Clock Expert Takes Stand in Caro Trial

Socorro Caro’s attorneys brought an expert on grandfather clocks to court Wednesday, hoping to advance the theory that their client was framed in the slayings of three of her young sons.

The attorneys have suggested that Caro’s husband, Dr. Xavier Caro, stopped the living room clock as part of a scheme to cast blame on his wife.

According to testimony, he called investigators a week after the killings to allege that his wife had stopped the clock in a symbolic gesture at 10:59--the approximate time the boys were shot as they slept on the night of Nov. 22, 1999.

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

On Wednesday, Loren Miller, a real estate salesman who sold and restored grandfather clocks in Ventura County for 20 years, testified that only manipulation or a sharp jolt would have stopped the Caros’ clock as it was pictured in photographs taken after the crime.

However, he acknowledged under cross-examination that he had not personally examined the clock, relying only on photos provided by the defense for his analysis. Miller also said he was unaware that the 10-year-old Hamilton clock had been repaired several years ago specifically because it would stop before the time came for its weekly winding.

On the witness stand last month, Xavier Caro emphatically denied stopping the clock--an action that requires only a ginger touch to the pendulum.

“Oh no,” he said. “Absolutely not.”

Caro’s attorneys could rest their case today, Superior Court Judge Donald D. Coleman told jurors.

A sheriff’s investigator is to take the stand this morning. Speaking to the judge without the jury present, Assistant Public Defender Jean Farley also hinted at the prospect of putting on the stand a recently discovered witness who could be “highly incriminating” to Xavier Caro.