Melissa Huckaby Sentenced ~ Life in Prison, NO Parole

Melissa Huckaby, the "Sunday school teacher" who was accused of the kidnapping, rape and murder (among other charges) of Sandra Cantu (See photo on the left.) was sentenced this morning.  The judge gave her a sentence of "life with no parole" for the murder and kidnapping charges.  Huckaby was facing the death penalty until she and her attorneys negotiated a plea deal.  A plea deal that eliminated the rape charges, the sexual battery as well as the charges that she drugged another child  and a man that Melisssa had dated.  Sandra was found days later, stuffed into a suitcase (which belonged to Melissa) and floating in a settling pond on a nearby dairy farm.  Since hearing the sentencing this morning, and then reading some of the details that have been released since the gag order was lifted, I've struggled with the writing of this blog entry.  I can fully understand now why the judge ordered everything sealed and put the gag order on everyone.

Quick change of subject....  I'm sure, if you've followed the case, you know what Melissa looked like when she was boohooing at one of the first hearings before the gag order went into place.  Yep, there she is over on the left.  I was shocked to see her in the live video that one of the local stations streamed this morning.  When I first saw her, I hardly recognized her.  The picture on the right is her this morning.   Either she's been eating very well in jail or the meds that she's supposedly on now are making her obese.

As I sat here listening to Melissa "apologize" for what she did I became disgusted with her.  According to her, she doesn't know why she did what she did.  I think she needs to figure that part out.  But then she's got the rest of her life, in prison to do that, I guess.  The part that really got me was when she apologized to Sandra's mother and had the nerve to say that Sandra didn't suffer and that she didn't sexually molest the little girl.  Sandra didn't suffer?  I guess she thinks that the little girl didn't suffer because she drugged her with a generic Xanax tranquilizer!   She didn't molest the girl?  Wait a minute.  The reason the gag order was put on everyone and the reason for the seals on all the documents was because the details of the molestation were too "inflammatory"!  The documents have been unsealed now.  The evidence is out there in the news now.  A torn piece of cloth tied around Sandra's head, a noose.  Lacerations on Sandra's mouth.  Lacerations on Sandra's genitals that match the handle of a rolling pin that was found at the church where Melissa taught Sunday School.  A rolling pin that still had blood smears on it! I can't say anymore.  The information is in the links below or in the articles written by other news organizations.  Google will bring lots of links...

 Melissa "apologized".  Yeah.  Right.  Melissa cried.  For herself.

Rest in peace, Sandra.  Your murderer will die in prison.  My heart goes out to Sandra's family.  The horror of what happened to their precious daughter is out there in the public eye.  But the public eye will move on to the next sensational case and they will hopefully be able to live a relatively "normal" life.  Unfortunately, a life without a beautiful little girl named Sandra.  I hope they will be able to find some peace of mind now that Melissa will be locked away and never be allowed to harm another person.

My Previous Post about Sandra: Celebration of Life for Sandra Cantu
Sources:
News 10:Melissa Huckaby gets life sentence without parole; apologizes to Sandra Cantu's family
Fox40:  Huckaby Ordered To Life In Prison, Restitution For Kidnap, Murder Of Sandra Cantu
San Francisco Chronicle: Prosecutors give details of Sandra Cantu killing

This 'n That

I'm still around, still watching the news on the net and on TV. Yes, I'm still keeping track of what is going on with the cases I've posted about in the past. My brain is having trouble coming up with posts for the blog though. The story behind that is that I got fed up with the new tax hikes the federal and state governments put on cigarettes and have decided to quit smoking. Instead of buying a carton of cigarettes this last time, I bought the patches. (Dummy me, I found out after buying them that I could have gotten them for free if I had signed up for a class at a local hospital! LOL) I started using the patches when I had gotten down to the last pack of cigarettes in the last carton I bought. I managed to make that pack last for 4 days and now I'm on day 2 of having no cigarettes at all. Ugh. I still would love to have a smoke! lol...

