Hearing [05/22/09] May Set Case in Motion

[Fashionista]

<center>Hearing may set case in motion
Huckaby plea could clear way for answers in slaying</center>


By Scott Smith
Record Staff Writer

May 21, 2009 6:00 AM
STOCKTON - Melissa Huckaby's hearing Friday - the third since her April arrest - could put the high-profile case on a fast track and start to answer questions about the killing of 8-year-old Tracy girl Sandra Cantu.

Huckaby, 28, stands accused of kidnapping, rape with an instrument and murder. Yet investigators have not yet revealed key details, such as a motive, how Sandra died and what Huckaby allegedly used to rape her.

Sandra vanished March 27 from a Tracy mobile home park. Her body was found April 6 stuffed in a black suitcase dumped in a rural irrigation pond north of Tracy. Tracy police arrested Huckaby four days later following an emotional interview with investigators.

If San Joaquin County Deputy Public Defender Sam Behar enters a plea on behalf of Huckaby, he also could assert her right to a speedy trial and a preliminary hearing within 10 court days.

With Memorial Day on Monday, the hearing could begin as soon as June 8.

In a preliminary hearing, prosecutors question witnesses and present evidence in open court to convince a judge that a defendant should stand trial before a jury. The public would then begin to learn details of the crime.

"I'd be surprised if he rushed it," former San Joaquin County prosecutor David Wellenbrock speculated about Behar's strategy. "But it's not beyond the realm of possibility."

A judge's gag order prevents attorneys, investigators and potential witnesses from commenting. Wellenbrock worked as a public defender and retired from the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office. He is not involved in Huckaby's case.

Wellenbrock said it is hard to predict Behar's defense without knowing the evidence. He said that Behar might want to speed up the case before investigators unearthed any other allegations from Huckaby's past.

Also, the California Department of Justice, which analyzes evidence, is notoriously slow. Knowing this, Behar might try to beat forensic experts and keep them from stating their opinions in the hearing, Wellenbrock said.

"You might be able to bump out a count," Wellenbrock said of the case against Huckaby, who faces a potential death sentence. "If you can manage to knock a couple things down and settle the case, you've done your job."

But John Schick, a former Stockton criminal defense attorney, said the chances are slim to none that Behar will rush into a preliminary hearing. Upon her arrest, Huckaby made statements to police - possibly an admission. She has a history of mental illness.

"I'm sure he wants to take time to digest this," said Schick, a law professor at Humphreys College Laurence Drivon School of Law. "I can't see any advantage for him to push it."

If Behar stalls, the public might not gain any insight into the case for months.

It remains unclear if San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Thomas Testa could opt to take Huckaby's case to a grand jury, something prosecutors do to speed up the slow court process.

Grand juries meet in secret, and San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Linda Lofthus, who has already tended to seal documents in the high-profile case, could choose to do the same of the grand jury's transcripts until after the trial.

Contact reporter Scott Smith at (209) 546-8296 or ssmith @recordnet.com.


http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ ... 1/A_NEWS06





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[gwen]

Just hours before accused murderer Melissa Huckaby is due in court to face charges that she raped and killed Sandra Cantu, officials have released information on a slew of new charges that she drugged two others, a 7-year-old child and a man.

The new charges against Huckaby, which portray an increasingly dangerous pattern of behavior, include felony child endangerment and "furnishing a harmful substance" in the case of a 7-year-old girl identified only as "Jane M. Doe."

She was also charged with "furnishing a harmful substance,"either by food or drink, to a man named Daniel Plowman on March 2, nearly three weeks before 8-year-old Sandra disappeared.

According to court documents released today, Huckaby did "willfully and unlawfully mingle a harmful substance with food or drink" in both cases.

An 18-year-old woman, who declined to be identified, told ABC News last month 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 last month that the death of Sandra Cantu might not have happened if detectives had taken her sister's case more seriously at the time.

Police have denied mishandling the case.

The documents detailing the new charges were filed in San Joaquin Superior Court Thursday. There were no changes to the charges pertaining to Sandra's death.

It has been nearly a month since Huckaby appeared in court. But that hasn't quelled interest in the second-grader's widely publicized death.

When Huckaby, a 28-year-old mother and former Sunday School teacher, appears in a Stockton, Calif., court for her third arraignment this afternoon there will still likely be a waiting-list of people wanting into the courtroom.

Huckaby has not spoken publicly or in court since her arrest, but each new court appearance brings with it the opportunity for her to at least enter a plea, which she has so far declined to do.

Officials had to turn people away at Huckaby's previous two hearings, San Joaquin County Superior Court spokeswoman Stephanie Bohrer said. They held separate lotteries before each arraignment, one for media and one for the general population that is simply interested in front-row seats to one of the area's most gruesome crimes. There will be another lottery for the third hearing.

