SANDRA CANTU - 8 yo - Tracy CA

mom_in_il wrote:Sandra Cantu - Will Justice Be Served?

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Excerpt:

OK, we all know very well there is a gag order in the Melissa Huckaby case, but some disturbing news has been circulating recently that has me worried that total justice for Sandra Cantu may get circumvented.

The Tracy Police Department has begun an internal review to determine if any investigative rules were broken by detectives. Apparently, one of the detectives, Nate Cogburn, made a comment to Melissa Huckaby when she was being questioned on April 10, 2009. Because of the gag order we haven't been told what the comment was, but it may have led to Huckaby incriminating herself which led to her arrest. Whatever Huckaby uttered, it was used in several search warrents.


READ MORE: http://sprocket-trials.blogspot.com/2010/03/sandra-cantu-will-justice-be-served_1601.html

This does worry me a bit... dont like this type of news....

Sandra Cantu was the first to burst out the door to hug a visitor, to offer help or to tell someone they looked pretty.

A child prone to infectious laughter and a bit of a daredevil on her bike, the energetic, inquisitive 8-year-old exuded love.

That's how her family remembered the little girl on what would have been her ninth birthday.

“She was full of life,” Sandra’s aunt, Angie Chavez, said. “She had a huge heart and she shared it with so many people.”

Nearly
400 people laughed, cried and ate pink cupcakes in the gymnasium at
Jacobsen Elementary School, where she was a second grader last year.

Sandra Cantu went missing last March from her home at Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park.

Ten
days later, her body was found last April in a suitcase in a dairy
pond. A neighbor, 28-year-old Melissa Huckaby, is charged with the
girl’s murder, rape and kidnapping, and awaits trial in October.

Teary-eyed
friends gazed at photos of the tiny girl in costumes or with her two
siblings while “Lean on Me” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” played.

AJ Lee, 12, sang and played mandolin, accompanied by her mother Betsy Riger, and the Tracy Community Choir sang two songs.

Sandra’s family, in T-shirts reading “Tracy’s Angel, forever in our hearts,” released illuminated pink balloons into the sky.

Tracy Police chaplain Don Higgins prayed for love, comfort, peace and hope for Sandra’s family.

“Her life was and continues to be a gift from God,” he said.

Police
officials and the Community Emergency Response Team, who had helped
search for Sandra, packed the memorial that had been planned for nearby
Robert Kenner Park, before windy rains forced the crowd inside.

Last
year, Sandra’s family and the city planted a tree in the park in her
memory. The crepe myrtle explodes in brilliant pink blooms in the
summer, a dedication to her favorite color.

In the gym, Sandra’s
grandfather, Jose Chavez, told the crowd when the weather got cold, he
was worried to find the tree had turned brown.

He called the city’s Parks and Recreation department, suggesting the tree might need more water or fertilizer.

But the city reassured him the tree was just dormant, he said.

“They
told me it everything was fine, and it was sturdy and strong,” he said.
“It’s roots were embedded, and the roots are where its strength is. And
Sandra’s strength is in the roots of the community.”

Janet Anderson, a cousin of Sandra’s mother Maria Chavez, said Tracy had pulled together to support Sandra’s family.

“Without
this community I don’t think the family would have made it through
this,” she said. “We all need to be there for each other.”

Accused child killer Melissa Huckaby was back in a Stockton
courtroom Monday with a dramatically changed appearance.
Huckaby's hair was much shorter, curlier and darker than during
previous court hearings. She also appeared to be substantially
heavier. Pictures of Huckaby's new look were not available because San
Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Linda Lofthus previously ruled
against cameras in the courtroom.
Huckaby's court appearance Monday was an opportunity for attorneys in
the case to provide an update on their preparation to Lofthus.
The sole development Monday was the rescheduling of an upcoming
hearing from April 12 to May 10. At that date, Lofthus is expected to
set a date for a motion by the defense to suppress police evidence.
On March 27, 2009, Cantu was reported missing. Crews found her body
on April 6. It was stuffed into a suitcase and left inside a drainage
ditch about 2 miles away from her Tracy home.
Huckaby lived in the same mobile home park as Cantu's family. She has
been charged with murder, kidnapping and rape.
Huckaby's trial is scheduled to start Oct. 18, 2010.

Calif woman guilty in death of daughter's playmate

Posted: May 10, 2010 12:08 PM CDT

Updated:May 10, 2010 12:08 PM CDT

STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) - A former California Sunday school teacher accused of killing an 8-year-old playmate of her daughter, then hiding the body in a suitcase, has pleaded guilty to murder.

