Deputy’s Report Barred

A judge Tuesday thwarted defense efforts to introduce testimony from a sheriff’s deputy on a purported confession by Socorro Caro, who is accused of shooting three of her young sons as they slept.

Caro’s attorneys suggested their client’s husband, Dr. Xavier Caro, fabricated the alleged confession as part of a scheme to frame his wife.

But after a lengthy hearing outside the presence of the jury, Superior Court Judge Donald D. Coleman concluded there was insufficient evidence the physician ever had made such a claim.

Charged with three counts of first-degree murder, Caro has pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity.

At issue Tuesday was a report by Deputy Anthony Tutino, among the first officers to arrive at the Caros’ Santa Rosa Valley home the night of Nov. 22, 1999.

In his report, Tutino recounted eavesdropping on conversations that night between a frantic Xavier Caro and his mother-in-law, Juanita Leon.

In those discussions, he wrote, Xavier Caro had related his wife’s confession.

“Cora told Xavier she had killed all the kids,” Tutino wrote.

On the witness stand, however, Tutino said he could not recall that statement.

“This is stuff that happened two years ago, in the middle of the night,” he said.

Testifying last month, neither Xavier Caro nor Juanita Leon recalled a confession. Xavier Caro said his wife was moaning and incoherent when he found her bleeding on the bedroom floor with a bullet wound to the brain.

Prosecutors Tuesday argued against Tutino’s testimony. Deputy Dist. Atty. Cheryl Temple said Tutino’s report of a confession may have been prompted by erroneous comments from the 911 dispatcher who directed him to the scene.

“The defense is trying to get a dispatcher’s error in as the truth,” Temple said.

Last week the judge and attorneys for both sides listened to a tape Tutino had made from a recorder on his belt. Most of it was garbled; nowhere was there a reference by Xavier Caro to his wife’s confession, Coleman said Tuesday.

“The statement is not on the tape,” Coleman said, ruling that testimony on the alleged confession was inadmissible hearsay. “Xavier Caro testified he didn’t make such a statement. No one has testified such a statement was made.”

Coleman was openly critical of Caro’s attorneys for taking so much time on an issue he felt could have been settled more swiftly.