. AP / AP

 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of The murder victim Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old British exchange student, was found dead with her throat slit on Nov. 2, 2007 in her room in an apartment she shared with other exchange students in the Italian town of Perugia. AFP - Getty Images / AFP - Getty Images

 The Italian reporter who conducted the recent interview told TODAY’s Keir Simmons that Knox’s comments about becoming a fugitive may have been lighthearted, but making a joke about becoming a fugitive while closing arguments are being heard in a murder case may have been ill-advised. If Knox is re-convicted, her legal team can appeal to the Italian Supreme Court. It’s not clear whether the U.S. would allow her to be extradited if she is re-convicted.

 Amanda Knox on retrial: 'Everything's at stake'

 “I was already imprisoned in Italy as an innocent person, and I can't reconcile the choice to go back with that experience,’’ Knox told Matt Lauer in an interview on TODAY last year.

 Knox also indicated in the interview with the Italian newspaper that she would like to visit Kercher’s family, but so far they have made it clear they would not welcome that, still believing Knox was involved in their daughter’s murder.

 "I really hope that that isn't the case,'' Knox told Lauer in September. "I really hope that they can come to understand that it's so hard to be logical about this when you've lost someone so close to you and so important to you, but I really hope that with time, with things changing, with an opening, they'll give my innocence a chance, and I'll be able to approach them. I don't want to be forever separated from them because at this point Meredith is a part of my life. I only knew her for a very short amount of time, but she'll always be there, and I want to be able to share that with them."

  ||||| If there is a rule book—and surely there is—listing all the things you shouldn’t say if you are on trial for murder, one would think that “If they convict me, I’ll become a fugitive” must be somewhere near the top of the list. The second thing on the list might well be, “When all of this is over, I want to visit the victim’s parents.”

 But that’s exactly what Amanda Knox, the now 26-year-old Seattle native who is appealing her 2009 conviction for the murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher, told Italy’s top national newspaper La Repubblica ahead of the last day of defense closing arguments in her second appellate trial, now being held in Florence.

 Knox and her erstwhile Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, are fighting to keep their freedom after Italy’s high court threw out their 2011 acquittals that had cleared them of Kercher’s murder last March. They currently stand convicted of Kercher’s murder after their acquittals were reversed. The ongoing trial is their appeal of that conviction. A verdict in the new appeal, which began in September, is expected on January 30, and will still have to be considered by Italy’s high court before this case is finally closed.

 Knox apparently made the ill-advised remarks to Meo Ponte, the La Repubblica correspondent who has been covering the Kercher murder case that has been lumbering through the Italian legal system for more than six years, in an unrecorded Skype interview ahead of Thursday’s hearing. Ponte, who stands by his story and who has championed her innocence in previous trials, concedes that Knox was likely making a lighthearted joke about an extremely serious appellate case that has not exactly been going her way. But a comment about becoming a fugitive is hardly a laughing matter in a murder trial. It undoubtedly sends a signal that Knox might just go into hiding should her murder conviction be upheld on January 30. If that’s the case, American authorities may be compelled to keep a close eye on her until the case is definitively concluded.

 In Italy, appeals are not considered final until and unless the high court signs off on them. In Knox’s case, that could happen sometime in late 2014. If her conviction is upheld by the Florentine appellate court, the high court would also have to uphold the conviction before any extradition request is made. There is a valid extradition agreement between the United States and Italy and the U.S. State Department—not a hometown Seattle court, in a city where Knox is often viewed as an innocent—would make the final decision if Italy chooses to request that Knox return to serve a prison sentence.

 Speculation runs the gamut on whether or not Italy would actually request extradition. The two countries have an uneasy history when it comes to handing over prisoners. In 2102, the United States refused to return 22 CIA agents and an Air Force captain who had been convicted in the extraordinary rendition of an Egyptian cleric on suspicion of terrorism. The Americans were never handed over. Knox, of course, is a civilian and not a CIA agent, so it remains to be seen whether the United States would hand her over. The new appeal is not “double jeopardy” under the Italian legal system—she is not being tried twice for the same crime; she is still being tried for the same crime.

 On Thursday, the Florence appellate court heard closing arguments by Sollecito’s legal team. Knox’s lawyers delivered her closing arguments on December 17, which included an email sent to the court. The presiding judge, Alessandro Nencini, grudgingly read the five-page email to the lay jurors, but made the comment that an email was “highly irregular” because its authenticity could not be verified. He concluded that, “If someone wants to be heard in court, they should appear in court,” virtually dismissing its contents for their consideration.

 Sollecito’s lawyers focused on their client’s individuality, underscoring the fact that he is often linked with Knox when they are two separate suspects. “He’s not her other half,” his lead attorney Giulia Bongiorno said. “Raffaele was not a puppy. He wouldn’t have killed for the love of Amanda.” His defense team maintains that the two young lovers were used as scapegoats to calm fears of a murderer on the loose in Perugia after Kercher’s body was found in the apartment she shared with Knox. Sollecito has been attending court sessions and says he will also attend the verdict hearing.

 Knox says she will not come back for the new appeal verdict because she is afraid. “I am afraid that the prosecution’s vehemence will leave an impression on you,” she wrote to the judge. “That their smoke and mirrors will blind you. I’m afraid of the universal problem of a wrongful conviction.” Knox has instead taken to Twitter to maintain her innocence in the case, tweeting articles and websites that support her side of the story. Her lawyers say she remains “hopeful” that she will be exonerated of the murder.

