Jury selection could begin as early as Wednesday in the triple murder trial of Mark Castillo, who police say confessed to drowning his three young children in a Baltimore hotel bathtub in March 2008 before unsuccessfully attempting suicide. Castillo's attorneys argued Tuesday to suppress the condemning statements he made to detectives shortly after the incident, though several delays prevented a ruling. The hearing is expected to continue Wednesday morning in Baltimore Circuit Court.
Once the motions are resolved, the trial can begin. It's been held up by numerous legal moves, including two attempts on Castillo's part to enter insanity pleas and a personal request that he be allowed to fire his attorneys, plead guilty and receive the death penalty.
He appeared calm and quiet throughout much of Tuesday's proceedings, with a brief breakdown early in the afternoon, sobbing into his right hand after Judge Wanda K. Heard ordered his shackles removed and told him he had a right to listen in to conferences held at her bench.
He wore an olive suit with white sneakers and clutched two manila envelopes filled with papers and a sheaf of what appeared to be handwritten notes. He stared at the courtroom's ornate ceiling for minutes on end, exposing a long, vertical red scar along the right side of his neck, where he'd stabbed himself 18 months earlier.
After strolling through Baltimore's Inner Harbor on the afternoon of Saturday, March 29, police allege, Castillo checked himself and his three kids into the Marriott Inner Harbor at Camden Yards about 5 p.m. An hour later, court documents claim, he systematically drowned the children - ages 2, 4 and 6 - one by one in the bathtub, placing their naked, still bodies on a bed. He then took 100 Motrin pills and cut himself four times on the right side of his neck and once on the left.
Police say Castillo killed the children to punish his estranged wife, Dr. Amy Castillo, who was fighting him in a long divorce and custody battle. Court records show a history of mental issues for Castillo, who twice before attempted suicide and was twice involuntarily committed for psychiatric treatment.
