Former Sunday School Teacher Accused of Raping and Murdering 8-Year-Old Sandra Cantu
Former Sunday school teacher, Melissa Huckaby broke down in tears today when she was indicted in a Stockton, Calif., courtroom on charges of kidnapping, raping and murdering 8-year-old neighbor Sandra Cantu and drugging two others.
In June, Huckaby, 28, pleaded not guilty to the murder of a second-grader whose body was found April 6, stuffed in a suitcase in an irrigation pond 10 days after she disappeared from the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park in Tracy, CA.
She did enter a plea to the charges announced today.
The drugging indictments stem from charges prosecutors filed in May, accusing Huckaby of trying to poison a 7-year-old girl and a 37-year-old man. The girl recovered but authorities do not know what happened to the man.
At the hearing today, Huckaby had visible marks on her forehead. A prosecutor indicated Huckaby made the marks herself earlier in the day.
The murder charge includes the special circumstances of kidnapping, lewd and lascivious acts with a child and rape with a foreign object , making her eligible for the death penalty if she is convicted.
Huckaby's trial date has not yet been set.
In May, the district attorney's office announced a slew of new charges, including the alleged poisonings of a 7 year old child and an adult man.
An 18-year-old woman, who declined to be identified, told ABC News in April that her 7-year-old sister went missing with Huckaby in January and came home drugged.
"Her speech was slurred ... like she had a really bad lisp," the woman said of her sister. "And she would cry a lot like something was wrong with her. She couldn't stand up without help. She couldn't walk. Every time she tried to walk, she would fall."
"So they took her to the hospital, and the hospital told us that she had muscle relaxants in her system," the teenager said.
The woman alleged that the death of Sandra Cantu might not have happened if detectives had taken her sister's case more seriously at the time.
Huckaby is also suspected of drugging a man named Daniel Plowman three weeks before the murder.
Huckaby, who lived with her grandparents and 5 year old daughter was a neighbor of Sandra's familyin the mobile home park. Her grandfather is the pastor of a nearby church, which authorities searched in the days leading up to Huckaby's arrest.
Police have denied mishandling the case. Everyone connected to the Huckaby case, including police, potential witnesses and lawyers and family members for both sides, have been silenced under a gag order. Autopsy results and most court motions also remain sealed, giving little information about what kind of evidence the state has against Huckaby or exactly how Sandra Cantu died.
The Tracy Press, which helped break the investigation of Huckaby as a suspect, has reported that Huckaby is a "person of interest" in two 2007 arsons in La Palma, Calif., about 350 miles away from Tracy.
The court also canceled a hearing in April, originally requested by Huckaby's lawyers, to exhume Sandra's body for a second autopsy. The request was dropped last month and the prosecution's motion against the order sealed.
Public defender Peter Fox told the San Francisco Chronicle that the deputy public defender handling the case was told by the county's chief medical examiner that "the relevant samples" on which the defense would conduct independent tests to determine whether the girl had been raped "were preserved," and were not interred with the girl's body in a mausoleum.
"It will not be necessary to disturb the child's remains," Fox told the Chronicle. "From a human point of view, certainly, it's nice not to have to do that."
UPDATE: Melissa Huckaby: More Victims in Sandra Cantu Rape-Murder Case
www.nowpublic.com
Accused child killer Melissa Huckaby was charged with two new crimes just hours before her May 22, 2009 return to court in the Sandra Cantu rape-murder case. Huckaby, 28, was charged with the poisoning of two other people; a 7-year old girl identified only as Jane Doe, and a 37-year old man, Daniel Plowman.
It is alleged that Daniel Plowman, Melissa Huckaby's second known victim, was drugged in March of 2009 shortly before Sandra Cantu went missing. Sandra's body was found stuffed in a suitcase 10 days after she was reported missing by her family on March 27, 2009.
The first alleged victim of Melissa Huckaby was luckier than Sandra Cantu. The unidentified 7-year old girl was drugged on January 17, 2009. The little girl has since recovered from the poisoning and there is no word as to how her case was linked to Melissa Huckaby or of she has any meaningful testimony in the Sandra Cantu case.
