49-year-old Elias Acevedo Sr. pleaded guilty on Monday to 297 counts, including aggravated murder, rape and kidnapping, and will serve a life imprisonment sentence for the killings of two women in the 1990s, CNN reported.
The cases "were re-investigated after the discovery of three women held captive nearby for years by Ariel Castro," CNN also reported.
Acevedo was arrested in the same neighborhood where authorities found Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus on May 6 at Castro's home while he was away. Castro was found hanged with a bed-sheet in his jail cell on September 3, just weeks after he was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 1,000 years.
Acevedo gave a statement to the court before being sentenced and said that he wished that he could "change everything, " he said as reported by WEWS, a CNN affiliate.
""I'm not a monster. I feel a lot of remorse," Acevedo said. Some of his child-rape victims were in the courtroom as the verdict was read.
"I love you all, and God bless you," he added.
The charges include the 1993 rape of his sister-in-law as well as sexual assault of three children.
"The plea recommendation was accepted by a Cuyahoga Common Pleas judge, a written statement... said. Acevedo received two consecutive sentences of 20 years to life and 405 years for the rape and other charges," CNN also reported.
The FBI's Violent Crime Task Force linked Acevedo to the murder of 18-year-old Christina Adkins who disappeared in 1995.
"Remains believed to be those of Adkins were found in October in a utility vault near the intersection of interstates 71, 90 and 490, authorities said," CNN also reported. He was indicted in early 2013 for a 1993 rape.
Acevedo admitted to the strangling of a 30-year-old woman on October 24, 1994, "and leaving her body in a vacant lot," CNN also reported.
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