Baltimore, MD: Man pleads guilty to drowning his children at city hotel

Castillo sentenced to 3 life terms without parole

By Tricia Bishop | tricia.bishop@baltsun.com

12:23 PM EDT, October 14, 2009


Mark Castillo, a Montgomery County man who was engaged in a custody dispute with his estranged wife, pleaded guilty today to drowning their three children at an Inner Harbor hotel last year.

Castillo's case has been widely publicized since the crime was committed in late March 2008.

As jury selection was set to begin, and after several days of motions hearings before Circuit Judge Wanda K. Heard, Castillo, 43, pleaded guilty this morning to three counts of first-degree murder.

He was sentenced to three consecutive life terms, without possibility of parole, and was referred to Patuxent Institution.

Castillo confessed to drowning his two boys and daughter, ages 2 to 6, in a Marriott bathtub and tried to take his own life to punish his estranged wife, Dr. Amy Castillo, a pediatrician.

In a recorded confession, made at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center the day after the killings, Mark Castillo said he spent the day in downtown Baltimore, hoping to show his children "a good day" before taking their lives, one at a time.