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One of the victims of convicted Cleveland kidnapper and rapist Ariel Castro has written police a letter thanking them for their help collecting cards and gifts. 
  
 FILE - File images from the video provided by Hennes Paynter Communications shows from left: Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight. The three women held captive in a Cleveland home for a decade... (Associated Press) 
  
 The handwritten note by Michelle Knight thanks members of the Cleveland Police Department's Second District for collecting gifts people have given Knight and the two other women imprisoned by Castro for a decade. 
  
 In the note, Knight tells Second District Cmdr. Keith Sulzer that, to quote the note, "Life is tough, but I'm tougher!" 
  
 Castro is scheduled to appear Thursday in a Cuyahoga (ky-uh-HOH'-guh) County courtroom where a judge will sentence him to life in prison plus 1,000 years. 
  
 That's the punishment worked out as part of a plea deal Castro reached last week. ||||| Story highlights Ariel Castro's sister says he must pay for what he did 
  
 Castro will deliver a statement explaining his life, the sister says 
  
 He'll be sentenced Thursday; the plea deal calls for life plus at least 1,000 years 
  
 One victim, Michelle Knight, will likely speak at hearing 
  
 The Ohio man who imprisoned three women in his Cleveland home for a decade will speak at length during his sentencing Thursday, delivering a statement that his sister promises will allow people to see "the other side of Ariel Castro." 
  
 Castro pleaded guilty last week to 937 counts , including murder and kidnapping, in a deal that dropped a possible death penalty in exchange for life in prison plus 1,000 years. 
  
 He'll give a rather lengthy statement, explaining his life and who he really is, his sister, Marisol Alicea, told CNN on Wednesday night. 
  
 "(People will) see the other side of Ariel Castro ... not the monster that everyone thinks he is," she said, adding that she was in no way defending her brother. 
  
 "He must pay for what he did." 
  
 Alicea said she doesn't plan on attending the sentencing with others in her family, fearing the evidence will be too graphic. 
  
 The sentencing hearing is expected to last hours and include witness testimony and evidence, a Cuyahoga County court source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told CNN. 
  
 Prosecutors want to make sure there's a record going forward in case of a future appeal, should Castro want to try to get out of prison, said the source who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. Prosecutors also want the court and the public to understand the impact Castro's actions had on his victims and the community. 
  
 At least one of Castro's victims, Michelle Knight, will likely make an impact statement during the hearing, Alicea said. An official with direct knowledge of the investigation also said Knight intends to speak. 
  
 In a handwritten note, posted Wednesday on the Cleveland Police Community Relations Facebook page, Knight said she was overwhelmed with the support she has received from "complete strangers." 
  
 "It is comforting. Life is tough, but I'm tougher," she wrote. "Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, she became a butterfly. Thanks." 
  
 It is unclear if the other two women -- Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry -- will address the court. They could make a videotaped statement, or a family member could talk on their behalf. 
  
