Huckaby may face additional charges
- From: gertrudedane@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 11 May 2009 09:57:20 -0700 (PDT)
STOCKTON - In addition to murder and kidnapping, prosecutors are
expected to charge a Tracy woman today with the rape and molestation
of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, whose body was found last week in a
discarded suitcase.
Melissa Chantel Huckaby, 28, a preacher's granddaughter whom Tracy
police arrested late Friday, is expected in court this afternoon for
arraignment in a case that mobilized hundreds in a search only to end
in dashed hopes with last week's grim discovery.
Huckaby could face the special circumstances of rape with a foreign
object, lewd and lascivious conduct with a child, and murder in the
course of a kidnapping, San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney
Robert Himelblau reportedly said.
Tracy police spokesman Tony Sheneman confirmed the anticipated
charges. Sheneman and Himelblau would give no details of the alleged
crime supporting the charges. Prosecutors expect to file the criminal
complaint this morning.
Sandra disappeared March 27 from Orchard Estates Mobile Home park, and
10 days later, farm workers draining an irrigation pond north of town
found the black suitcase belonging to Huckaby that held the girl's
body.
The charges make Huckaby, a Sunday school teacher, eligible for the
death penalty, something prosecutors won't decide whether to pursue
until later in the court process, said Himelblau, who could not recall
a case in which San Joaquin County prosecutors sought the death
penalty for a woman.
Reached by phone Monday, Sandra's aunt, Angie Chavez, was too
emotional to comment, saying only: "We'd rather not talk to anybody
right now." Jose Chavez, Sandra's grandfather, also declined to
comment.
No one answered the phone at the Orchard Estates Mobile Home park
residence of Lane and Connie Lawless, Huckaby's grandparents, with
whom she lived.
In court today, Huckaby will confront San Joaquin County Deputy
District Attorney Thomas Testa, a prosecutor who has put two men on
California's death row and countless murderers in prison for life.
Fearing a change of venue in the high-profile case, Testa said he
would not oppose a judge's gag order. Moving the trial to another
county would be expensive to taxpayers and become problematic to
prosecute, he said.
"Overall, it's mechanically, procedurally less burdensome to try it in
our own county rather than elsewhere," Testa said. "If something
should be said that would be inadmissible, that hurts our case here."
San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Richard Vlavianos in Stockton
is expected to oversee Huckaby's arraignment, at which the defendant
will hear the charges.
Since Friday's arrest, details of Huckaby's past - including petty
theft and mental illness - are beginning to surface, yet they offer
little insight into the crime she's accused of committing. She
remained under observation at the San Joaquin County Jail with no
visitors allowed since the arrest.
Huckaby's relatives have said they struggle to reconcile the loving
mother they know with the heinous criminal depicted by police. They
acknowledge rough patches in her life spotted by depression, but they
never considered her capable of killing a child.
A trail of court papers from Southern California to Stockton indicates
legal and personal problems dogged Huckaby in recent years.
A judge recently ordered her to attend a mental health program as part
of her probation for a theft conviction at the Tracy Target store,
court papers show. But her record shows no history of violence or
anything that would foreshadow a gruesome attack on a little girl.
Huckaby lived with her grandparents as long as seven years ago in the
mobile home park, court papers say. She was unmarried, going by her
maiden name, Lawless, and in 2002 filed a domestic violence
restraining order against an ex-boyfriend.
By 2003, she was living in an apartment nearby on North Tracy
Boulevard and had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, unable to
pay tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills and credit card
charges.
Sutter Tracy Community Hospital had sued her months before, seeking
more than $10,000 for unspecified medical treatment, while she worked
at a Food 4 Less grocery store.
She got married eight days after filing for bankruptcy. Four months
later, Huckaby gave birth to her daughter, Madison, who would become
Sandra’s playmate. Huckaby and her husband lived in Orange County,
separated in 2004 and divorced the next year, court papers say.
Her known criminal record dates to 2006, when Huckaby was convicted of
petty theft in Los Angeles County. She served jail time for the
charge, but it is unclear for how long, according to court papers
filed in San Joaquin County Superior Court.
In November, again living with her grandparents in the mobile home
park, San Joaquin County prosecutors charged Huckaby with felony
commercial burglary and petty theft for stealing from the Target
store.
She pleaded no contest to misdemeanor petty theft in January,
according to court documents, and the other felony count was
dismissed. Huckaby is on probation pending completion of a mental
health program, court papers indicate.
Huckaby’s court hearing today is scheduled for 1 p.m.
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090414/A_NEWS/904140316
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