So, anyway today's post (which is probably going to be all over the place.) is going to start off with one of the LOL Cats that I thought were really cute yesterday.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Now for the rest of the "news"....

I've been adding a few posts to the other blog I post on, California Fire News. The posts have been mostly earthquake reports that measure over 3.0, but occasionally I find another item of interest. As for the earthquakes, one yesterday was a 4.4 on the Richter scale and it was centered near Malibu. There have been a number of small quakes in the Los Angeles area in the last week or so Hopefully this isn't a buildup to a bigger one.

As for the cases I am watching, a couple of them have been really hard to get news about them because of gag orders that the judges in the individual cases have ordered.

Sandra Cantu (victim) and Melissa Huckaby (accused murderer)
The Sandra Cantu case is one of those that have virtually disappeared from the local and national news broadcasts. The latest hearing for Melissa Huckaby was a very brief one with the defense postponing a plea from the accused and the judge, Linda Lofthus, ordering that the autopsy findings be sealed to "prevent public outrage", plus she ordered a gag order on everyone involved in the case. The next hearing will be May 22nd in the San Joaquin County Superior Court in Stockton. There have been a couple articles recently though. These articles are about the reward that had been offered when poor little Sandra disappeared.

Apparently there is a psychic in the Los Angeles area who thinks she deserves to get some of the reward money even though her "vision" wasn't exactly accurate and the investigators used none of the information provided by any psychics when they were searching for the child. This woman said she predicted the little girl would be found in a "barranca (A Spanish word for canyon or ravine.) and that she was killed in a church, and the killer was someone in the trailer park the little girl called home. Ok, she managed to get 2 out of 3, supposedly. But, since the Tracy police didn't use psychic predictions during the investigation, how much actual "good" did this woman do? I'd say "none".

The other article I found this morning is about the man who did do something to help the Tracy police find Sandra. This guy is the man who found that suitcase floating in that pond on the dairy. The original news reports that came out when Sandra's body was found in that suitcase said that the farm hand(s) who found it had refused the reward. Back then, the reporters said that the cops would be talking to the men. And apparently they did. The man who is receiving the reward money is Jose Luis Franco, and he'll be the recipient of a little more than $20,000. He says he'll be putting the money into a trust account to pay for the education of his four children. He's hoping that they will be able to go to college. Good for him! And good for his family!

The Public Information Officer with the Tracy Police Department, Sgt. Tony Sheneman says that the reward will be going only to Mr. Franco. Not to the supposed psychics who are trying to claim part of that reward. (Can you tell that I don't believe in a lot of the supposed psychics who claim they "solve murders"?)

Sources:
The Tracy Press (hearing and gag orders)
The Mercury News (psychic claim)
The Tracy Press (reward money awarded)

Maria Lauterbach (victim) and Cesar Laurean (accused murderer)
Now that Cesar Laurean has been extradited from Mexico and brought back to North Carolina, he's had his first hearing and an Onslow County judge issued a gag order in the case. The order states that to ensure Laurean's right to a fair trial, prosecutors, law enforcement officials and Laurean's defense attorney are not to release any information to the news media or the public that would "have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing an adjudicative proceeding in the matter." (Click here to read the gag order.) So, we'll get very little, if any, information about the case before it comes to trial. Whenever that will be. A date has not been set yet.

Sources:
jdnews.com
Investigation Discovery, The Criminal Report Daily (A very good overview of the case.)

Stacy Peterson (missing/murdered) and Drew Peterson (primary suspect)
Drew Peterson has been making himself seen and heard again. He was on a local morning show there in Chicago and he had the nerve to take his two teenage sons with him and put them on camera to defend their father. I suppose he thought this would be a "good move" to defend himself from the wrongful death suit that has been filed by the family of Kathleen Savio, Drew's 3rd wife who was found dead in her bathtub during a contentious divorce. As far as I'm concerned, he is exploiting those boys. They should not have been on TV defending Drew.

