Judge to Rule on Caro Video

The scenes on the videotape are the kind families might chuckle over: A proud dad cheers on his boy at a baseball game. A toddler makes his first tentative trip up the stairs, all by himself. A young scholar recites a poem he has memorized for school.

The tape won’t be hauled out at warm family gatherings, though. If Ventura County prosecutors have their way, it will persuade the jurors who convicted Socorro Caro of her boys’ murders to recommend that she be executed.

The tape was played Thursday in a hearing that offered a glimpse of the evidence lawyers hope to give jurors as they determine whether the Santa Rosa Valley woman lives or dies.

Superior Court Judge Donald D. Coleman delayed any rulings on the admissibility of evidence until additional hearings next week. Jurors are to meet Nov. 27 for the start of the trial’s penalty phase, in which they will recommend either the death penalty or life in prison without parole for the 44-year-old defendant.

Husband’s Testimony Will Be Considered

In addition to deciding whether jurors view the tape, Coleman will issue a ruling on proposed testimony from Caro’s physician husband, Xavier Caro. He will also tell prosecutors whether they can present evidence related to allegations of violent acts committed by Caro before the slayings.

The five-minute video is a compilation of moments from the Caro family’s home movies. If it is allowed by Coleman, it will contrast sharply with the bloody images of the slain boys repeatedly projected on the courtroom wall during Caro’s nine-week trial.

Caro was convicted Nov. 5 of three counts of first-degree murder. She shot 11-year-old Joey, 8-year-old Michael and 5-year-old Christopher as they slept, and then turned the gun on herself in a suicide attempt, the jury concluded.

The tape shows the boys opening gifts, kicking a soccer ball, hamming it up for the camera.

Several segments are reminders of the boys’ lost future. In one of them, Joey tells a white-bearded theme park wizard that when he grows up he wants to be “a conductor and a doctor and a magician.” In another, Xavier Caro bursts into cheers as little Christopher manages to crawl up a set of carpeted stairs.

“Congratulations, Christopher! You did it!” he says. “Happy stair-climbing forevermore!”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Cheryl Temple said that the tape would give jurors a deeper knowledge of the crime’s victims. Assistant Public Defender Jean Farley, one of Caro’s attorneys, said she would oppose its introduction.

Farley also argued that testimony by Xavier Caro would offer nothing that did not emerge earlier in the trial. Temple countered that his testimony would not revisit the night he discovered his children dead in their beds. Instead, she said, it would focus on his continuing sense of loss.

Prosecutors Want to Tell of Violent Past

During the trial, the defense alleged that Xavier Caro framed his wife after shooting her and the boys. No charges were filed against him, and he now lives with the youngest Caro son, 3-year-old Gabriel, who was unharmed in the attack.

In hearings set for Monday and Wednesday, attorneys will also square off over the prosecution’s attempt to depict Socorro Caro as chronically violent. Prosecutors want to tell jurors about eight allegedly violent incidents in which Caro took part, including throwing a set of hair rollers at her husband and a 1992 parking lot dispute in which no charges were filed.

While reserving judgment on the issue, Coleman expressed skepticism about the accusations’ potential effect.

“It’s the court’s opinion the jury will be underwhelmed, quite frankly,” he said.