Melissa Huckaby surprised everyone when she pleaded guilty to murder Monday in the Sandra Cantu case. The woman that taught Sunday school entered in this plea into what was really supposed to be a procedural listening to in advance of the Melissa Huckaby trial scheduled for fall 2010. Huckaby, who is from Tracy California, is on trial for kidnapping and murdering an 8 year old Sandra Cantu. Under a plea agreement that was reached with the San Joaquin County District Attorney, Huckaby could be sentenced June 12th to a prison term of life without the possibility of parole.
Melissa Huckaby slides past death penalty
In exchange for Melissa Huckaby pleading guilty to her murder within the Sandra Cantu case, prosecutors took the death penalty off the table entirely and dropped all other charges against her including child endangerment and furnishing a harmful substance for allegedly drugging a 7-year-old girl and a man within the months before Sandra died. The San Francisco Chronicle says that a Melissa Huckaby trial could have effortlessly resulted in the death penalty had a jury convicted her of killing Sandra Cantu, whose body was found April 10, 2009, in a suitcase in a Tracy, Calif., irrigation pond.
The Melissa Huckaby and Sandra Cantu case
Sandra Cantu was last seen on March 27, 2009, skipping near her home on a surveillance video. Huckaby, mother of one of Sandra Cantu’s playmates, was arrested only four days later and originally charged with murder and three special circumstances alleging that the murder was committed during a kidnapping, involved a lewd or lascivious act on a child, and involved rape with a foreign object.
Melissa Huckaby Sandra Cantu details
Melissa Huckaby said to FOX40 News and local newspaper The Tracy Press her suitcase was reported to have been stolen from the driveway of her mobile home the day Sandra Cantu went missing. Police which were investigating the Melissa Huckaby Sandra Cantu case say that a report was never filed for the missing suitcase. FOX40 News says that Huckaby’s interviews with various media outlets led numerous authorities to suspect the Sunday school teacher in connection with the disappearance and murder of Cantu. She was arrested April 8th.
Citations
The San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/10/BAH01DC7P9.DTL&feed=rss.news
FOX40 News
http://www.fox40.com/news/headlines/ktxl-news-huckabypleadsguilty,0,7232594.story?track=rss