More news about Drew is that the authorities have not given up on searching for Stacy. The divers were out in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal again searching the other day. The searchers weren't commenting on what they were looking for nor on what they found, but they're out there... And from all the sources I've read so far, the searching has to do with the Stacy Peterson case. Plus, apparently Drew was on a talk-radio show this past week and Stacy's sister, Cassandra Cales called in and "lit into Drew". Interesting conversation... lol

Sources:
ABC 7 Chicago
The Herald News
Chicago Sun-Times (Be sure to check out the recording of the radio show and Cassandra's call.)

Caylee Anthony (victim) and Casey Anthony (accused murderer and mom of victim)
The Orlando authorities released a bunch of new documents about the case against Casey Anthony this week. Some of them are fascinating to read and have generated quite a few comments on the InSession message boards. I'm still trying to read through them, so I'll reserve any comment from me for now.. lol

George and Cindy Anthony are still trying desperately to defend their daughter, but the attorneys for Zenaida Gonzalez are asking a judge to force George and Cindy Anthony to respond to certain questions they would not answer during recent depositions. It should be interesting to see if the judge can force those two to behave themselves during a deposition. I've never seen behavior like theirs in a deposition! But then, I haven't been in that many of them.. lol..

Then we have Jose Baez giving an interview to an Orlando TV station where he says that Casey had "very compelling reasons" for her actions when referring to her partying for the 31 days that her child was missing before Cindy Anthony reported her missing. Uhm.. Yeah, right. Baez actually has the nerve to compare Casey's case to Cynthia Sommer's case. (And I'm not even going to link anything to that! Go google!) The "ugly coping" thing that Baez is trying to put out isn't going to work unless he puts Casey on the stand, in my opinion. And how many people think the guy would actually do that?

Sources:
WFTV (List of links to documents)
Orlando Sentinel (also about the documents released)
WESH (Article about the motion to compel the Anthony's to answer questions)
WESH (Article about Jose Baez interview)

Lana Clarkson (victim) and Phil Spector (convicted murderer)
The sentencing hearing for Phil will be on the 29th of this month. The only thing that I've heard since his conviction is that Rachelle and the rest of the "Phil is innocent" groupies are trying to circulate a petition to make the powers that be let him go free. Uhhh... Rachelle, do you really think that a petition is going to let your "dear hubby" out of prison? If so, I think you should sit down and think some more. I don't think it's going to happen.. Phil was convicted of 2nd degree murder and there's the added use of a gun that will extend his sentence. Rachelle, just keep up your comedy act.. You might need it one of these days to earn a living for yourself instead of living off Phil's royalties. Those just might be going to the Clarkson family when they win the wrongful death suit.

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I think I'll stop for now... Have I given you enough links and stuff to follow? lol... I think I'll go find some carrot sticks to munch on to take my mind off wanting a cigarette.............

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Sandra Cantu Case: Defense Drops Bid to Exhume Sandra's Body

(04-21) 14:37 PDT TRACY -- The attorney for murder suspect Melissa Huckaby is no longer seeking to exhume the body of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu from a Tracy mausoleum in order to conduct independent tests to determine whether she was raped, San Joaquin County's public defender said today.

The defense will withdraw its request, which Huckaby's attorney made to a judge Thursday just a day after Sandra was laid to rest, Public Defender Peter Fox said.

He said the deputy public defender handling the case, Sam Behar, learned this morning from the county's chief medical examiner, Bennett Omalu, that "the relevant samples were preserved" and had not been interred.

"It will not be necessary to disturb the child's remains," Fox said in an interview. "From a human point of view, certainly it's nice not to have to do that."

Huckaby, a 28-year-old Sunday school teacher who is the mother of one of Sandra's playmates in a Tracy mobile home park, was arrested April 10 and charged with her murder. Prosecutors alleged that the murder was accompanied by special circumstances, including rape, that would make Huckaby eligible for the death penalty if convicted.