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 Photos: Photos: Cleveland's missing women Photos: Photos: Cleveland's missing women Gruesome discovery in Cleveland – On July 21, Cleveland authorities announced they had discovered the bodies of three women, later identified as Angela Deskins, from left, Shirellda Terry and Shetisha Sheeley. All three women had been reported missing. Hide Caption 1 of 11 Photos: Photos: Cleveland's missing women Suspect arrested in deaths – Michael Madison, 35, a registered sex offender, was charged in the deaths of the three women. He was arrested after investigators noticed a foul odor coming from a garage he leased and found a body inside. Police believe he killed the women over a 10-day period. Hide Caption 2 of 11 Photos: Photos: Cleveland's missing women Cleveland's missing women – Posters for missing women and girls can been seen all over metropolitan Cleveland's impoverished neighborhoods. The Cleveland police website lists 54 women as missing within its city limits, but a community leader said he thinks that number is actually in the hundreds. Hide Caption 3 of 11 Photos: Photos: Cleveland's missing women Still missing: Christina Kleckner – Christina Kleckner, 24, was last seen in Cleveland in October 2011 after an argument with her parents, according to CNN affiliate WEWS. Her father reported her missing the next day. Kleckner, a recovering drug addict with mental disabilities, was being treated for bipolar disorder and had been involved in prostitution. Hide Caption 4 of 11 Photos: Photos: Cleveland's missing women Still missing: Minerva Tripp – Cleveland resident Minerva Tripp vanished last year at age 41. Hide Caption 5 of 11 Photos: Photos: Cleveland's missing women Still missing: Ashley Summers – A photo of Ashley Summers, who was last seen in the Cleveland area on July 9, 2007, beside an age-progressed rendering of her. Hide Caption 6 of 11 Photos: Photos: Cleveland's missing women Still missing: Christina Adkins – Christina Adkins was last seen in Cleveland in January 1995. She was 18 years old and five months pregnant when she disappeared. Hide Caption 7 of 11 Photos: Photos: Cleveland's missing women Missing women emerge from captivity – Amanda Berry emerged from captivity in May, leading to the freedom of two other missing Cleveland women: Michelle Knight, left, was abducted at age 21 in August 2002, and Gina DeJesus, center, was 14 when she disappeared in 2004. Berry, right, had gone missing at age 16 in 2003. Hide Caption 8 of 11 Photos: Photos: Cleveland's missing women Ariel Castro arrested – Ariel Castro was charged May 8 with kidnapping the three women. He has pleaded not guilty to the 977 counts against him. Hide Caption 9 of 11 Photos: Photos: Cleveland's missing women Cleveland's notorious serial killer – In 2009, Cleveland police found the remains of 11 women at the home of Anthony Sowell. All had disappeared from across the city over a two-year period. Sowell is on death row. Hide Caption 10 of 11 Photos: Photos: Cleveland's missing women Sowell's 'house of horrors' demolished – The Cleveland home of convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell -- dubbed the "house of horrors" -- was demolished in December 2011. Hide Caption 11 of 11 
  
 Prosecutors also have submitted an evaluation of Castro's confinement and abuse of Knight, DeJesus and Berry that was compiled by acclaimed psychiatrist Frank Ochberg, considered a pioneer in trauma science. 
  
 The evaluation was part of the prosecution's pre-sentencing report, which has been submitted to the court. 
  
 The evaluation -- using statements, medical records, videotaped interviews and transcripts -- painted a horrifying picture of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of Castro that included brutal beatings and repeated rapes that resulted in pregnancies that he would end by punching the women in the stomach. 
  
 "He appeared to be evolving in an ever more dangerous direction, capturing younger and younger women, telling his captives he was hunting for replacements,"Ochberg wrote. 
  
 Castro abducted Knight, Berry and DeJesus separately over a two-year period between 2002 and 2004, according to investigators. 
  
 The women and Berry's 6-year-old daughter were held in Castro's 1,400-square-foot home. DNA tests have confirmed that Castro is the child's father. 
  
 In the evaluation, Ochberg wrote that Knight -- who was kidnapped first -- suffered "the longest and most severely." 
  
 "But it was Michelle who served as doctor, nurse, midwife and pediatrician during the birth (of Berry's child). She breathed life into that infant when she wasn't breathing," he wrote. 
  
 "At other times, she interceded when Castro sought to abuse Gina, interposing herself and absorbing physical and sexual trauma. But each survivor had a will to prevail and used that will to live through the ordeal." 
  
 The women were freed in May after Berry shouted for help while Castro was away. 
  
 Neighbor Charles Ramsey said he heard their cries as he was sitting down to eat. 
  
 "I see this girl going nuts trying to get out of a house," he told CNN affiliate WEWS . "I go on the porch and she says, 'Help me get out. I've been in here a long time.' " 
  
 Finally free, Berry pleaded for a phone. 
  
