Caro Jurors Hear Pleas for Life, Death

Convicted child-killer Socorro Caro must die for “the most horrible, the most selfish crimes imaginable,” a prosecutor told jurors in a Ventura County courtroom Thursday.

But a defense attorney urged the jury to exercise mercy, describing the Santa Rosa Valley woman as “a mother who cared and loved and fostered and nurtured and did everything she possibly could to help these children along.”

The 10 women and two men on the panel are to hear a final defense argument today before deliberating on which punishment best fits Caro’s slaying of three of her young sons: death by injection or life in prison without parole.

Convicted of first-degree murder last month, Caro killed three of her four boys by shooting them in the head as they slept on Nov. 22, 1999.

She then turned the gun on herself, pumping a bullet into her head.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Cheryl Temple warned jurors to avoid sympathy for Caro, who during her lengthy trial frequently wept as photographs of her bloodied children were projected on the courtroom wall.

“Shed tears for the children,” Temple said, “the little boys who will never grow up, get to play soccer, go to the movies, hear music, or feel their father’s arms around them.”

Temple scoffed at testimony from a defense psychiatrist indicating that Caro, drunk and depressed, may have been primarily interested in killing herself, but shot the children in the belief they would be better off dead than without her.

“What was she saving them from?” Temple asked the jurors. “A lifetime of good schools? An adoring father?”

During the trial, Caro’s attorneys blamed their client’s husband, Dr. Xavier Caro, for the crimes.

They alleged the physician, who was having an affair with an office staff member, killed the boys, shot his wife, and then framed her by manipulating the crime scene at the family’s million-dollar home.

Temple called the effort to pin the crime on Xavier Caro “evil” and said it reflected his wife’s lack of remorse.

But in his closing argument, Deputy Public Defender Nicholas Beeson denied that accusation, urging jurors not to hold Caro’s defense strategy against her.

Caro “wasn’t responsible for the defense in this case,” Beeson said, suggesting that it reflected a theory pieced together by attorneys and investigators in the absence of memories from their client.

Caro testified she could not recall that night’s events, and two medical specialists verified that amnesia could stem from Caro’s brain injury.

Beeson rejected the prosecution’s theory that Caro killed the boys to punish her husband, who conferred with a divorce lawyer after firing Caro from her longtime job as his office manager.

“There is no credible evidence that she killed the children out of revenge,” Beeson said.

Caro had a crumbling marriage but had never been known to use the children as pawns, Beeson told jurors.

“Is there anybody who doesn’t know how much she loved her children?” he asked, citing testimony from teachers who described Caro as a classroom volunteer who would do anything for her kids.

“Were they lying?” he asked. “Were they trying to put one over on you?”

Caro had no plans to kill on the night of the slayings, Beeson said.

Caro had spent the day packing for the family’s annual Thanksgiving trip, he said.

And when she argued with her husband that night, she was trying to protect her oldest son, 11-year-old Joey, from being disciplined for a snide comment.

Beeson maintained the aggravating factors required for capital punishment were absent in the Caro case.

“Look for depravity, for callousness, for hatred,” he told the jury. “It doesn’t exist here.”

Temple disagreed.

“This killer was supposed to be their protector,” she said, gesturing toward Caro. “They were just children.”

Temple asked the jurors to take up the defense suggestion that they study snapshots of the Caro family having fun.

But she advised them to post grisly photos of the slain boys around their deliberation room as well.

“The blood of a murdered child does not belong on a Winnie the Pooh pillow,” she said.

Caro’s attorney argued a lifetime behind bars would be punishment enough for the 44-year-old woman.

“Life without parole is not a lenient punishment by any stretch of the imagination,” Beeson said.

But Temple countered that this would be too good for Caro.

Even in prison, the prosecutor said, Caro could still celebrate her birthdays and enjoy visits from her relatives.

“She’ll still enjoy her life--unlike the three children she murdered,” Temple said.