The former school bus driver, who pleaded guilty in the decade-long abduction of three women, was under protective custody and isolated from other inmates at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient. Prison staff found him hanged about 9:20 p.m. CDT on Tuesday (0220 GMT, Wednesday), officials said. A review of the incident was underway.
His lawyer said on Wednesday that prison authorities repeatedly denied him a psychologist. "We requested the opportunity for our retained independent psychologist to see and evaluate Mr. Castro in both the county jail and in the prison reception center, where he was being held. We were denied and thwarted in each of our attempts by the state and county," defense attorney Jaye Schlachet told Reuters.
Castro was sentenced on August 1 to life plus 1,000 years in prison without the possibility of parole for abducting the three and keeping them imprisoned in the dungeon-like confines of his house, where they were starved, beaten and sexually assaulted for about a decade.
