KENTON, Ohio — Jurors found a 57-year-old Hardin County man guilty of kidnapping, raping and attempting to kill a 7-year-old girl last year. Charles Castle was found guilty on all 16 counts against him.
Below is a list of the counts:
- Seven counts of kidnapping
- One count of rape
- One count of attempted murder
- One count of felonious assault
- One count of breaking and entering
- One count of endangering children
- One count of burglary
- Three counts of tampering with evidence
Castle will be sentenced on July 26 at 8 a.m.
The girl was reported missing on Nov. 11, 2021. She was last seen at the time inside her home on South Leighton Street in Kenton the night before her disappearance.
During the trial, Prosecuting Attorney Bradford Bailey said in his opening statement that Charles Castle kidnapped the little girl as a "present" to himself for his birthday, which falls on Nov. 10.
The prosecution alleged Castle took the girl from her home and drove her to his RV just a couple of blocks away. That RV sat behind his mother’s home and belonged to the brother of the little girl’s father.
Castle was a longtime family friend who had been having dinner almost nightly at the home of the little girl after separating from his wife. In fact, the parents of the little girl testified that, on the morning it was discovered that their daughter was missing, the father walked over to Castle’s RV to ask if he had seen her.
Later testimony would reveal that the little girl said, at that time, she was bound and trapped inside the closet of the RV as Castle “lied” to her father.
It was sometime after that that the prosecution alleges the little girl was taken to an abandoned home on County Road 180, roughly seven miles away from the RV. She would tell both a medic and detective, according to testimony, that she had been thrown down the basement stairs, injuring her elbow. She would remain in that freezing, dark basement, without food or water, until she was found late on the night of Nov. 12.
Her discovery hinged on a tip from Greg Patton, the owner of that abandoned home. He testified in court last week that Charles Castle had contacted him in the months leading up to the kidnapping asking if his house was empty. He said, when he heard about the disappearance, he had a “gut feeling” Castle could be involved and informed both his son and a local school resource officer.
That is what led law enforcement officers to his home, where a detective testified that he discovered the girl by shining a light through the window of the door leading down to the basement. He first saw feet and then a girl waving.
“Numerous leads were followed up on,” Bailey said after the verdict Tuesday. “We went down a lot of dead trails, to no avail. Thanks to the oversight and the good nature of Greg Patton, this girl’s alive today, and if he hadn’t done that, thank you, Greg, because she would be in a different state of mind right now. She’s alive because of you, so I can make a heartfelt thanks to him.”
Bailey was teary-eyed when describing the little girl’s recovery. Because she was strangled, she was left with brain damage and lingering mobility issues. She spent weeks in the hospital.
“The little girl’s got a long way to go,” Bailey said. “She is, if you noticed in the deposition, she never really moved her right arm. She’s got some issues that’s going to take some time, patience, the parents know they have a long way to go to bring her back to normal. Our department was emotionally involved in this case, very seriously from the beginning, and the girl’s a cute little girl, so it makes me emotional.”
This case, from the girl’s initial disappearance through this trial, has weighed heavily on the community where the family lived. And Bailey said the parents have been criticized throughout the trial. He had a strong message for the community about that.
“I want to emphasize, for the record, there’s absolutely no evidence, no evidence whatsoever the parents were involved in this case whatsoever,” Bailey said. “I’ve read the media posts. Whoever’s making these baseless statements should stop. There’s nothing. We’ve tracked every lead that you want to talk about. There isn’t anything that hasn’t been raised in this courtroom or that we don’t know about. But to blame it on the parents for this is totally, totally inappropriate.”
The defense attorney did not want to talk to the media following the verdict.
By the time Castle is sentenced next Tuesday, the prosecutor says many of the charges will have been merged. Still, he says the time spent in prison will be significant.