Instant of Hope Quickly Vanished

For a few seconds, it seemed there might be a spark of hope amid the carnage.

Extending two fingertips over bloodstained bedding to feel the inner arm of 8-year-old Michael Caro, a firefighter thought he detected a throb, however faint.

“Cap!” he yelled to his supervisor. “I think I might have a pulse here!”

But if there were vital signs, they disappeared almost immediately, according to testimony Tuesday in the murder trial of Socorro Caro, who is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of three of her young boys.

Michael and brother Christopher, 5, lay together on the lower level of their bunk bed. Both had been shot in the head. Joey, 11, was in his own room, also shot as he slept.

Ventura County Firefighter Pete Jensen testified that he was in the first crew of rescue personnel that rushed to the Caros’ Santa Rosa Valley home on the night of Nov. 22, 1999. After deputies checked the house, Jensen was among those who administered first aid to Socorro Caro, who lay on her bedroom floor, bleeding from a gunshot wound to the head. He also checked the boys, trying to locate a pulse on their necks and upper arms.

He told a jury of nine women and three men that he thought he heard “agonal breathing” from Michael. Under questioning from prosecutors, he demonstrated for the jury with a soft intake of breath--a “hollow gasp,” as he described it.

Agonal breathing is characteristic of the dying and recently dead, he explained.

As Jensen testified, the defendant hid her eyes from graphic crime-scene photos projected on a courtroom wall. During an afternoon break, she collapsed, wailing as Deputy Public Defender Nicholas Beeson attempted to lead her to a holding cell off the courtroom.

Looking haggard with dark circles under her eyes, Socorro Caro usually leaned on Beeson’s arm for the short walk. But this time, she fell back into her chair, which was then wheeled into the holding area. The incident, out of view of the jury, delayed the trial for about 15 minutes.

Most of Tuesday’s testimony focused on accounts by emergency personnel of the grim scene they encountered at the Caros’ million-dollar home near Camarillo.

Several witnesses told of Dr. Xavier Caro, the defendant’s husband, clutching his surviving son, 13-month-old Gabriel, to his chest as emergency crews arrived. Gabriel was unharmed in the attacks, although one of his socks was soaked in blood.

Sheriff’s Deputy Gregg Willson testified that Xavier Caro was “running around frantically, yelling about how his wife killed her kids. He was in about as extreme an emotional state as you can have.”

Defense attorneys have contended that, despite his apparent agitation, Xavier Caro is trying to frame his wife for their children’s killings. He has denied any involvement and never has been named as a suspect by police.

Socorro Caro pleaded not guilty, later amending her plea to not guilty by reason of insanity.

Her lead attorney, Assistant Public Defender Jean Farley, suggested Tuesday that emergency personnel may have accidentally contaminated valuable evidence at the scene.

In her opening statement last week, Farley contended that the prosecution’s blood-spattered evidence--which is crucial to interpreting some crimes--was flawed.

Jensen acknowledged Tuesday that during rescue efforts he slid off the bloody blanket covering Michael, causing “a moderate to major movement” in the bedding.

Jensen testified that he and a paramedic were preparing to lift Michael off the bed and place him on the floor, where they would have more room to work. But after lifting him an inch or two and seeing the extent of his head injury, they agreed that “the child could not be saved.”

While Jensen said he was “conscious of the fact it was a crime scene,” he responded to a question from Farley by agreeing that his “primary focus” was seeing whether the boy could be saved.