Don't say I didn't warn you!!! <br />******************************<br /><br /> http://www1.kitsapsun.com/bsun/local/article/0,2403,BSUN_19088_3371884,00.html <br /><br /><br />Man pleads guilty to torturing children<br />December 3, 2004<br /><br />SEATTLE (AP) An Auburn man accused by prosecutors of torturing his children has pleaded guilty to assault charges just days before he was scheduled to go on trial. <br /><br />Douglas Armando Castellanos, 28, pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of first-degree assault of a child and two counts of second-degree child assault. <br /><br /> <br /> <br /><br /> <br />At the time of his arrest two years ago, police described Castellanos' torture of his son, then 9, and daughter, then 8, as some of the worst they had ever seen. According to charging papers, he pulled out their toenails, beat them with sticks and cable wire and made them eat dog feces. <br /><br />Among other abuses, he forced his children to sleep naked in a garage on a bare mattress. They slept under barbells so they couldn't move, and Castellanos sometimes doused them with water. <br /><br />The King County prosecutor handling the case said Wednesday he was happy to obtain the plea deal especially for the sake of the children. <br /><br />"We're all very pleased that the children in particular won't have to relive the horror of what they went through by having to testify at trial," said Deputy Prosecutor Rich Anderson. <br /><br />Castellanos faces 13 years to 18 years in prison when Judge Richard McDermott sentences him Jan. 21 at the Regional Justice Center in Kent. <br /><br />Before his arrest, Castellanos was divorced from the children's mother, and the mother had custody, prosecutors said. <br /><br />In November 2001, the mother left the children with him while she attended a funeral in Mexico. When she returned several months later, he apparently had moved, and she could not find them until October 2002, when she discovered the children were attending an elementary school in Auburn and took them back.