Melissa Huckaby Pleads Not Guilty

A Tracy woman pleaded not guilty Friday to charges that she raped and murdered 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, asserting her innocence three days after the prosecution urged the judge to move the case along.

Melissa Huckaby, 28, making her fourth appearance in a Stockton courtroom since her arrest in April, entered not guilty pleas to murder and special circumstances that make her eligible for execution if convicted.

She also pleaded not guilty to charges of child endangerment and furnishing a harmful substance for allegedly drugging a 7-year-old girl and a man in the months before Sandra died.

Huckaby's preliminary hearing will begin Sept. 24 and will last at least six days over the course of three weeks, said Judge Linda Lofthus of San Joaquin County Superior Court.

Asked by Lofthus if she waived her right to a continuous preliminary hearing - one that proceeds from start to finish without the court breaking for other cases - Huckaby said, "Yes." She smiled several times during the brief hearing as attorneys chatted and made small talk.

Huckaby, who is the mother of one of Sandra's playmates, was arrested April 10 and charged with murder and three special circumstances. Those allege that the killing was committed during a kidnapping, involved a lewd or lascivious act on a child, and involved rape with a foreign object.

Prosecutors had urged Lofthus to enter a plea for Huckaby if the defendant did not do so herself Friday, saying the case was dragging. They have not decided whether to pursue the death penalty.

Huckaby is being held without bail at San Joaquin County Jail in French Camp.
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Sandra Cantu Update 27 May

It is being reported that Sandra Cantu's killer, Melissa Huckaby performed multiple internet searches on Rose Pisam. Pisam disappeared last year in Israel and was missing for several months. Her grandfather, Ronnie Ron was later arrested and admitted to murdering the 4 year old, stuffing her body into a suitcase, and then tossing it into a nearby river. Sound familiar?

At the time Rose and her 23 year-old mother, Marie were living with the grandfather. Ron was having an affair with his daughter-in-law at the time that little Rose disappeared.

Sandra Cantu Update 26 May

The San Joaquin Sheriff’s Office investigated vandalism at Clover Road Baptist Church over the long weekend after the church’s sign was reported to be knocked to the ground.

Melissa Huckaby, accused of kidnapping, raping and murdering 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, taught Sunday school at the church before she was arrested. Her grandfather, Lane Lawless, is its pastor, and the church property has been searched several times during the investigation.

Leaders at the Clover Road Baptist Church told news sources that since Huckaby's arrest, they have received threatening calls. The posts that held up the sign were reported to be broken on Saturday, but officials didn’t speculate as to a motive.

The church is down the road from the mobile home park where both Cantu and Huckaby lived.
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Sandra Cantu Update 25 May

Melissa Huckaby, the former Sunday school teacher accused of kidnapping, raping and killing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, will face additional charges that she tried to poison two people, including another 7-year-old girl.

A revised complaint against Huckaby, 28, of Tracy, California, was made public just hours before she was due back in court on Friday.

The new charges caused another delay in the murder case, CNN afiliate KRON reported.

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."


Huckaby did not enter a plea in the Cantu slaying in her first two court appearances last month.

At an earlier hearing, Judge Linda L. Loftis agreed to keep the autopsy and toxicology reports under seal, citing a "great danger of public outrage."

If convicted on the murder, rape and kidnapping charges, Huckaby, could face the death penalty or life in prison without parole, authorities said.

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Sandra Cantu Update 14 May -Trailer Park Was A Hotbed Of Child Porn

Child pornography was found inside multiple homes at the Tracy mobile home park where Sandra Cantu lived, KCRA 3 has learned.

Cantu, 8, disappeared from Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park in late March. Her body was found more than a week later inside a piece of luggage submerged in an irrigation pond.

Investigators searched a number of homes at the park during their investigation into Cantu's disappearance and death.

"There were other trailers in the trailer park where child pornography was found, and it was a challenging environment," a source close to the investigation told KCRA 3.

Because of a judge's gag order, the source could not elaborate on what, if any, connection this has to Cantu's slaying.

The source also would not say who or how many people are now under investigation for child pornography.

Cantu's neighbor, Melissa Huckaby, has been charged with the girl's death and may ultimately face the death penalty if convicted.

If they found child porn in other trailers why haven't their been other arrests. It's so scary. It can't just be a coincidence that they found child porn in so many places in one small trailer park. They need to question every child in that park to make sure that nothing has happened to them.

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Sandra Cantu Update 29 April

A judge who last week sealed the reports from 8-year-old Sandra Cantu’s autopsy today sealed a moot prosecution motion opposing the girl’s exhumation, saying the Cantu family’s privacy rights outweigh the public’s need for the information.

San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Linda Lofthus said she also wants to ensure a fair trial for prosecutors and Sandra’s accused killer, Melissa Huckaby. Lofthus filed the motion on her own without a hearing before attorneys.

