DA: Rape may be alleged in Calif. girl's slaying

[cboy4]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle





04-13) 13:23 PDT Tracy, Calif. (AP) --

Prosecutors say they're considering rape and molestation allegations against the woman suspected of killing an 8-year-old Northern California girl and putting her body in a suitcase.

Twenty-eight-year-old Melissa Huckaby was arrested Saturday on suspicion of kidnapping and murdering Sandra Cantu. The girl was a playmate of her 5-year-old daughter.

San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Robert Himmelblau said Monday that a homicide charge against Huckaby could include the special circumstances of rape with a foreign object, lewd and lacivious conduct with a child and murder in the course of a kidnapping.

Himmelblau wouldn't provide more details. Huckaby is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/04/13/national/a023242D95.DTL&tsp=1

---

Unbelievable. x(

[varkam]

1. Jesus H Tapdancing Christ.

:puke:

[Auggie]

2. Well, there's the motive

Though, how we do know she's not taking the rap for someone else?

[atreides1]

3. We don't know

And unless the evidence proves otherwise we never will.

[EFerrari]

4. There's something weird about this one. n/t

[Auggie]

6. That's what I mean -- her father was the original suspect

Clifford Lawless, the pastor. Lawless -- that's right out of a John D. MacDonald paperback.

[McCamy Taylor]

10. Maybe her dad has a history of child abuse, so now his daughter is acting out what she experienced.

[Auggie]

11. Yes, or maybe the Dad did it and she's covering for him

[ozu]

14. Why?

Why would someone potentially take the death penalty for someone else? It makes no sense to cover for someone in a crime this horrific.

The 'she's a woman and doesn't fit type' scenarios I've read don't hold a lot of weight when their main component is that she's a woman.

[NashVegas]

16. Protecting the Alpha Male

You know, the one who takes care of them and brings them food.

[LostinVA]

20. I've been wondering that, too

[cboy4]

22. No, it's not her father. It's her grandfather.

[Xithras]

25. Her father was never a suspect.

The Tracy police addressed that yesterday. This woman gave conflicting statements and was a suspect from Day 1, but the Tracy police have stated that her grandfather was never a suspect in the case. The church was searched only because she had the keys to the building, and since the police weren't talking to the media, the MEDIA assumed that the pastor (grandfather) must be a suspect. Now that the arrest has been made, Tracy PD have made it clear that they never considered him as a suspect.

The grandfather was only a suspect to the Nancy Grace's of the world.

[cboy4]

29. The media never reported that the grandfather was a suspect.

They reported that he was questioned at length, which he was.

The FBI spent and extraordinary amount of time at the Clover Road Baptist Church, which he pastors.

And he lives five doors down from the Cantu family in the mobile home park.

So everyone became suspicious of her grandfather .. both the media and the public.

It's a natural course of logic, although it's apparently incorrect.

I still think they were eying him, until the suspect gave the inconsistent information to the Tracy Press newspaper reporter .. although I could be wrong.


on edit: typo

[Auggie]

31. Yes, I recall that now

Thank you for clearing that up. I stand corrected and apologize for the error.

[canetoad]

9. I agree

Gut feeling...hunch....

There's a lot more to come out I say.

[LostinVA]

19. Yup, especially since her father was the big suspect

Very weird.

[cboy4]

5. It wouldn't surprise me if she's part of a child exploitation

ring.

I don't understand how a woman with a five-year-old girl of her own is capable of something so monstrous.



This undated cell phone photo provided by the family shows Melissa Huckaby. Huckaby, 28, remained in custody Sunday April 12, 2009 at the San Joaquin County Jail in California. She was being held without bail on suspicion of murder and kidnapping of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu.
(AP Photo/Connie Lawless)

[Rebubula]

7. Hmmm...

....Susan Smith, Andrea Yates, Susan Eubanks etc

Sometimes people are mentally unstable without a tangible reason...


That said, perhaps you are correct. Too many children go missing every year for there NOT to be some organized ring that abducts them.

[XemaSab]

21. The connecting factor in those three cases you mention

is that those three women killed their own kids.

I can see going into a psychotic rage and killing your own kid, but killing the kid down the street?

Too weird.

[depakid]

24. Agreed- there was a recent case near Sydney strartlingly like this one, except

Body in suitcase: police charge toddler's mother

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/body-in-suitcase-police-charge-toddlers-mother/2007/10/20/1192301100084.html

[msanthrope]

8. I can't imagine the depths of depravity that would induce those

kinds of charges.

[HopeHoops]

12. Um - how?

Rape? WTF?

[Auggie]

13. See post 11

[ozu]

15. foreign objects -nt

[24601]

17. Special circumstances - then death penalty eligible? n/t

[hedgehog]

18. Are you suggesting that there are dozens of people out there planning to violate

children who will be deterred if this woman gets the death penalty, but who will go ahead with their plans if she merely gets 50 years to life?

