CARO: 'I DIDN'T KILL MY BABIES' ON WITNESS STAND, MOTHER REPEATEDLY DENIES MURDERING HER THREE SONS.Byline: Cecilia Chan Staff Writer Under cross-examination Monday, murder suspect Socorro Caro tearfully and repeatedly denied killing three of her young sons as they slept in their hilltop home in Santa Rosa Santa Rosa, city, Argentina Santa Rosa, city (1991 pop. 80,629), capital of La Pampa prov., central Argentina. It is a modern city and road junction surrounded by a rich agricultural and cattle-raising area. Valley. Caro, who was found lying on her bedroom floor on Nov. 22, 1999, with a gunshot wound to her head, maintains that she has few memories of the night her sons were fatally shot. ``So your testimony is you do not remember if you could have killed your children, correct?'' prosecutor Cheryl Temple asked. ``I didn't kill my children,'' Caro replied. The prosecutor contends that Caro shot her sons and then tried to commit suicide Verb 1. commit suicide - kill oneself; "the terminally ill patient committed suicide" kill - cause to die; put to death, usually intentionally or knowingly; "This man killed several people when he tried to rob a bank"; "The farmer killed a pig for the holidays" out of anger at her doctor-husband, who fired her from her job as his office manager, blocked her access to the family's financial assets Financial assets Claims on real assets. and threatened her with divorce. Assistant Public Defender public defender, governmental official who represents indigent persons accused of crime. U.S. Supreme Court decisions expanding the right to counsel to pretrial proceedings and holding that a person cannot be sentenced to even one day in jail unless a lawyer was Jean Farley contends that Caro's husband, Xavier, who has admitted to an extramarital ex·tra·mar·i·tal adj. Being in violation of marriage vows; adulterous: an extramarital affair. extramarital Adjective office romance An office romance, work romance, or corporate affair is a romance that occurs between two people who work together in the same office, work location, or business. It tends to breach nonfraternization policies and is a foreseeable business expense. , murdered the children, shot his wife and attempted to frame her. ``I didn't kill my babies, no,'' Caro testified earlier in the afternoon under questioning by her own attorney. Caro also denied the prosecutor's accusation that she was depressed or angry at her husband when he left their home after a heated argument, when he stripped her of her checkbook and credit cards or when she found the doctor's divorce notes in his briefcase. ``I felt confused when I found those divorce notes,'' she said. ``I didn't know what they meant.'' Caro also denied that she suspected her husband was having an affair. ``I suspected there was something different in our marriage,'' Caro said over and over again. She also disputed previous testimony by a former friend, who used to work in the doctor's office, that Caro had talked about committing suicide. Testimony on Monday also focused on how much alcohol Caro consumed the night of the killings. She testified she drank two to three glasses of weak margaritas and was not drunk. Caro has pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity not guilty by reason of insanity n. plea in court of a person charged with a crime who admits the criminal act, but whose attorney claims he/she was so mentally disturbed at the time of the crime that he/she lacked the capacity to have intended to commit a crime. in the shooting deaths of sons Christopher, 5, Michael 7, and Xavier Jr., 11. Her youngest son, Gabriel, then 1, was unharmed. In the afternoon session, Superior Court Judge Donald Coleman asked one of Caro's cousins to leave the courtroom for the day. |
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