“The detailed information contained within the pleading and its attachments are inextricably intertwined with prejudicial information,” Lofthus wrote
Huckaby, 28, is charged with murder, kidnap and rape in Sandra’s March 27 death. Sandra’s body was found in a suitcase abandoned in a Tracy-area irrigation pond 10 days after she vanished.

Shortly after Huckaby’s arrest, San Joaquin County Public Defender Sam Behar sought to exhume Sandra’s body so his pathologist could conduct an autopsy in an attempt to refute the sexual allegations.

Behar later withdrew the motion, but San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Thomas Testa had already filed a motion opposing the exhumation. Lofthus’ order now keeps Testa’s response secret.

Lofthus has also imposed a gag order, preventing attorneys, law enforcement and relatives of Sandra or Huckaby from talking publicly about the case. Huckaby is expected back in court May 22nd.

At least this won't become the circus that the Anthony Case has.

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Sandra Cantu Update 28 April

As rumors of FBI checks into old Northwest child abuse claims roam the Internet as part of the Sandra Cantu murder investigation, a relative of Pastor Lane Lawless says that he and his wife, Connie, remain strong in their faith in God.

Rev. DeWayne Harris of Salinas said Monday that his sister Connie and his brother-in-law — grandparents of murder suspect Melissa Huckaby — are in Southern California trying to relax while the media frenzy surrounding their Tracy church continues. During the initial police investigation, before Huckaby was arrested in the killing of the 8-year-old, their Clover Road Baptist Church and nearby mobile home were searched multiple times.

"If our faith is not going to get us through this, it isn't worth it. If your faith doesn't take you through the worst of times, it is not worth having," said Harris, pastor of Alisal Baptist Church.

Recent news reports claim the FBI is checking allegations made in the '80s when Lawless was pastor of a church near the Idaho/Washington border — accusations Harris vigorously denies.

Harris says Lawless was never a pastor in the Northwest, but did serve in Redding and Gardenia in the 1970s before becoming a field missionary in Eureka. He then was pastor of a Mountain View church before coming to Tracy.
Harris said he has a brotherly relationship with Lawless and that they met while growing up in Brewster, Wash. Harris, a fifth-generation pastor, described Lawless as loving, giving, humble, honest and trustworthy.

"They are turning over every rock to find something on Lane and they aren't going to find anything. All you have to do is talk to someone who knows him," said Harris. "He is what you would think a gentleman would be and he is very unassuming. "

One Clover Road parishioner reached out to another Baptist pastor in Tracy requesting prayers to help the small church survive this ordeal. Harris confirmed Monday that the Tracy church will not close its doors.

"You don't shut a church down because there is bad press or speculation. All through the centuries, the Lord's' church has suffered because of false accusations," he said..

Pastor Willie Gonzalez of Valley Community Baptist Church in Tracy said local faith community leaders are concerned about Pastor Lawless' well being and his ministry and will reach out to them in addition to helping the Cantu family.

"The Christian community is one. The fact that they hurt, we hurt," Gonzalez said.

The national media spotlight has taken its toll on the Lawless family and their reputation, Harris said, adding that he thinks his niece is innocent.

"That is why we have the court system," he said. "I have been praying for the investigators, lawyers and judges that they will have divine leadership in this."

They believe she is innocent!! Even after there are new claims of abuse. Even after Sandra was found in her suitcase. Am I the only person who was told that if I embarrassed the family by going to jail that I would be staying there.

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Sandra Cantu Update 27 April

As each fact surfaces from Melissa Huckaby's past, so does a new question.

Police accuse her of raping and murdering Sandra Cantu, 8, last month in a crime that in itself that defies logic. Statistically, women don't do that. Men do.

Add to that court files that tell of shoplifting, out of control hospital bills and a restraining order she took out against a man. Old friends from Southern California reportedly accuse her of starting fires, threatening suicide and cutting herself.

Could she have swallowed razor blades?

The story of this suspect, whose next court hearing is scheduled for May 22, may rewrite psychology textbooks.

Until the experts are done sifting through her life, almost everybody has a theory.

Oakland attorney Daniel Horowitz says it's Munchausen syndrome, the name of a disorder for people who hurt themselves to gain attention.

"You can translate it into, 'I need lots of attention. I need to be treated like a baby,' " he said.

To support this theory, Horowitz points to the $10,000 hospital bills that caused Sutter Tracy Community Hospital to sue her. She was reportedly in the hospital complaining of stomach pains shortly before her arrest, Horowitz said.

Forensic psychologist Paul S.D. Berg, who has watched reports of Huckaby's case, concluded that Huckaby suffers from borderline personality disorder.

This is characterized by people who often have tumultuous personal relationships. Unlike most people's response to stress, borderline personalty types hurt themselves or others. They turn inward and mutilate themselves or lash out to hurt others.

