Judge OKs Use of Video in Caro Case

A computer-animated video depicting the point-blank shootings of two young brothers can be presented to jurors during their mother’s murder trial, a Ventura County judge ruled Tuesday.

The highly graphic video purports to show how Socorro Caro killed her two sons while they slept in the family’s Santa Rosa Valley home on the night of Nov. 22, 1999. Caro is also charged with fatally shooting a third son on the same night.

Following the video presentation and over strong objections from the defense, Superior Court Judge Donald Coleman ruled that the five-minute video was admissible. It marks the first time that the Ventura County district attorney’s office will use computer graphics to prosecute a case.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Cheryl Temple said the 3-D graphics are critical in illustrating testimony from a criminologist, who will describe for jurors how each child was killed and the order in which they were shot based on blood patterns and the positions of the bodies.

“It’s not fun to look at,” Temple told the judge. “But in the whole scheme of things it’s extremely probative.”

But Caro’s attorneys argued that showing jurors a “little movie” about what allegedly happened would be highly prejudicial.

“All I can tell you is that after seeing ‘Schindler’s List,’ I felt as though I was in the concentration camps,” attorney Jean Farley said. “I couldn’t get out of my mind the images of starving and ill people that were ravaged in the concentration camps. . . . You don’t know what images that you see on the screen will stick with you and be the most convincing and persuasive.”

Defense Sees Video as Risky

Farley said she is particularly concerned because the computer version of the shooting is based on expert conjecture, rather than eyewitness accounts.

“I think there’s a big risk involved in unconsciously convincing people of a reality that no one is certain of,” Farley said.

But in his ruling, Coleman said he would advise jurors that they were watching a visual representation of one expert’s testimony rather than an actual re-creation of events.

The video begins by showing a bunk bed with two small cartoon-like figures tucked into the bottom bunk. They are meant to represent Christopher Caro, 5, and his brother, Michael, 7.

The next scene is a close-up of an extended arm with a gun pointed at the head of one of the sleeping figures and a small flash as the firearm discharges. Blood begins to puddle beneath the boy’s head.

“You can see the soak-through stains across the sheets, off the side of the bed and pool onto the floor,” Temple told the judge as the video played. As Temple spoke, Caro began to cry loudly, drowning out the prosecutor’s words.

“No, no, it’s too hard,” Caro sobbed before the judge allowed her to leave the courtroom for the rest of the hearing.

The video goes on to show a second figure, meant to represent Christopher, sitting up after his brother lying next to him is shot. The figure looks directly at the shooter as an arm is extended and another shot is fired.

The bullet simply grazes the figure’s head, causing him to lean forward, spilling blood onto the sheets in front of him, onto a doll and off the side of the bed before he falls backward onto the pillow. The gunman fires again and the figure is motionless.

Prosecution Won’t Explain Why

Outside the courtroom, prosecutors declined to comment on why they opted for a computer presentation of the shootings. Although Joseph Caro, 11, also was fatally shot on the same night, prosecutors do not plan to present a video depiction of his death.

Legal expert Laura Levenson, a law professor at Loyola University, said the use of computer graphics in the courtroom has become increasingly common among young prosecutors who grew up with such technology.

“There’s been a real push on training these prosecutors to use this kind of demonstrative evidence,” Levenson said. “And there may be more of a push not to bore jurors to death. We are living in the TV era, and frankly, we’ve learned that’s how people process information, by seeing it on the screen. So if you want jurors to care, show them something to care about.”

Caro, who was found with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head the night of the shootings, will stand trial in the slaying of all three boys July 17. If convicted, she could face the death penalty.