Mother of 4 Pleads Not Guilty to 3 Counts of Murder in Sons’ Killings

A weeping Socorro “Cora” Caro pleaded not guilty Tuesday to three counts of first-degree murder in the Nov. 22 shooting deaths of her school-age sons.

In entering the pleas, the 42-year-old Caro also denied a special-circumstance allegation of multiple murders that could make her eligible for the death penalty, although Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. James Ellison said his office has not yet decided whether to seek it.

The case was set for a Feb. 22 preliminary hearing.

Outside the courtroom after the arraignment, criminal defense attorney Richard Plotin of Encino told reporters that his client remains distraught and confused over the slaying of her children.

“She keeps sobbing, ‘My babies, my babies,’ ” Plotin said. “She is devastated.”

A stay-at-home mother who once worked in her husband’s medical office, Caro is accused of fatally shooting three of her four children, ages 5, 8 and 11, as they slept in the family’s five-bedroom Santa Rosa Valley home.

The boys’ father, Xavier Caro, told authorities he returned from work at 11:20 p.m. to find the children dead in their rooms and his wife bleeding from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. A month later, Cora Caro was charged with murder.

At her arraignment Tuesday, Caro, who recently underwent a second brain surgery, was pushed into Ventura County Superior Court in a wheelchair. Crying and grasping the caged partition that separates defendants from their lawyers, she stood briefly next to Plotin as he announced the pleas.

The defendant spoke only once, telling Superior Court Judge Edward Brodie in a barely audible voice that she agreed to the February hearing date.

After the arraignment, Plotin said he has reviewed hundreds of pages of police reports and crime scene photos, yet still is unclear about what happened the night of Nov. 22.

“[Prosecutors] have a belief she killed her children and put a bullet in her head,” Plotin said. “There are many, many questions that I have.”

Specifically, Plotin said he wants to know how his client sustained a broken left foot and bruises that night. He said physical evidence, such as the location of bullet casings, raise more questions than answers about what happened before, during or after the shootings.

Caro is now being divorced by her husband in family court and has also been sued by him in civil court for allegedly causing the deaths of Joseph, 11, Michael, 8, and Christopher, 5.

The couple’s surviving son, 17-month-old Gabriel, remains with his father, who is seeking sole custody in family court. A hearing on the issue is set for Jan. 19.

Cora Caro’s divorce attorney, Rand Pinsky of Agoura Hills, said Tuesday that his client is not opposing the request. But her parents are requesting visitation rights.

Pinsky is also expected to return to court in coming months to fight for community property funds to help pay for Cora Caro’s defense, which is expected to cost more than $500,000.

She remains held without bail in the medical ward of the county’s main jail.