[cboy4]

23. I think that was just a question. I didn't read it as in

implication the person supports the death penalty.

[hedgehog]

27. I apologize for making a sharp response.

[varkam]

34. I think the age of the victim alone would make it a death-qualified offense.

IIRC, age of the victim is a potential aggravator in every jurisdiction.

[cboy4]

38. Negative, not here. It would have been reported as a death penalty-

eligible case from the start.

We didn't know about the sex crime allegations until today.

In California, you need special circumstances.

The sex crimes qualify. Age alone is not a factor.

Something else that might be applicable in this case: "(14) The murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel, manifesting exceptional depravity."

Actually, kidnapping is a qualification as well.

So I'm sure the prosecution in a Republican stronghold county (San Joaquin) will seek it.


http://www.capitalpunishmentincontext.org/resources/statelaws

ON EDIT: add link

[varkam]

40. I stand corrected.

I'm pretty sure it is an agg. here in KY. It does seem, though, that it might slide in under the one that you posted (e.g. especially heinous, atrocious, cruel, etc)

[Xithras]

26. There's some discussion that she may have been into meth.

Meth, as some may be aware, lowers sexual inhibition, increases boldness, and heightens sexual pleasure, and increases sex drive. These people lived in a trailer park in one of the worse meth areas in California, and stories are starting to float out about possible drug involvement. Sandra may have been the victim of a meth high gone bad. The lady got spun, got horny, and the kid walked in at the wrong time.

Meth can do some nasty things to a persons moral perspective. There was another case a few years back where a meth junkie got really wired, raped his 10 year old daughter, and then blew his own head off when he came down and realized what he had just done. Meth can kick impulse control right out the window.

I don't like to give too much credence to unconfirmed rumors, but the theory fits. We'll have to wait and see if meth use is confirmed by the police at some point.

[yardwork]

28. Child pornography sounds like the likeliest explanation right now.

[Odin2005]

30. Fry this sick fuck.

And before I get a lecture I have a good friend who was raped a few days ago so I'm in no mood for people defending these fucks. :grr:

[Brooklyns_Finest]

32. 4 hour interrogation

The cops are not interested in charging the wrong person. She was interrogated for 4 hours. I have been on the hot seat in an interrogation room (yeah, don't ask, I was young and dumb,lol). Unless she is a stone cold liar, I don't see her being able to cover for anyone.

[varkam]

35. It's pretty well documented that such marathon interrogation sessions produce false confessions.

Esp. if they happened to be using coercive techniques and denied her access to counsel.

[paulsby]

45. very rarely

but yes, sometimes it happens.

i've been trained in reid, advanced reid, and other techniques.

not to mention that we don't know what stuff she admitted to that would corroborate her confession (things only somebody who was there/committed the crime) would know, etc.

[varkam]

48. Even if she said things only the killer would know...

that might depend on whether or not the cops were feeding her that information. False confessions happen more often than you might think - and sometimes with devastating consequences (you get an innocent person going to prison while the actual perpetrator is still at large - not a good situation).

[Spazito]

33. I am beyond horrified, I have no words n/t

[Dappleganger]

36. dp

dp

[Dappleganger]

37. Yes it happens.

It happened to me as a child so it could happen to anyone. Just because it was a woman makes it no different. There are evil people everywhere.
I grew up trusting no one.

[shanti]

42. i'm so sorry...

:hug:

[Yavin4]

39. I Wish That DAs Wouldn't Comment on a Case Until Its Resolution

It's a stupid tatic. It does not work, and it's unfair to the victim and the defendant. Try the case. Present your evidence. Get a verdict. Then make statements.

Grandstanding before the media serves no purpose at all.

[varkam]

41. I think we should handle it the way the EU does.

In that, generally speaking, names of the accused are not released until they are proven guilty - kind of helps the whole presumption of innocence thing along.

[Blackhatjack]

43. IF I had to guess I would surmise more than one person was involved ....

The facts released in to the public, and the information not yet disclosed, would tend to indicate the possibility that more than one person was involved in the little girl's death and disposal of her body.

Another annoying aspect of this case... she gave at least 3 different versions of her story to investigators in one extended session of interrogation.

This after she brought the attention to herself by reporting that her suitcase had been outside and was stolen. The same suitcase in which the body was found.

There there is the note which included 'water'.

This case has too many unanswered questions to fit neatly into a one person scenario with a same sex act incorporated into a murder, that occurred over a short time frame.

[pengillian101]

44. How could a woman do that to a little girl?

I really have a hard time believing it. A woman molesting, raping and killing her daughter's little girlfriend is just beyond belief.

*IF* she did it, she must be totally nuts or was drugged out of her mind.

So sad.

[JeanGrey]

46. God almighty

[carlyhippy]

47. Good God on a skateboard, what the hell is the matter with people anymore?!

This is just too bizarre, those poor parents of that child, what they are having to go through.