Stepson Says Suspect Shot His Dad Before

Authorities are looking into a report that a Beauty Bay woman charged with fatally shooting her husband last month had shot him before.

James Caba Sr., 59, of Beauty Bay, died Dec. 15 from a gunshot wound to the chest. His widow, Darlene Caba, now stands charged with second-degree murder in his death.

Jim Caba Jr. said Monday his stepmother shot his father twice before, and authorities are working to confirm details of one of the incidents, which allegedly occurred in Oregon in the late1970s.

The other shooting occurred in 1993 at the Beauty Bay home, and Darlene Caba told deputies it was a suicide attempt on her husband’s part.

Jim Caba Jr. believes his father suffered years of domestic violence at the hands of his wife. The two prior shootings are just examples, he said during an interview Monday.

“My father was in such bad physical health I believe he thought he couldn’t find anyone else to take care of him,” Jim Jr. said.

“He put up with what she did because she took care of him,” said Shelley Caba, Jim Jr.’s wife. “He didn’t want to go to a nursing home.”

Darlene Caba’s son, Tony Huston, denied his stepbrother’s accusations but declined to comment on the case, as did Darlene Caba.

James Caba Sr. and Darlene began dating and moved in together in the early 1970s when they lived in Portland. They were married about nine years ago and then moved to North Idaho, Jim Jr. said.

Jim Jr., now 37, was in his teens when the relationship began, a son from a previous marriage. He says he remembers problems beginning as early as the late 1970s when he came to visit his father and Darlene at their Portland home.

“I came home and he had this wound on his neck,” Jim Jr. said. “I said what the heck’s going on here.”

A bullet had gone in the front of James Sr.’s neck and come out the back, barely missing his jugular vein, Jim Jr. said. When Jim Jr. asked his father about the wound, his father told him that he’d been looking in a dresser drawer and the weapon had accidentally fired.

But Jim Jr. said his stepbrother, who was home at the time, told a different story, one in which Darlene and James Sr. had been arguing.

“He looked at me in the face and he said, ‘Mom shot Dad in the neck,”’ Jim Jr. said.

Court records indicate that an autopsy done on James Sr. turned up a scar on his neck where he may have had surgery for a wound.

Jim Jr. claims his stepmother shot his father again in 1993.

Kootenai County Sheriff’s officials were called to Darlene and James Sr.’s Beauty Bay home on Christmas Eve 1993. James Caba Sr. had been shot in the thigh.

Darlene Caba told deputies that her husband had tried to commit suicide, sheriff’s Lt. Ben Wolfinger said. James Sr. was taken into protective custody.

But Jim Jr. says he doesn’t believe that story. He says his father admitted to him later that Darlene had shot him in the leg during an argument.

“Dad told me they were arguing and she had the gun and the gun went off,” Jim Jr. said. “He was protecting Darlene just like he always did.”

Authorities say they are still treating that incident as a suicide attempt.

Jim Jr. said he visited his father’s Beauty Bay home in August 1993 only to find a large splotch of blood on the couch. His father said he’d accidentally cut himself while shaving.

Another time, Jim Jr. said, he asked his father about a leg injury and James Sr. said he’d gotten caught in his dog’s chains. But Darlene Caba told Jim Jr. his father had fallen down some stairs.

On the morning James Sr. was shot, Darlene Caba has claimed he threatened to stab or shoot her.

But Kootenai County Sheriff’s detectives say she has given them several different versions of what went on that morning.

The son said, “I know that my father in his physical condition could not have attacked her.”