. . . .

Assistant Court Executive Officer Sharon Morris says Huckaby faces a sentence of 25 years to life in prison without the possibility of parole when she is sentenced June 14.

READ MORE: http://www.abc-7.com/Global/story.asp?S=12457259

This bothers me, Sandra had been RAPED-with an "instrument" and I don't think the charged should've been dropped. I wished they'd gone for the death penalty. It just bothers me that this scum gets to live, maybe it is in prison but, Sandra doesn't even get that chance. This was a violent death and for me, the charges don't reflect that.
RIP Sandra

alwaysbelieve wrote: This bothers me, Sandra had been RAPED-with an "instrument" and I don't think the charged should've been dropped. I wished they'd gone for the death penalty. It just bothers me that this scum gets to live, maybe it is in prison but, Sandra doesn't even get that chance. This was a violent death and for me, the charges don't reflect that.
RIP Sandra

I know she should have to pay with her life, but at least Sandra Cantu's family will be spared the horrors of having to relive it during the trial. Let's wait and see what the sentence is - June 14.

In the small California city sent reeling last year by an 8-year-old
girl's killing, a local Sunday school teacher's guilty plea Monday
brought relief to residents — even as disturbing questions remained,
including how, where and why the girl was murdered.Hours after
29-year-old Melissa Huckaby admitted to killing Sandra Cantu, police
stood guard at the entrance to the mobile home park where both the
victim and the defendant lived.Evelyn McClelland, 61, a
neighborhood resident for 26 years, believed the plea will bring some
measure of peace to the victim's family and to a Northern California
community striving to overcome the mistrust that descended after the
girl's disappearance."The children are back outside playing
again. This all closes a very painful chapter in Tracy," McClelland
said.Susan Alley, 50, another mobile park resident, was relieved
to hear Monday's news, too. She said neighbors only recently have
started to feel comfortable around each other again."It's gotten
better out here. Nobody trusted each other," Alley said.At
Melville S. Jacobson Elementary School, where Sandra was a
second-grader, Principal Cindy Sasser showed off a school garden and
playground dedicated to Sandra last fall."It has been a long
ordeal and hopefully this plea will bring some peace," Sasser said.A
10-day search after Sandra — a playmate of Huckaby's daughter — went
missing in March 2009 ended when her body was found stuffed in a black
suitcase pulled from an irrigation pond a few miles from the mobile home park.



Huckaby was arrested less than a week later after telling a
reporter that the suitcase that contained Sandra's body was hers, but
it had been stolen out of her driveway the day Sandra disappeared.Her
guilty plea in San Joaquin County Superior Court to first-degree murder
with a special circumstance of kidnapping came in a deal with
prosecutors: All other charges — including two involving rape and lewd
or lascivious conduct with a child under 14 — were dropped, according to
court spokeswoman Sharon Morris. She would have been eligible for the
death penalty if convicted in a jury trial.Morris said Huckaby
now faces 25 years to life in prison without the possibility of parole
when she is sentenced next month.Huckaby also had been charged
with previously drugging a 7-year-old girl and a 37-year-old man, whom
police believe she had been dating. Those charges also were dropped in
the plea deal.During Monday's hearing, Judge Linda Lofthus
maintained a gag order imposed in the case last year, according to Tracy
police spokesman Tony Sheneman. That means details of evidence against
Huckaby remain sparse, as they have since she was arrested.Attorneys
in the case did not return calls seeking comment. Angie Chavez,
Sandra's aunt and the spokeswoman for the Cantu family, declined comment
Monday, citing the gag order. Members of Huckaby's family did not
immediately respond to messages.Investigators have never said
how, why or where Sandra was killed. Autopsy results have remained
sealed. Criminologists said at the time of her arrest that allegations
that a mother acting alone raped and murdered a child not her own were
nearly unprecedented in recent U.S. history.During the morning
hearing, Huckaby calmly answered the judge's questions about whether she
was in a sound state of mind and understood that she was entering a
guilty plea, said courtroom artist Vicki Behringer."She was just
really relaxed and pleasant. She looked better than I had seen her in a
long time," said Behringer, who has attended every court hearing in the
case.At several prior hearings, including her arraignment,
Huckaby appeared in court tearful and disheveled.Prosecutors
wanted the judge to ask more questions to ensure the defense could not
backpedal later by claiming Huckaby was not in her right mind, but the
judge was satisfied with Huckaby's answers, Behringer said.Steven
Clark, a Bay Area defense attorney and former prosecutor who attended
several of Huckaby's pretrial hearings, said Monday that prosecutors and
the defense likely worked for months to reach a plea agreement."This
community was so outraged by this murder that I think a death verdict
was a real possibility," he said.Clark said that the guilty plea
also spares Sandra's family the years of appeals and retrials that would
have likely followed a death penalty verdict."They now know that
Melissa Huckaby will never get out of jail again and that the gruesome
details of Sandra's murder will not be played out on a national stage,"
Clark said. "This way they are assured, because of the brutal nature of
this crime, they won't have to relive it over and over again in a courtroom."

