Jurors Hear of Caro’s Deeper Religious Faith

Ventura County jurors weighing the possibility of execution for Socorro Caro were told Friday that her religious beliefs have deepened, an assertion that prompted a prosecutor to ask sharply: “Did the defendant’s faith include a prohibition against murder?”

The interchange occurred as the Rev. David Leon, pastor of the Living Stone Christian Fellowship in the San Fernando Valley, testified about numerous visits with Caro over the last two years while she was awaiting trial in the killings of three of her young boys.

A cousin of Caro’s, Leon told jurors that she “has genuinely found the Lord in her heart.”

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Cheryl Temple was skeptical that Leon could gauge the depth of Caro’s beliefs. Earlier, prosecutors tried unsuccessfully to bar his account of her jailhouse conversion, arguing that even a clergyman cannot take the measure of another person’s faith without speculating.

Caro, who was convicted of first-degree murder Nov. 5, was not devoutly religious before her incarceration, Leon said. But in the two years since the slayings, he said, her faith has become profound.

“I’ve seen a tremendous growth in her life--absolutely,” said Leon, who grew up in the same Canoga Park neighborhood as Caro.

Leon said he has counseled Caro in jail and prayed with her numerous times since the killings on Nov. 22, 1999. His testimony was aimed at persuading jurors to recommend life in prison without parole, instead of death by injection, for the 44-year-old woman.

During her nine-week trial, Caro kept a Bible beside her on the defense table. She read it occasionally during breaks when the jury was out of the room. Otherwise, it sat inside a Manila file folder, concealed by order of Superior Court Judge Donald D. Coleman to avoid the risk of influencing jurors.

Asked by Deputy Public Defender Nicholas Beeson whether Caro confessed to him during his visits to the women’s jail at the Ojai Honor Farm, Leon said she had not.

On three occasions, Leon said, he asked his cousin whether she wanted to unburden herself.

“She always looked me in the eyes and said she did not do it,” he said.

During the trial, the defense attempted to blame Caro’s husband for the crimes. Caro, who was found nearly dead from a gunshot wound to the brain, testified that she had little memory of events in the family’s Santa Rosa Valley home that night.

Under cross-examination by the prosecution, Leon told jurors that Caro expressed no remorse for the attack that killed three of her four sons as they lay in bed.

But, when questioned by defense attorney Beeson, the minister said that mention of the boys’ deaths would at first leave Caro “completely unraveled” and invariably produce grief.

“She’s always cried when we talked about the boys,” he said.