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The 28-year-old Tracy woman suspected of kidnapping, raping and killing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu wept in San Joaquin Superior Court on Tuesday as a judge read the charges that could land her on death row.
Melissa Chantel Huckaby wore a red jail jumpsuit, her cuffed hands secured to a chain around her waist, her chin quivering as Judge Richard A. Vlavianos specified: one count of murder with special circumstances of rape with a foreign object, lewd and lascivious conduct with a child younger than 14 and murder in the course of kidnapping.
She did not enter a plea.
Associated Press - Melissa Chantel Huckaby is arraigned Tuesday in a Stockton courtroom. She is charged with the rape and murder of her daughter's playmate, Sandra Cantu, 8.
aalfaro@sacbee.com - Prosecutors speak to the press after the arraignment of Melissa Chantel Huckaby on Tuesday at the San Joaquin County Courthouse in Stockton.
If Huckaby is convicted, the special circumstances mean she could face life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty, San Joaquin County District Attorney James Willett said after the brief hearing. His office has not yet determined whether it will seek the death penalty.
Sandra, whose family lived in the same mobile home park as Huckaby, went missing March 27. Police believe the 8-year-old was killed that day – likely before her family even reported her missing – though her body wasn't discovered until a week and a half later.
On April 6, farmworkers draining an irrigation pond just two miles from the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park found Sandra's remains folded into a suitcase that Huckaby later told the local newspaper was hers.
Huckaby, whose 5-year-old daughter played with Sandra, was arrested late Friday night.
Neither prosecutors nor police have released details about what led to the charges against Huckaby. Authorities also have not said how Sandra was killed.
Tracy Police Department spokesman Sgt. Tony Sheneman said Tuesday that investigators are asking the public for information about inappropriate contact between Huckaby and any other children. He said, however, that detectives have no indication there are other victims.
During Tuesday's brief hearing, Vlavianos asked Huckaby if it was acceptable for public defender Ellen Schwarzenberg – who represented Huckaby in a recent theft case – to represent her on the Cantu case. Huckaby nodded and mouthed the word "yes."
Schwarzenberg asked the judge for a gag order in the case, though Vlavianos said that will be determined by Judge Terrence Van Oss, who will preside over future hearings. Vlavianos ordered Huckaby to return to court on April 24, when she's expected to enter a plea.
Relatives of both Huckaby and Sandra slipped quietly in and out of the courtroom and declined to speak with reporters. Several of them cried softly during the hearing and became especially emotional when the judge read the rape allegation.
Later Tuesday, Tracy police returned to the Orchard Estates mobile home park and searched the trailer Huckaby shared with her daughter and her grandparents, Clifford and Connie Lawless.
They also returned to the nearby Clover Road Baptist Church, where Clifford Lawless is the pastor and where Huckaby served as a Sunday school teacher.
Sheneman said evidence gathered during earlier searches of the church and mobile home – including a computer – have been sent to FBI headquarters in Virginia for analysis.
Huckaby moved in with her grandparents less than a year ago after hitting tough financial times. She was convicted of petty theft in 2006 in Los Angeles County and in January in San Joaquin County.
Huckaby's family and friends say nothing in her history could have prepared them for the accusations leveled in the Sandra Cantu case.
"All the reports, all the pictures – that's not the Melissa I know," said Stefanie Alemazkour, 28.
She said she has known Huckaby since childhood, when the two met at a Los Angeles-area church. Alemazkour, who lives in Cypress, said she still has home videos of Huckaby from her seventh birthday party at a Chuck E. Cheese.
The two became especially close when Alemazkour was separated from her husband and Huckaby was going through a divorce.
Alemazkour said the allegations against Huckaby are troubling and difficult to comprehend.
"She's always been great with kids," she said. "It's just so far out there."
A public memorial service for Sandra is scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday at Merrill F. West High School, 1775 W. Lowell Ave., Tracy.
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