mom_in_il wrote:

alwaysbelieve wrote: This bothers me, Sandra had been RAPED-with an "instrument" and I don't think the charged should've been dropped. I wished they'd gone for the death penalty. It just bothers me that this scum gets to live, maybe it is in prison but, Sandra doesn't even get that chance. This was a violent death and for me, the charges don't reflect that.
RIP Sandra

I know she should have to pay with her life, but at least Sandra Cantu's family will be spared the horrors of having to relive it during the trial. Let's wait and see what the sentence is - June 14.

I do understand about the family, my heart just breaks for them and I wouldn't want them to have to relive it as I'm sure they do everyday. It's the damn plea deals I just hate, and I think they should make the families leave the courtroom or, just don't come when the trial is going on. The criminals can't keep using plea deals to down play the crimes they commit against children, the death penalty should be very active and aggressive in these situations. It just hurts to know how a child suffered a death and the criminal can still breath, bothers me terribly. God Bless Sandra and her family.

A lawyer for the family of a Northern California
girl killed by her playmate's mother is seeking to stop details of
her slaying from being released.The family of 8-year-old Sandra
Cantu opposes lifting the gag order in the case. The family's lawyer
says in a motion filed Thursday that the release of murder details would
be "not only morally reprehensible but unconstitutional."The
motion also seeks to keep under seal any documents related to
examinations of the victim's body and crime scene photographs.

A San Joaquin County judge maintained the gag order after Melissa Huckaby pleaded guilty to murder last week.The Associated Press, Bay
Area News Group and The Record of Stockton
have sought to lift the order, citing public interest.Huckaby's
sentencing is scheduled for June 14.

The veil
could soon be lifted in a murder case that has been shrouded in secrecy
and silence.Three news organizations will argue in court Monday
that a gag order should be lifted and court records unsealed in the case
against Melissa Huckaby, who pleaded guilty May 10 to charges of
kidnapping and killing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, of Tracy. Some
legal experts say it is a very unusual to keep a gag order in place
after a case is decided, but San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge
Linda Lofthus declined to lift it when Huckaby accepted the plea deal.Huckaby,
29, is scheduled be sentenced June 14 to life in prison without parole.Duffy
Carolan, the lawyer representing Bay Area News Group, The Associated
Press and The Stockton Record, says case records should now be made
public and attorneys and family members be allowed to talk about the
case. "At this point, it is vitally important for the public to
have access to official sources of information and court records to
fully understand why the State entered into a plea deal dismissing
various charges and agreeing not to seek the death penalty in exchange
for a plea of guilty to murder with a special circumstance of
kidnapping," Carolan wrote in her court filings.In exchange for
Huckaby's guilty plea, the District Attorney's Office agreed not to
pursue the death penalty, dropped two enhancements to the murder charge —
lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 14, and rape by
instrument — and one count of committing a sex crime against a child 10
years old or younger. Also dropped were charges in two unrelated cases
in which Huckaby was accused of drugging a Hayward man and another Tracy
girl.Sandra's mother and siblings want to keep details about
the second-grader's death sealed forever. In court filings on their
behalf, their lawyers have argued that opening the case files to media
scrutiny would continue the family's pain.One legal expert said
he hadn't heard of a gag order continuing after a guilty finding."The
gag order is aimed at the public, making sure that you don't develop
prejudice" before a trial, said Ed Steinman, a Santa Clara University
School of Law professor.There was wide coverage of Sandra's
death, and communitywide help in a search for her. Sandra's body was
found in a suitcase in a farm pond a few miles from her Tracy home on
April 6, 2009. She had been missing since March 27.Prosecutor
Thomas Testa, who tried to lift the gag order on May 10, now believes
it's best to wait until after sentencing to speak. He said there were
concerns that with people talking about the case, Huckaby might change
her plea and want her day in court. By then, the potential jury pool
might have been tainted, he said.But Steinman said he was unsure
if such a scenario had ever occurred."If it's happened, I don't
know about it," Steinman said. "More importantly, that is not a
justification for gag orders continuing." Sandra's mother and
siblings say releasing graphic details about Sandra's death would
traumatize the family all over again. The family is satisfied with the
plea agreement, Maria Chavez, Sandra's mother, stated in court
documents."Any claim by the media that additional facts are
needed to evaluate the reasonableness and fairness of the plea agreement
ignores the fact my family and I are convinced that the negotiated plea
agreement was, and is, appropriate," Chavez states. "We are both
comfortable and satisfied with this result and are able to find peace
from this resolution."Ruth Jones, a professor at University of
the Pacific's McGeorge School of Law, said it's not unusual for victims'
family members to try to protect their loved ones privacy, but the
court can only do so much to accommodate them."It's not their
case," Jones said. "It's a public case of the state versus a defendant."But,
there could be reasons why information has not yet been released just
yet, Jones said, and that will keep the public in the dark a little
longer. "She's not sentenced," Jones said. "So the case is not
over."

