One day after a jury convicted her of murdering three of her children, Cora Caro on Tuesday withdrew her plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. The 11th-hour change eliminates the sanity phase of her trial and leaves her jury with two options -- life in prison without parole or the death penalty.

In a surprising move that came during a procedural hearing in Ventura County Superior Court, Deputy Public Defender Jean Farley announced that after discussing the issue with her client, she was withdrawing the insanity plea.

Judge Donald Coleman asked Caro a series of questions designed to make sure she understood the ramifications of the decision.

Coleman asked the defendant if she had discussed the plea change with her attorneys, if she understood she had a right to have a trial on the issue of sanity and to call witnesses on her behalf, and if she realized what would happen if the jury found her insane.

Caro, 44, answered each question with a calm, "Yes."

With that, Coleman scratched the sanity phase from the calendar -- it was to begin today -- and planned for the penalty phase.

Because of scheduling conflicts, that part of the trial likely won't begin until at least next week, and might not start until Nov. 27. One of the jurors will be on vacation between Nov. 17 and Nov. 25.

Farley was unavailable for comment after the hearing.

On Monday, the jury convicted Caro on three counts of first-degree murder in the Nov. 22, 1999, shooting deaths of Joey, 11, Michael, 8, and Christopher, 5, inside the family's Santa Rosa Valley home.

A few months after the killings, Farley became Caro's defense counsel after a private attorney, Richard Plotin of Encino, dropped the case because Caro couldn't afford him.

In July 2000, Farley amended her client's plea to not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity.

Weeks before the trial began, Farley's defense became public -- she planned to blame Caro's husband, Xavier, for the killings.

During the trial, the defense argued that he killed his children and framed his wife, but the prosecution presented damaging physical evidence against the defendant -- her bloody palm print on Joey's door frame, Joey and Michael's blood on her clothing, gunpowder residue on her hand -- that helped attain a conviction.

Had the case moved on to the sanity phase, a psychologist and a psychiatrist -- both court-appointed -- would have testified that Caro was sane when she killed her children.

That, combined with the defense's assertion that Xavier Caro got away with murder, would have meant "an uphill battle" for Farley, said Paul Bergman, a UCLA School of Law professor.

During the trial, the defense portrayed Caro as a good and loving mother who was perfectly fine during the weeks leading up to the murders, so having to argue insanity before the same jury would have proved "problematic," Bergman said.

"It's like trying to ride two horses in different directions at the same time," he said.

Still, the jury could have found Caro insane. If that had happened, she would have been sent to a state mental hospital for at least six months, and would not have been freed unless a doctor and a judge concluded she was rehabilitated.

Whatever the reason for the plea withdrawal, it came in the best interest of the defendant, said Mary Broderick, executive director of California Attorneys for Criminal Justice.

"From what I know about Jean Farley, she's one of the best death-penalty lawyers going," she said. "I think she's doing the best job that could be done under the facts and circumstances of the case."

Now, the defense goal is keeping Caro off death row, said Broderick, noting her organization opposes the death penalty.

Does withdrawing the insanity plea help achieve that goal?

"I hope so," she said.

-- Aron Miller's e-mail address is amiller@insidevc.com.