Sandra was last seen near her home March 27. Her body was found in a suitcase April 6 in a dairy farm's irrigation pond 2 miles from the mobile home park.

The defense was concerned that prosecutors were basing the rape allegation solely on the findings of the medical examiner's autopsy. Fox said his office has not been given the autopsy results or any other evidence in the case, including recordings or transcripts from a long interview Huckaby gave to police before her arrest.

In his motion to exhume Sandra's body, Behar wrote that a second autopsy, which would have been conducted by a forensic pathologist hired by the defense, was "extremely crucial and material to Ms. Huckaby's defense."

The defense team, Behar wrote, "should be allowed to examine Ms. Cantu's body to discern alternative explanation for the assigned coroner's observation of alleged genital trauma, so that Ms. Huckaby can defend herself against those allegations."

Now, Fox said, Behar has learned that tissue samples will be available for testing by the defense pathologist.

The county medical examiner has not released Sandra's cause of death or the results of toxicology tests.

Angie Chavez, Sandra's aunt, said today that the family did not wish to comment on the withdrawal of the defense motion.

Source: SFGate
Author: Demian Bulwa at dbulwa@sfchronicle.com.

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I don't know about the rest of you, but this is great news. In reading a lot of the articles and the comments about those articles, I know a lot of people were up in arms over the possibility of the defense taking Sandra's body from her resting place at the Tracy Mausoleum. This must also ease the minds of her family to know that a 2nd autopsy doesn't have to be done.

There has to be so much more information about this case that the investigators and the prosecutors are holding close. We get bits of information from here and there and I have to wonder how much of it is truth and how much of it is speculation or just plain errors on the parts of the different reporters who are covering this case.

I've been watching TV off and on today and the latest uproar is over another incident that happened in January. Another child in the same mobile home park where Sandra's family and the Huckaby families live was reportly missing for a few hours. From what the reports are saying, Melissa Huckaby took that child to a park, either with or without the knowledge of the child's family (Depending on which report you read.). Sometime during the time Melissa had the child at a park (No clue what park or even if they did go to a "park".) the child's mother returned home and discovered her 7 year old daughter was not there. It was apparently reported to the police, but Melissa returned the child to the family's home either while the police were there or shortly before the police got there or shortly after the police left. (Again, it depends on which report you read!) The child's older sister has told reporters that when her little sister arrived home she was very disoriented, dizzy, slurring her speech and falling down. The family took the child to the hospital and lab tests revealed that she had benzodiazepines in her blood.

I googled benzodiazepines and found an interesting definition of them on the University of Maryland's website.

Benzodiazepines are among the most commonly prescribed depressant medications in the United States today. More than 15 different types of benzodiazepine medications exist to treat a wide array of both psychological and physical maladies based on dosage and implications. To be characterized as such, each benzodiazepine displays one or more of the following drug actions: anxiety relief, hypnotic, muscle relaxant, anti-convulsant, or an amnesiatic (mild memory-loss inducer). Due to their sedative properties, benzodiazepines have a high potential for abuse, especially when used with other depressants such as alcohol or opiates. Benzodiazepines are classified as Schedule IV in the Controlled Substances Act.

Commonly prescribed benzodiazepines include Xanax© (alprazolam), Librium© (chlordiazepoxide), Valium© (diazepam), and Ativan© (lorazepam). Another benzodiazepine that has been the focus of a great deal of media attention is flunitrazepam, trade name Rohypnol©, which is known widely as "the date-rape drug" due to its involvement in many sexual assault cases in recent years.

I don't know about the rest of you, but that last sentence really bothers me.............

