DOCTOR TEARFULLY TESTIFIES ABOUT SEEING 3 SLAIN SONS.

Byline: Sabrina Decker Staff Writer

VENTURA- In a day that brought both parents to tears, Xavier Caro testified in his wife's murder trial Friday that he returned home from his office to find her on the floor and three of his sons shot to death in their beds.

``I saw Joey. I saw my Joey. I saw my Joey,'' Xavier Caro said in a sobbing, halting voice. ``He was lying face up on his bed, his arms stretched out above him. He was so pale. It was so bad. He had so much blood around him. His eyes and mouth were open. He looked like a starfish''.

The emotional testimony by the prominent Northridge physician came during his second day on the witness stand in his estranged wife's murder trial.

Socorro ``Cora'' Caro is accused of fatally shooting the boys as they slept in their beds in the family's Santa Rosa Valley home. The couple's youngest son, a toddler, was unharmed.

Cora Caro, 44, could face the death penalty if she is convicted of murdering sons Joey, Michael and Christopher on Nov. 22, 1999. She has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

During his testimony, Xavier Caro struggled to control his emotions as he described the gruesome scene in the family's home.

``It was horrible. It was just terrible. It was horrible. I just didn't know what to do,'' Xavier Caro said, crying.

He said he tried to feel his eldest son's pulse but couldn't.

``I didn't really do a good examination,'' said the rheumatologist, a former emergency room physician. ``I just couldn't bring myself to do it.''

The scene in the next room was even more tragic, with sons Michael, 8, and Christopher, 5, in bed together, shot to death. In one gripping moment, Caro said he heard his son Michael taking deep, gasping breaths, but he wasn't able to save him.

His youngest son, Gabriel, was still alive in his crib. At first, he was worried the toddler had been drugged, but he was fine.

``I said to the 911 operator 'We've got a live one here!'''

Caro said he found his wife laying on the floor of their bedroom moaning, a gunshot wound to her head. He kicked and swore at her.

He also testified that he and his wife had argued the night of the killings.

The fight began when the couple's eldest son, Xavier Joseph ``Joey,'' made a disrespectful remark to his parents.

A disagreement over how to discipline the boy quickly blossomed into a fight over the couple's failing marriage, Xavier Caro said. The doctor, who had been having an extramarital affair and had seen a divorce attorney months earlier, left the house for his office despite his wife's entreaties that he remain at home.

Deputy public defender Jean Farley suggested in her opening statement that Xavier Caro, not the wife, is responsible for the killings and that he framed his wife.

During the cross examination, Farley asked the doctor exactly when and if he was wearing his jacket and sneakers and had his wallet and driver's license.

The defense also went over his experiences as a hunter. Caro said he has handled guns since he was a teen-ager and had used guns in view of his children at times.

Cora Caro, he said, was reluctantly trained in the use of firearms at his suggestion. The gun that was discovered under her body the night of the killings had been custom designed and fitted for her.

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Dr. Xavier Caro, left, leaves Courtroom 46 in Ventura for a break in his testimony Friday.

John Kennedy/Special to the Daily News