Caro Denies Blame

Pale and sobbing, Socorro Caro on Monday denied that she killed her three young sons as they slept.

During a four-hour cross-examination in Ventura County Superior Court, she also denied feeling any anger toward her husband before the slayings. Prosecutors contend that she shot her boys, ages 5 to 11, to punish Dr. Xavier Caro for restricting her funds and considering a divorce.

Charged with three counts of first-degree murder, Caro has pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. Her attorneys argue that she was the victim of an elaborate scheme by her husband to frame her in the killings and the apparent attempt at suicide that immediately followed them.

On Monday, Deputy Dist. Atty. Cheryl Temple tried without success to elicit an admission of rage from the demure, soft-spoken Caro.

In the months before the killings on Nov. 22, 1999, Temple pointed out, the couple argued frequently, with Xavier Caro abruptly leaving once for three nights.

In August, he fired his wife from her job as office manager at his Northridge medical practice. Convinced she was secretly funneling money to her parents, he took away her checkbook and credit cards. On top of that, she suspected he was having an affair and discovered that he had conferred with a divorce lawyer.

In question after question, Temple asked Caro whether she had been made angry by these and other setbacks.

Not angry, Caro replied repeatedly--but “saddened.”

The prosecution has contended that Caro was gripped by a deadly rage--a feeling so irrational she pulled the trigger on three of her four sons to get even with an errant husband.

Youngest Son Wasn’t Harmed

The youngest son, who was then 13 months old, was unharmed.

Under cross-examination, Caro would not acknowledge that the upheavals in her life depressed her. Last month, a friend named Lisa Van Essen testified that Caro talked to her of suicide over the phone.

According to Van Essen, Caro told her she was sitting on the edge of her bed, staring at her gun, and wondering whether everyone wouldn’t be better off if she weren’t around.

On Monday, she said she’d never made any suicide threats and didn’t recall ever having a conversation like that with Van Essen.

Caro’s memory of the night that shattered her family has been sparse--owing, her attorneys say, to the near-fatal gunshot wound to her brain. On Monday, she said she couldn’t recall how the print of her bloody palm got onto her son Joey’s door frame. Investigators quizzed her hours after her brain surgery, but on Monday she couldn’t remember many details.

Citing taped interviews, Temple told her she didn’t cry in her hospital bed when told of her boys’ deaths.

“I don’t recall that,” said Caro, who earlier testified she thought she may have been in a car wreck when she emerged from unconsciousness at Los Robles Regional Medical Center.

Despite her memory lapses, Caro was definitive in her denial of the killings.

“Your testimony is you don’t remember whether you killed your children?” Temple asked sharply.

“I didn’t kill my children, Mrs. Temple,” Caro replied through tears.

Caro Describes Nightly Ritual

Under defense questioning earlier, she described the ritual she followed in putting her boys to bed--the same routine she followed on that November night.

After showers and tooth-brushing, she’d pray over each boy and tuck a Bible under each pillow. She’d sit on the bed of 11-year-old Joey and the two would talk. She’d stroke his hair and rub his back before spending time with the two younger boys.

“When I’d get ready to get up and leave, we would do our kissing and huggy-poo’s,” she said, crying.