 "Help me, I am Amanda Berry," she frantically told a 911 operator. "I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years. And I'm here, I'm free now." 
  
 In early July, Berry, DeJesus and Knight released a YouTube video offering their thanks to all those who have helped them since they were freed. They have not faced their captor and tormentor since their rescue. 
  
 "I want to thank everyone who has helped me and my family through this entire ordeal. Everyone who has been there to support us has been a blessing," Berry said in the video. "I'm getting stronger each day." |||||  
  
  
  
 CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy I. McGinty has filed a sentencing memorandum with the court detailing Ariel Castro's crimes and outlining the seriousness of his offenses. 
  
 It includes details of how Casto managed to kidnap Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight and the conditions he forced them to live in during their decade in captivity. 
  
 It states, for instance, that Castro lured Knight into his car and then "enticed her to go" inside his house "with promises of a puppy for her son." 
  
 The memorandum also describes how Castro controlled the movements of the women, keeping them in locked rooms and using physical restraints. 
  
 "There is only one bathroom in the house, on the first floor," the memorandum states. "The Defendant would not allow the victims downstairs to use the bathroom. They only had access to plastic toilets in the bedrooms. They were emptied infrequently." 
  
 The memorandum also includes an evaluation by a clinical professor of psychiatry who describes the emotional toll that the 10 years of captivity had on the women. 
  
 Frank M. Ochberg, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Michigan State University, also marvels at the women's resiliency. He writes how Berry kept a diary, usually addressing it to her mother, and that after her mother died, she "wrote to her mother in heaven, seeking to soothe her mother" and praying for deliverance and the health of her daughter. 
  
 Berry gave birth to a girl while being imprisoned by Castro. DNA testing has shown that Castro is the father. 
  
 McGinty spokesman Joe Frolik said the purpose of the memorandum is to help establish a record that will serve as justification for Castro's sentence should it ever come under review in the future. 
  
 Castro is expected to be sentenced Thursday to life in prison without parole, plus a minimum of 1,000 years. 
  
 Castro admitted kidnapping Berry, DeJesus and Knight and raping them time and again during the decade of captivity in his Seymour Avenue home. He pleaded guilty last week to hundreds of counts of rape and kidnapping, as well a two counts of aggravated murder. 
  
 The murder charges stem from Castro forcing one of the women to miscarry a child. 
  
 The memorandum states that diaries kept by the women "speak of forced sexual conduct, of being locked in a dark room, of anticipating the next session of abuse, of the dreams of someday escaping and being reunited with family, of being chained to a wall, of being held like a prisoner of war, of missing the lives they once enjoyed, of emotional abuse, of his threats to kill, of being treated like an animal, or continuous abuse, and of desiring freedom." 
  
 View the sentencing memorandum below. Mobile users can read it here. 
  
 &amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/745324/cassen.pdf"&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Cassen (PDF)&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/745324/cassen.txt"&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Cassen (Text)&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; |||||Summary:

– Ariel Castro's sentencing is today and the hearing is expected to feature horrific details of the abuse the three women he kidnapped suffered over a decade, as well as testimony from at least one victim and Castro himself, CNN reports. Prosecutors have revealed that the women kept diaries documenting the extreme physical, mental, and sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of Castro, who pleaded guilty to 937 counts in a deal that spares him the death penalty but gives him life in prison without parole—plus 1,000 years. Michelle Knight, the first to be kidnapped, suffered "the longest and most severely," according to a pre-sentencing report prepared by a psychiatrist. Knight is expected to give a victim statement; it's not clear whether Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus will also testify. (In a recent thank-you note to police, Knight wrote that "life is tough, but I'm tougher!") Prosecutors say the report and today's testimony will serve as a record in case Castro's sentence is ever reviewed, reports the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Castro's sister says he will deliver a lengthy statement to the court that will let people see "the other side of Ariel Castro" and show he is "not the monster that everyone thinks he is."