Melissa Huckaby's surprise guilty
plea in the murder of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu brought the criminal
case close to an end, but left many unanswered questions for the people
of Tracy, Calif.


"My child lost his innocence because a friend of his, at a young
age, was done so wrong, and now you have to explain what happened,"
says Kelsey Hall, whose son was Cantu's classmate at Melville S.
Jacobson Elementary School. "They aren't dumb and they want to know."


On Monday, media attorneys will ask the judge to lift a
wide-reaching gag order and unseal court documents, including the
transcript of the secret grand jury hearings – the only time witnesses
have testified in the case.

Cantu family members say
the documents should remain sealed because their release would be too
painful.


"We cannot carry any more weight in our lives and if the
photographs and forensic examinations of my daughter are disclosed, I do
not know how we would be able to cope," Sandra's mother Maria Chavez
says in a document filed by her attorney, Archer Bakerink.


If the judge refuses to release the documents, the matter will
likely again come up at Huckaby's sentencing on June 14, where at the
very least the gag order would likely be lifted.


Huckaby, a 29-year-old Sunday school teacher, is expected to be
sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. As part
of her plea deal, she won't get the death penalty, and all other charges
– including rape, lewd acts with a child and poisoning another child
and a man – have been dropped.


The Cantu family backed the plea deal because it avoided a
trial and because they oppose capital punishment. "We're happy that the
judgment came down like this," Joe Chavez, Sandra's uncle, tells PEOPLE.


So far, even the most basic information about the case has been
kept under wraps. Community members say they're still baffled by the
murder – and angry.


"We're all pretty sad all the time, thinking about what
happened. It's not right," says Brandon Harris, 10, who stays with his
grandmother after school at the mobile home park from which Sandra was
abducted. "What grudge did Melissa Huckaby have on [Sandra] anyway? Why
would she do something like this? We don't know."

A judge has denied media requests to release details of the murder of
an 8-year-old Northern California girl whose body was found in a
suitcase.San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Linda Lofthus on
Monday denied requests from several news organizations. Lofthus said
she wanted to "preserve the integrity of the case."Defendant
Melissa Huckaby has pleaded guilty to killing her daughter's playmate,
Sandra Cantu, last year. A gag order in the case prevents court records
from being unsealed.

Several news organizations, including The Associated Press, argue
that Huckaby's guilty plea removes the need for a gag order. They argue
that court records may help the public understand the plea agreement.Cantu's
family opposes the request, which Lofthus says will be revisited after
Huckaby is sentenced on June 14.

Melissa Huckaby, a 29 year old former Sunday school teacher from
Tracy, is facing sentencing in the murder of 8 year old Sandra Cantu.
Cantu disappeared from her Tracy mobile home park in March of 2009.
She was sexually abused and murdered. Her body was later found in a
suitcase in an irrigation pond.
Huckaby later pleaded guilty to murdering Cantu, avoiding a possible
death sentence, and facing a term of life in prison without parole.
Several media organizations have asked for the gag order, issued by
San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Linda Loftus, to be lifted, so
details of the case and the plea bargain can become public.
Attorneys for the Cantu family have argued that Marsy's Law, passed
by California voters in 2008, should protect the family from having the
grisly details of the case made public. "The victim extends to Sandra's
whole family. All the people that we represented there today, they are
all victims of what happened to Sandra," said attorney Stewart Tayback.
Attorneys for three media outlets have argued the information belongs
in the public domain. News10 legal analyst and former federal
prosecutor Bill Portanova said the gag order is likely to be lifted.
"The problem is, the United States constitution has as its primary
right, a free press, and that means the public has a right to know. And
it takes a lot to overcome that," Portanova said.
The gag order was originally issued to prevent too much gruesome
publicity before the trial from making it too hard to find an impartial
jury.
San Joaquin County Judge Linda Lofthus has said she will reconsider
the gag request after tomorrow's sentencing.