Although cameras have been barred from the courtroom, Huckaby, the granddaughter of a local pastor, appeared more composed during her April 24 hearing than she did shortly after her arrest, when she cried and seemed distraught. Everyone connected to the 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.

Sandra's body was found April 6 in Tracy, Calif., in an irrigation pond, stuffed into a black suitcase, 10 days after she disappeared from the nearby Ochard Estates Mobile Home Park where her family and Huckaby were neighbors.

The murder charge against Huckaby 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 convicted.

Dairy Farm Worker Claims Reward for Finding Sandra's Body
Earlier this month, a worker on the dairy farm where Sandra's body was dumped was given $21,643 in reward money by the Modesto, Calif.-based Carole Sund/Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation, which was designated as the collection agency for reward money and donations in the case.

Foundation Executive Director Scott Webb said Jose Franco was identified with the help of Tracy investigators as the man who discovered the suitcase and worked with his boss to call police.

The reward money that went to him included $5,000 from the Sund/Carrington foundation and the rest from community donations.

Webb pointed out that Franco was just an "average guy" who could have walked away from his find.

"But he took the time to report it and call police," he said. "People don't even know they have the information to solve the case."

Webb said Franco was planning to use the money to pay for his three daughters' education.

In an interview earlier this month, Franco told ABC affiliate KXTV that he didn't open the suitcase before calling police and was devastated to find out what was inside.

"It's a fear I have with my own kids," Franco told KXTV in Spanish. "I don't even want them going anywhere alone because I think what happened to that little girl could possibly happen to them."

The reaction to the Sandra Cantu death, Webb said, has been impressive. Donations totalling $8,000 and counting have been given to Sandra's mother, Maria Chavez, and letters continue to pour in for the family from across the country, Webb said.

A couple thousand dollars, he said, have also been donated to the foundation in Sandra's name to use as a reward for other missing persons cases.

Twists in Cantu Case Keep Coming
Despite the gag order, other allegations have emerged about Huckaby since her arrest.

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 last month, originally requested by Huckaby's lawyers, to exhume Sandra's body for a second autopsy. The request was dropped earlier this week 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."

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=7644472&page=1

[Hannie]

Damn, Thanks Gwen!

[pax]

Wow.

I've never understood when family and friends make comments like 'she would never hurt a fly, she was so sweet and nice'. If I were ever asked about anyone I knew I'd say 'how the heck would I know, I wasn't with them 24/7'.

[Schmerty]

I guess people see what they Wantto see in other people's character. It is strange that neither her parents or grandparents noticed anything amiss. Setting fires & abusing children is a major red flag! God bless little Sandra & all the other victims who barely survived!

[apodixis]

Melissa Huckaby appeared today in Court in Stockton but did not enter pleas on any of the four charges.

Her Public Defender said that he needed more time to review the 1,000 pages of evidence that he received in the past two days.

Huckaby is scheduled return to court again on June 12.

[gwen]

Thanks for the update, apodixis.

[LovelyPigeon]

Disturbing evidence found on computer of alleged killer of Sandra Cantu

Investigators have found disturbing information on the computer of Melissa Huckaby, the Sunday school teacher accused of the abduction, rape, and murder of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu.

According to authorities, Huckaby’s hard drive contained multiple Internet searches about a murdered child in Israel.

The child, 4-year-old Rose Pisam disappeared about a year ago and was missing for months. Later, the girl’s grandfather was arrested and confessed to stuffing Rose’s body in a suitcase, which he dumped in a local river.

The similarities between the Sandra Cantu murder and the Rose Pisam case are startling:

Huckaby lived with her grandparents in the same mobile home park as the Cantu family—Rose’s mother, Marie Pisam, 23, was living with Ronnie Ron, 45, the girl’s grandfather.
Huckaby’s grandfather was the pastor at a church in Washington State during the 1980s where allegations of abuse were raised—Rose’s grandfather and mother were in a romantic relationship (Rose’s mother was married to Ron’s son Benjamin at the time).
Sandra’s body was found inside a suitcase in a drained irrigation ditch—Rose’s body was stuffed inside a suitcase placed in a river.
Huckaby has not yet entered a plea in the case and is scheduled for another court hearing June 12.

http://tinyurl.com/pa2yka

[victims cry]

she also poisoned a "date" of hers who was almost arrested for DUI but thankfully not, seems she slipped tranqs into his drinks

This woman is a sick puppy and i am not being empathetic. the boyfriend, the second child she drugged, the arson allowing her roommate to be arrested, she is a monster.