(Here's a link to one of the reports about the incident with the other child that Melissa was involved with in January: The Tracy Press)

Celebration of Life for Sandra Cantu

I didn't make the drive down to Tracy today for the memorial service.. But a few thousand others did show up at the high school in Tracy to say good by to "Tracy's Angel", Sandra Cantu. From what I've read on the news sites, people started lining up at the doors of the gymnasium at 6:30am this morning. I stayed home and watched the memorial on my TV. When they started playing the song "Somewhere out there", I had tears running down my cheek. That song has always choked me up a bit but today it wasn't just a bit. I cried for that beautiful little girl with the big smile. My heart goes out to all of Sandra's family and friends in this time of terrible grief.

Channel 10 in Sacramento has posted a video of the entire service. I tried embedding it to the page, but it doesn't work like the YouTube ones. It begins playing automatically. So, I've removed the embedded video and left the link.

Channel 30 (I'm not quite sure where they are) also has video up showing the service.

I can only hope that the authorities can put her murderer away for the rest of her life. The community of Tracy and all those who's hearts broke the day they found that suitcase need to have justice. Sandra's family need justice. And that is all I'm going to say... Today.

Rest in Peace, little angel...

Sandra Cantu Laid to Rest Today

Horse drawn carriage/hearse enroute to the cemetary carrying Sandra Cantu to her final resting place.
Image Source: KCRA Channel 3 News

Sandra Cantu buried today during private service

by Jennifer Wadsworth

Family, friends and city leaders gathered for a private burial today for slain 8-year-old Tracy girl Sandra Cantu.

A horse-drawn carriage brought her tiny body from Fry Memorial Chapel to the Tracy Mausoleum shortly after noon today.

Sandra’s mother was “like a rock” during the service, said Tracy police Sgt. Tony Sheneman after the burial. TV news crews gathered outside the cemetery grounds to film as much of the service as they could from a distance.

A few dozen people attended, including several police officers who last week arrested a 28-year-old Sunday school teacher on suspicion of killing the little girl.

Melissa Chantel Huckaby was arraigned Tuesday on charges that she kidnapped, raped and then murdered Sandra on March 27.

Sandra lived in the same mobile home park as Huckaby with her mother, three older siblings and her grandparents. Surveillance footage that captures the girl’s last moments alive shows her skipping playfully toward Huckaby’s house, five doors away from her own home.

It was the last anyone ever saw of her, before her body was found 10 days later stuffed in a suitcase someone dumped in a manure-filled pond on a north Tracy dairy.

“She became an angel to the community,” said Tracy Unified School District Superintendent James Franco of Sandra, a Jacobsen Elementary School second-grader.

Her disappearance drew hundreds of volunteer searchers and nearly 20 agencies on the case. Photos of the blonde-haired brown-eyed girl were plastered on utility poles, car windows and bulletin boards all over Northern California.

It became a familiar face, especially to Tracy.

The national interest in her search brought and the sordid fascination sparked by recent charges against Huckaby of murder and rape likely mean a crowd of thousands will show up for her public memorial service on Thursday.

Organizers have prepared for as many as 8,000 guests, but there’s only enough parking for 500 cars.

The public service is scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday at the West High School gym, 1775 W. Lowell Ave.

For information, call the memorial chapel at 836-1970

Source: Tracy Press
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I don't often post whole articles on this blog, but this case just plain sucks my brain dry of rational things to say. Earlier on TV, I watched as they first played the video of Sandra skipping across the street looking like just what she was; a carefree child. Then they played a video of that horse drawn hearse carrying the child's body to her final resting place. To see both those videos one right after another brings home the tragedy and the anger towards the murderer who stole this beautiful child's future and life.

For the past week, I've considered driving down to Tracy tomorrow for the public memorial service for Sanda. I've gone back and forth a number of times already and probably will change my mind a few more times before tomorrow. I don't know if I can do it. Tomorrow will tell. I'll have to wait and see what I'm feeling in the morning.

One feeling that will not change though; I want this beautiful little girl's murderer brought to justice. And I know I'm not alone.

My deepest condolences to Sandra's family and friends. Sandra's memory will stay alive in a lot of people's hearts.................. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥



Surveillance video of Sandra Cantu (Tracy Press on YouTube)