Police have not released details as to how the previous two crimes were linked to Melissa Huckaby, but both Jane Doe and Daniel Plowman have been listed as "victim-witnesses" in the Sandra Cantu murder trial.
Melissa Huckaby's trial for the rape and murder of Sandra Cantu has been put on hold until June 12, 2009 to give defense attorney Sam Behar time to review the new charges. No new information has been released and the previously imposed media gag order remains in place.
The media gag order was imposed at Melissa Huckaby's initial arraignment where a judge determined that the details in the Sandra Cantu rape and murder posed a "great danger of public outrage" that may impede Huckaby's ability to be given a fair trial. Huckaby did not enter a plea at that hearing and has not yet answered the new charges either.
In the Sandra Cantu case Melissa Huckaby is charged with murder; rape using a foreign object; and lewd or lascivious conduct with a child under 14. In the two new cases she is further charged with one count of child endangerment and two felony counts of furnishing a harmful substance.
The prosecution entered the new charges as part of the Sandra Cantu case because they "are same class of crime or are connected" to the main charge. This means that any and all evidence in those cases will be heard during the Sandra Cantu rape and murder trial and may be considered by the jury.
The complaint charged that Huckaby "did willfully and unlawfully mingle a harmful substance with food or drink" with the intent to harm the child, identified only as "Jane M. Doe."
Another alleged poisoning victim was identified as Daniel Plowman, but no age or other information was immediately provided.
The latest charges also include one count of child abuse endangerment relating to the unidentified child, who was allegedly in Huckaby's "care and custody." Read the complaint (PDF)
Tracy, CALIFORNIA (BNO NEWS) – Shocking new details about the way 8-year-old Sandra Cantu from Tracy, California died in March emerged on Sunday, a case that grabbed national headlines.
28-year-old Melissa Huckaby is suspected of murdering the young girl, but has also been charged with kidnapping and rape. Her body was found inside a suitcase in an irrigation pond but officials are no longer releasing information on the case because of a gag order. But new details emerged on Sunday, claiming Huckaby raped Sandra with a screwdriver before she died, a source told BNO News. The source said the information is not expected to be released until after the trial.
The source told BNO News that Sandra Cantu's father, Danny Cantu, has said the Clover Road Baptist Church, where Huckaby's grandfather is the pastor, is actually a cult with 13 members. Danny also said, according to the source, that he did not kill Sandra and that he would take a lie detector test to prove it.
Danny said he had connections "due to his past" and that the person who killed his daughter "would be taken care of." He further said the pastor of the church had nothing to do with the girl's murder and that Sandra's DNA was found on a cot at the church.
Just when you think the story surrounding the tragic death of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu couldn’t get any worse, California police say the Tracy, CA, Sunday school teacher suspected of killing the little girl may also have raped her.
"When she was booked, she was booked on charges of kidnapping and murder," Tracy Police Sgt.Tony Sheneman told CNN's "Larry King Live" Monday night. "And we’re informed by the district attorney that she’ll be charged with abduction, murder, rape with a foreign object and lewd and lascivious acts with a child."
Prosecutors are considering whether to put the death penalty on the table for punishment, The San Francisco Chronicle reports. The deputy district attorney on the case said the special-circumstances allegations, including a lewd or lascivious act on a child, and potential rape, make Huckaby eligible for execution.
Huckaby, who is being kept under close observation for her own safety, will be arraigned today at 4 p.m. She is accused of kidnapping Sandra from her mobile-home park, raping and killing her, then stuffing her body in a suitcase before throwing it in an irrigation pond. It’s believed Sandra was killed in the nearby church in which Huckaby taught Sunday school. The police are not looking for any other suspects.These latest charges are horrible news for a family and community already grieving.
"It’s very difficult to accept that a member of your community would be responsible for such a heinous act. So we were hoping that we would begin the healing process," Shenemen said. "But with the additional charges, that’s an additional blow, besides the fact that we found out it was a member of the community and a woman."
