'Big bully' Ariel Castro charged with rape, kidnapping

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Michael Muskal and Alana Semuels

May 8, 2013 3:44 PM PT

CLEVELAND -- Ariel Castro, described by police as a “big bully,” was charged Wednesday with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape after three women, missing for about a decade, escaped from his house this week.

Castro, 52, the owner of the house at 2207 Seymour Ave. in Cleveland, was charged in connection with the kidnappings that have shocked the city.

His brothers, Pedro, 54, and Onil, 50, who were arrested Monday along with Ariel, were not charged in connection with the disappearances, prosecutor Victor Perez said at an afternoon news conference.

All three are scheduled to appear in court Thursday, Perez said.

Ariel Castro will be arraigned on the seven charges related to the missing women. His brothers face outstanding warrants on misdemeanor charges.

Castro is charged with kidnapping and raping three women, Amanda Berry, 27, Gina DeJesus, about 23, and Michelle Knight, 32. The fourth kidnapping count applies to Amanda Berry’s 6-year-old daughter, who was born in captivity.

Officials will do tests to determine the paternity of the child, Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba said.

After the news conference, Tomba described Ariel Castro as “the big bully.... This guy, he ran the show ... He acted alone. These guys [the brothers] didn’t have anything to do with it.”

Tomba at the news conference defended the decision to arrest Pedro and Onil Castro and the decision not to press charges.

“We had enough probable cause to bring them into custody,” Tomba said. “We found no facts to link them to the crime.

“There is nothing that leads us to believe they were involved or they had any knowledge of this, and that comes from statements of our victims, and their statements and their brother’s [Ariel’s] statements. Ariel kept everybody at a distance.”

Officials also said they had removed 200 items of evidence from the Seymour Avenue house. But the charges are mainly based on statements from the women and from Ariel Castro, who waived his rights to stay silent and talked to investigators.

“He did speak with us and provided us … with a detailed statement,” Tomba told reporters.

Asked about possible links to other missing-person cases, Tomba said: “As of right now we don’t anticipate any other victims where he is the suspect.” One such case involves Ashley Summers, who disappeared in 2007 when she was 14 years old.

Berry and DeJesus returned to their families Wednesday. Their relatives asked for privacy to allow the women to heal.

DeJesus was 14 when she disappeared 2004. Berry was just shy of her 17th birthday when she vanished in 2003. Knight, who was reportedly receiving medical care in a hospital, was 20 when she disappeared in 2002.

All were held in harsh conditions in the Seymour Avenue house, officials said, until Berry managed to break through a screen door on Monday and with the help of neighbors called police.

Semuels reported from Cleveland and Muskal from Los Angeles.

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