 Lawyers for Kercher say they hope the court will uphold the original conviction. Kercher’s siblings are expected to attend the verdict at the end of the month. “There is only one truth,” Kercher lawyer Francesco Maresca told The Daily Beast. “And we hope this court will find it.” |||||

Write a summary.

– If convicted again of murder, Amanda Knox says she won't willingly return to Italy to face punishment; instead, she told an Italian journalist, "I will be—how do you put it?—a fugitive," the Guardian reports. The reporter, Meo Ponte, who interviewed her over Skype, has previously called Knox innocent of the murder of former roommate Meredith Kercher; he says her "fugitive" comment was likely a joke, the Daily Beast notes. But in a statement to the Today show, Knox was clearer: "(If convicted), legally I'll be defined a 'fugitive,' but I will continue to fight for my innocence," she said. "I will not willingly submit myself to injustice." Such a verdict would need to be upheld by the country's top court, and even then it's not clear whether Italy would ask the US to extradite her, or how the US would respond (double jeopardy could be at play, but it's complicated). Still, such a comment may not serve her well, the Daily Beast points out: US officials may now have to keep her on their radar in case she is found guilty. The verdict is due Jan. 30.


Article:

 Officials said the "person of interest" detained early Monday in connection with a string of more than 50 deliberately set fires has been arrested and is expected to be booked on arson charges later in the afternoon.

 N o new arsons have been reported since the suspect was taken into custody, but police stressed that the investigation is ongoing.

 The fires have caused $2 million in damage, authorities said.

 MAP: Arson fires

 At a news conference Monday, officials said the arson task force is sifting through about 100 clues in the case.

 Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, interviewed at the Rose Parade by City News Service, said: "I feel very good that we've got the right guy. [The suspect] had the right stuff in his van, and we are very confident we found our man.''

 The suspect is a native of Germany who may have been in dispute with federal immigration officials, sources said.

 PHOTOS: Arson fires

 The man appears to have been battling the U.S. government over the immigration status of a relative, but the officials said they don't know if this played any role in the arson case. The Los Angeles Police Department is in communication with federal immigration officials concerning the dispute, the law enforcement sources said.

 LAPD detectives found materials inside the man's minivan that could have been used to set fires, the sources said.

 All the sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.

 FULL COVERAGE: Arson fires

 Little is known about the suspect. Sources said the minivan had Canadian license plates but that detectives say the man is from Germany.

 The man was detained near a drugstore at the corner of Fairfax Avenue and Sunset Boulevard early Monday morning, according to a witness to the incident.

 Several sources said the man is believed to be the same person seen in a surveillance video released by police Sunday, when authorities pointed to the individual as a "person of interest" in the case. ||||| When the man police have identified as a "person of interest" in Los Angeles' spate of recent arson attacks was sitting in the back of a squad car early Monday morning, a small group of witnesses gave him "the finger"-- and he returned the gesture with a smile, one witness said.

 "It was creepy," said Rick Savage, a music producer who saw the incident at the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue.

 Savage said he was awake because he has been nervous about the string of arsons in recent days in his and other nearby neighborhoods. He said he had downloaded a police scanner application onto his iPad and went to the area at about 3:15 a.m. after hearing reports that authorities had tracked a person of interest in the case.

 MAP: Arson fires

 "For the past three nights, it's been freaking me out," Savage said of the fires.

 Aaron Arellano, who works the graveyard shift at a gas station across from where authorities stopped a blue minivan with the man inside, said that at first there were only three squad cars near the minivan.

 Then "little by little" more police and fire vehicles arrived until there was a mass of about two dozen on Sunset Boulevard, said the 28-year-old Arrelano. He said police officers -- some of whom came into the gas station for coffee -- told him they had caught "one of the arsonists."

 PHOTOS: Arson fires

 Earlier Monday morning, police had stationed patrol cars throughout the affected areas and for a while set up checkpoints at some intersections.

 There were so many patrol cars and officers involved in the hunt that at one point Monday morning there were more than a dozen squad cars from the LAPD's Central Division on Ventura Boulevard, called in for additional help.

 The cars were stopped near one of the recent fires that had destroyed a car parked outside a single-family home on Sunnyslope Avenue in Sherman Oaks.

 RELATED:

 FULL COVERAGE: Arson fires

 Suspect arrested in string of fires

 Police examine immigration link to case

 -- Ari Bloomekatz in Hollywood

 Photo: Police investigate a minivan officials say may be linked to a series of arson fires. Credit: Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times

 Map: Shows locations of fires possibly linked to recent arson spree. Credit: Los Angeles Times |||||
What is a summary?

– The "person of interest" detained earlier today in Los Angeles' string of arsons has been arrested, reports the Los Angeles Times. "I feel very good that we've got the right guy," says LA Police Chief Charlie Beck. He "had the right stuff in his van, and we are very confident we found our man.'' Indeed, there have been no new fires since the suspect was detained. Police say that the suspect is a German who was embroiled in a fight with federal immigration authorities. Meanwhile, sources tell the Times that they spotted the suspect in the back of a police cruiser, and a number of them flipped him the bird—a gesture he returned with an eerie smile. "It was creepy," says a music producer who witnessed the exchange. Click for more on the case.