Blood on Clothing Tied to Slain Sons

A DNA expert testified in the Socorro Caro case Friday that the blood found on her clothing the night her three sons were killed was that of her three sons.

Lisa Brewer, supervising criminalist and a DNA expert with the Santa Clara County Crime Laboratory, said there was only a one in more than 260 billion chance the blood on Caro’s clothes belonged to anyone but her sons.

Prosecutors hope the DNA evidence will help persuade jurors that 44-year-old Caro, angry and distraught after a fight with her husband, Dr. Xavier Caro, took a .38 caliber handgun and methodically shot the children on the night of Nov. 22, 1999. Killed were 11-year-old Joey, 8-year-old Michael and 5-year-old Christopher Caro.

She then shot herself in the head but survived, police said.

Caro has pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder, and has subsequently amended her plea to not guilty by reason of insanity. If convicted she faces the death penalty or life in prison.

Dozens of slides of bloody bits of cloth were exhibited for jurors as Brewer explained which blood belonged to whom.

“No two people have the same DNA unless they are identical twins,” she said.

Sometimes a drop of blood clearly belonged to one child or another, and other times the blood was mixed, Brewer said. Caro’s clothes also contained her own blood from her head wound. Prosecutors believe Socorro Caro fatally shot her sons in the bedrooms of their Santa Rosa Valley home in Ventura County, splattering blood on her clothes. A blood splatter expert is expected to testify before the prosecution rests, possibly as soon as Sept. 26.

Assistant Public Defender Jean Farley raised the issue of contamination. She questioned Brewer on the possibility that the blood could have become contaminated during the collection process.

“If errors do occur in DNA collection, isn’t it most likely done in the collection rather than processing operation?” she asked.

Brewer said the potential was there during collection.

“In the lab the only major problem would be accidentally switching tubes,” Brewer said. “I am very careful how I handle and process tubes.”

Farley then noted the small size of some of the blood samples, often mere pinpricks of red or brown.

“The smaller the sample the easier it is to contaminate, right?” she asked.

Brewer agreed that smaller samples could be more vulnerable to contamination.

The defense has tried to paint Caro’s husband as the killer, suggesting he tried to frame his wife.

But the DNA evidence showed just two drops of blood on Xavier Caro’s pants. They came from his son Michael. Prosecutors said the blood got there when Xavier tried to save his son’s life.

Also on Friday, Ernest Montagna, a homicide detective with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, told the court that on the night of the slayings he interviewed Socorro Caro’s mother, Juanita Leon, in his squad car.

Montagna said Leon never mentioned anything about any physical abuse between her daughter and Xavier Caro. Leon had earlier testified that she witnessed Xavier kick her daughter after an argument.

According to a transcript of Montagna’s interview with Leon, she said, “No, she wouldn’t let him abuse her; she wasn’t that type.”

In another part of the transcript, Leon said, “[Xavier] provided, she had everything. He spoiled her and then took everything away.”

Reading from the transcript, Montagna recalled Leon saying that Socorro Caro questioned her own sanity after her husband left the house after an argument the night of the killings.

“She said, ‘Oh, he’s going now. Oh Mom, I don’t have any money now. I don’t know what I am going to do,” Montagna read. “Well, I guess I am crazy like he says I am. Mom, I’m crazy.”