Therapist’s Records Sought in Caro Case

Lawyers for Socorro “Cora” Caro are seeking records from sessions they say her husband had with a marriage therapist prior to his wife allegedly shooting to death three of their young sons.

Caro has pleaded not guilty, and not guilty by reason of insanity in the 1999 shooting in the family’s Santa Rosa Valley home. Her mother has said the 43-year-old woman was a victim of domestic abuse.

Deputy Public Defender Jean Farley would not say what she hoped to find in notes from Dr. Xavier Caro’s sessions with a Thousand Oaks therapist. But she was hopeful those records would bolster portions of the defense.

Caro has a medical office in Northridge.

Neither the therapist nor the therapist’s lawyer could be reached for comment Tuesday.

Farley said she is not the only one who wants to see notes from the sessions. Prosecutors made an early attempt to get the records but were unsuccessful.

News of the sessions came out Tuesday in Ventura County Superior Court, when lawyers for both sides went before Judge Donald D. Coleman to air concerns that they were running short on time to prepare for trial. Coleman agreed to postpone the trial’s start date from early March to May 29.