Mark Castillo is literally begging to admit to killing his three kids.
In two weeks, he plans to ask a judge — for a second time — to allow him to fire his attorney and enter a guilty plea in the slaying of his sons Anthony, 6, and Austin, 4, and daughter, Athena, 2, who were drowned at Baltimore’s Marriott Inner Harbor Hotel in March.
“I’ve been trying to plead guilty for the last five months and I’ve been prevented,” Castillo, 41, of Rockville, told Baltimore City Circuit Judge Gale Rasin Friday.
Standing in Castillo’s way, he said, is his public defender, Natasha Moody, who entered a not criminally responsible plea — Maryland’s version of the insanity defense — for Castillo, before the accused killer demanded she withdraw it.
“Am I having to defend myself against my own lawyer?” he asked.
Castillo also accused Moody of withholding his mail and preventing his estranged wife, Amy, from coming to visit him.
“My attorney has manipulated my wife and prevented her from coming to visit me,” he said.
Moody said Castillo has a “misconception” about her authority at the jail. The warden, not defense attorneys, make decisions about visitors, she said.
As Moody spoke, Castillo interrupted her, saying “I object!” and drawing the judge’s rebuke.
“I’m not going to allow you to interrupt Ms. Moody, even if you don’t like her,” Rasin said.
Rasin ordered another hearing for Sept. 12 and an evaluation of Castillo’s competency to stand trial and, also, whether he is competent to represent himself. It will be the second time Castillo has been evaluated by doctors for the court.
“Does it help my competency that I remember that I was seen by those doctors?” he asked the judge.
Any decisions about his competency from the first evaluation became moot after he withdrew his initial plea of not criminally responsible.
On March 31, police say, Castillo confessed to killing his children.
Castillo told Baltimore police he killed his children the previous day because of a “recent divorce stemming from domestic issues with his wife,” according to Detective Robert Ross’ report.
Castillo took 100 Motrin pills and tried to slit his own throat after drowning his children, charging documents state.
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