Through tears, the Rockville father charged with drowning his three children in a Baltimore hotel bathtub pleaded “not criminally responsible” Monday, the modern version of the insanity defense.
Mark Castillo, 41, appeared in Baltimore City Circuit Court wearing a white polo shirt and jeans. His beard had grown long during his time at the city jail, where he has been held under psychiatric monitoring since March 31.
That day, Baltimore police say he confessed to killing his sons, Anthony, 6, and Austin, 4, and daughter, Athena, 2, at the Marriott Inner Harbor Hotel.
Castillo did not speak in court Monday but cried as Judge W. Michel Pierson read off the crimes Castillo stands accused of committing.
Amy Castillo, of Silver Spring, said in a statement released Monday that she wants to make sure her estranged husband is kept off the streets.
“What is important to me now is that Mark will no longer be able to hurt anyone else, and that my current or any future family will not have to live in fear,” she said.
Mark Castillo will be evaluated by court psychiatrists, who will tell prosecutors whether they believe he is indeed insane.
Baltimore City State?s Attorney Patricia Jessamy will meet with family members before deciding whether to seek the death penalty, prosecutors said.
Amy Castillo has said publicly that she is in favor of prosecutors seeking life without the possibility of parole.
Amy Castillo has spoken several times about her frustrations with the court system, which she said failed to keep her suicidal husband away from their three children.
Zeke Wharton, the family?s pastor and spokesman, noted that Mark Castillo has changed his view of his own mental state.
“It?s not a surprise to us that he would plea this way,” said Wharton, administrator at the children?s school, Forcey Christian. “I would think a good lawyer would tell him to plea that way.”
Castillo told Baltimore police he killed his children March 30 because of a “recent divorce stemming from domestic issues with his wife,” according to Detective Robert Ross? report.
Police said Castillo took 100 Motrin pills and tried to slit his own throat after drowning his children, telling paramedics: “I know what I did was bad. I did it. I drown[ed] the kids last night,” charging documents state.
Despite missing her children “more than anyone will ever know,” Amy Castillo said she?s not giving up on life.
“I plan on living my life as well as I can, for as long as it will be, until Iam reunited with my children again,” she said in her statement.
Mark Castillo?s trial on three counts of first-degree murder is scheduled to begin Aug. 22.