"They break down and can't handle it and act out in extraordinary ways," Berg said. "Instead of killing Cantu, she could have cut herself up."

The movies "Fatal Attraction" and "Play Misty for Me" are pop-culture examples often cited for having characters suffering from borderline personality syndrome.

The picture of a cold child abuser and killer doesn't fit with that of the sweet Sunday school teacher and mother Huckaby's friends and family have painted in recent weeks. Her grandmother, Connie Lawless, said Huckaby would never hurt a child.

Gregg McCrary, a retired FBI profiler based in Virginia, said the case reminds him of Dennis Rader, the Kansas serial killer known as the BTK killer.

Rader is now serving 10 consecutive life terms for his murders.

For decades he raised a family and was a church deacon before he became a suspect in the series of murders.

McCrary said some killers are able to compartmentalize their gruesome crimes while attempting to carry on seemingly normal lives.

"They have in many ways justified their behavior," he said. "So they're dealing with it; they're living with it. It's just who they are."

Maybe some people are just evil. No amount of being raised right can change that fact.

Other Sandra Cantu Updates
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Melissa Huckaby Arraignment 24 April

A judge said Friday that details about the autopsy and toxicology of slain Tracy resident Sandra Cantu will not be made public, while an arraignment of her suspected killer has been continued.

Homicide suspect Melissa Huckaby, 28, is expected to return to court on May 22. She has yet to enter a plea. The slaying of 8-year-old Cantu, who was kidnapped on March 27, has drawn national attention.

Huckaby is charged with murder with the special circumstances of rape with a foreign object, lewd or lascivious conduct with a child under 14 and murder in the course of a kidnapping.

Judge Linda Lofthus said autopsy and toxicology results will not be released because of possible public outrage. (I live close to Tracy, and let me tell you something...the public is already outraged. This probably could have been prevented if the Tracy Police would have investigated the January case better.)

Also on Friday, Huckaby's defense formally withdrew a motion for a second autopsy of Cantu.

The prosecution said it will release 500 pages of discovery information as well as recordings regarding the case, but more time was needed to turn over more information.

Huckaby was present in the courtroom for Friday's hearing. She wore a red jumpsuit and shackles. She did not look at members of her family who were present, but she did speak to her attorney.

Members of Huckaby's family, Cantu's family, several reporters and many members of the public were in the courtroom.

Huckaby, a Sunday school teacher at Clover Road Baptist Church, was arrested late April 10, four days after Cantu's body was found stuffed in a suitcase in an irrigation pond north of Tracy.

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Sandra Cantu Update 21 April

Melissa Chantel Huckaby, 28, is tied to a report that someone in January took a 7-year-old girl to a park for four hours and brought her back high on muscle relaxers.

The incident was reported on January 17 by a family in the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park. Huckaby lived in the same complex, also where 8-year-old Sandra Cantu lived before police found her dead body on April 10. Police arrested Huckaby four days later on suspicion on kidnapping, raping and killing Sandra.

The January report alleges that someone took a 45-pound blue-eyed dark-haired girl to a park. The woman and the child were gone for four hours, from about 1:30 to after 5 p.m., according to the police log. The woman who took the girl drove a purple Kia Sportage, according to the report.

Police towed a purple Kia Sportage registered to Huckaby the day after farmworkers found Sandra’s body inside a suitcase dumped in a dairy lagoon.

The police log also noted an officer said the girl might be with a mobile home park resident's "granddaughter." Huckaby until her arrest lived with her grandparents, Clifford Lane and Connie Lawless.

When the woman — apparently Huckaby — returned the girl, the family took her to the hospital. A doctor found benzodiazepines — a muscle relaxant — in the girl’s bloodstream, the police log noted.

Police logs say the girl’s mother had alcohol on her breath and carried around some type of drug. Police dismissed the incident because of the mother’s drug and alcohol problem, said a friend of the family’s who asked not to be identified because the FBI asked the family not to talk about the case. (Why didn't the police do something then. If I were this child's mother, I would be in a lawyer's office today. I don't care if I am falling down on the ground drunk, if my kid disappears with some strange woman and reappears with muscle relaxers in her system, the police better do something. The children of drug addicts-if this woman has a drug problem-need protecting more than any other children. I'm not afraid to say it. If police had done something back in January, Sandra Cantu would probably be alive. Shame on the Tracy police.)

Tracy police Sgt. Tony Sheneman said he can say nothing about the reported abduction in January because it’s part of the ongoing murder investigation. (The police aren't talking because they know this little girl's mother will probably be suing them, and they don't want to say anything that can be used against them. And if Melissa Huckaby is guilty she needs to admit it, and save Sandra Cantu's family...and her own the heartache of a trial.)
Other Sandra Cantu Updates
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