Melissa Huckaby was sentenced to life in prison without parole
Monday. Huckaby, who pleaded guilty to the kidnap and murder of
8-year-old Sandra Cantu, expressed remorse in the courtroom. She told
Cantu's mother, "I should not have taken her from you."
The former Tracy Sunday School teacher went on to say, "I owe you an
explanation. But I still cannot understand why I did what I did."
Huckaby originally faced an additional charge of rape. But the
sexual abuse charge was dropped as part of a plea deal. Huckaby told
the court Cantu was not molested, and she claimed the child did not
suffer.
Cantu's remarks were contradicted by San Joaquin County Deputy
District Attorney Tom Testa. He described the discovery of Cantu's
body, which had been stuffed into a suitcase, dumped in an irrigation
ditch and found a week and a half after her disappearance.
Testa said a piece of torn cloth had been tied around Cantu's head.
Quoting from a pathologist's report, Testa said the cloth was soiled
with blood and knotted into "a noose." He said the cause of death was
determined to be "homicidal asphyxiation."
According to the pathologist's report, Cantu also suffered a cut to
her lip, an abrasion to her elbow and injuries to her genitals.
Testa said toxicology tests also found the drug alprazolam, which is
used to treat anxiety disorders, in Cantu's body. Bottles of
alprazolam were found in Huckaby's home and purse, Testa said.
In a surprise move, Huckaby, 29, pleaded guilty in May as part of a
deal with prosecutors to avoid the death penalty.
Huckaby and Cantu lived at the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park in
Tracy where Cantu and Huckaby's daughter were friends. Cantu was
reported missing from her home on March 27, 2009.

Inside the Investigation
The prosecutor issued a statement Monday that revealed details of the
investigation for the first time.
Testa said a surveillance tape from the mobile home park showed Cantu
skipping toward her home on March 27 when something caught her eye.
Testa said Cantu "looks over in the direction of Melissa Huckaby's
residence. Then she drops off the face of the earth."
The videotape then shows Huckaby, eight minutes later, driving out of
the mobile home park in the direction of her grandfather's church,
Clover Road Baptist Church.
Testa said about the time Huckaby was leaving, she phoned the trailer
park manager to report her black suitcase stolen in front of her
trailer.
The prosecutor said another surveillance tape showed Huckaby driving
away from the church and then returning to the church 30 minutes. Testa
said during that 30-minute window, a retired marine and his wife saw
Huckaby and her SUV at an irrigation pond at Bacchetti and Whitehall
roads in Tracy.
When she was questioned by police, Huckaby said she stopped at the
pond in order to urinate.

Gag order lifted
In another development on Monday, San Joaquin County Judge Linda
Loftus lifted a gag order in the case, to the distress of Cantu's
family.
Cantu's family says they've been traumatized by the murder, and they
did not want additional details, including autopsy reports and search
warrants, made public.
With the gag order lifted, the Tracy Police Department plans to hold a
news conference one hour after the sentencing hearing concludes.

A judge agreed Monday to
unseal files in the case of a Sunday school teacher who was sentenced to
life in prison for murdering a young girl whose body was found in a
suitcase. The files were not immediately made available, however,
because the family of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu was considering whether
to appeal the ruling. If no appeal is pursued, the documents
will likely be released later this week. The Associated
Press, Bay Area News Group and The Record newspaper of Stockton sought
to have the material unsealed in the case against Melissa Huckaby. The
29-year-old single mother pleaded guilty last month to murdering the
Tracy girl in 2009. San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge
Linda Lofthus sentenced Huckaby Monday o life without the possibility of
parole then ruled the court would unseal search warrant affidavits and a
grand jury transcript. Earlier in the day, Loftus lifted a
gag order in the case, and authorities released their investigative
report. Loftus said autopsy photos introduced into the court
record would remain under seal. She cited the California crime victims'
bill of rights in making that decision. Lofthus expressed
concern that Sandra's younger siblings might see the photos if they
appeared on the Internet. The content of the photos was detailed in
grand jury transcripts, she said.