Father Was Hysterical at Scene, Officers Testify

As sheriff’s deputies, firefighters and paramedics trooped through his home on a Santa Rosa Valley hilltop, Dr. Xavier Caro straddled a line between hysteria and self-control, according to officers who testified Monday in his wife’s murder trial.

Wailing that his three boys had been shot dead in their beds upstairs, he clutched his youngest child, 13-month-old Gabriel, who was unharmed in the events that shattered the Caro family and resulted in three charges of first-degree murder against Socorro “Cora” Caro.

“She must have forgot about the little guy,” Dr. Caro told Ventura County Sheriff’s Deputy Mark Fullerton, one of the first to arrive at the home near Camarillo on the night of Nov. 22, 1999.

Meanwhile, Socorro Caro lay on the master-bedroom floor in pools of blood and vomit, deputies testified. Her eyes were half open and her breathing was labored, said Deputy Anthony Tutino, Fullerton’s partner. He said she didn’t seem able to respond to questions. Five shell casings were scattered beside her.

Socorro Caro has pleaded not guilty, later amending her plea to not guilty by reason of insanity. If convicted, she will receive either the death penalty or life imprisonment.

In her trial’s second week, prosecutors used testimony from officers on the scene to paint a picture of Xavier Caro as a father whose world had brutally imploded. Defense attorneys, however, have suggested that he is the one responsible for his children’s deaths and the gunshot wound in the head that nearly killed their mother. Investigators have never named Dr. Caro as a suspect.

Socorro Caro has said she has no memories of that night. Prosecutors on Monday signaled their skepticism, contending that her attorneys had provided them with no medical evidence supporting amnesia.

The jury of nine women and three men listened as officers grimly answered questions about what they heard and saw, starting shortly before midnight at the Caros’ five-bedroom Mediterranean-style home.

“I heard some screaming from inside of the house as we got out of the car,” Tutino said.

He said he pushed open the front door, which was ajar, and yelled, “Sheriff’s Department!”

Dr. Caro came running from the back of the house, holding Gabriel, Tutino said.

Caro said, “She killed them all! She killed them all!” both officers testified.

Walking upstairs with his gun drawn, Tutino saw the bodies of Christopher, 5, and Michael, 8, together in their bunk beds. Joseph, 11, lay dead in his own room.

“I leaned over and checked for breathing sounds,” he said. “I heard none.”

Anticipating the defense’s expected assertion that blood-spatter evidence in the case is flawed, Deputy Dist. Atty. Jim Ellison asked Tutino and other officers and rescue workers whether they had rearranged the children’s bodies or blood-soaked bedding.

All the witnesses said they had not touched the children or the bedding in any significant way.

Tutino spent hours, off and on, with Dr. Caro that night, he testified.

“He was pacing around, looking around in disbelief, hitting walls,” Tutino said. “He’d go from visibly upset to calm, and back up again.”

Caro asked, “Why did she do this?” the officer testified.

From time to time, Caro burst into lamenting cries, the deputy said. “She killed my best friend,” he said, according to Tutino’s testimony. “She wasn’t messing around; she shot them all in the head. She killed my Joey.”

When Juanita Leon, Socorro Caro’s mother, arrived, she collapsed on the front lawn, officers testified. When she gathered herself, she and Caro talked in the family’s garage. Tutino said he audio-taped portions of their conversation on a recorder dangling from his belt. But the sound quality was poor, owing partly to the hubbub of ambulances, a fire engine and a bus that held a mobile command post, he said.

Socorro Caro’s lead attorney, Assistant Public Defender Jean Farley, pressed Tutino on a portion of that conversation. She asked whether Dr. Caro had told Leon that his wife confessed to killing the boys, as Tutino’s initial report indicated.

Such a claim might be contradicted by officers’ testimony about Socorro Caro’s semi-conscious state. It also could fuel the defense’s contention that Caro framed his wife.

Tutino backed away from the statement in his report.

He testified that Caro said his wife shot the children. He said he was incorrect in writing that Caro had related a confession by his wife.