CrimeWatch

TRACY (CBS 5) ― The Sunday school teacher accused with raping and murdering an 8-year-old Tracy girl attempted suicide days before her arrest in the case, CBS News has learned.

Melissa Huckaby was hospitalized after swallowing three X-Acto knife blades, sources told CBS News. She remained under jail suicide watch Wednesday after being formally charged Tuesday with kidnapping, raping and murdering her daughter's playmate, Sandra Cantu.
 
In a text message Huckaby sent to CBS 5 on the night of her arrest, she had denied trying to take her own life: "And no I was not in the hospital for suicide attempt. LOL."

Huckaby, 28, appeared in a San Joaquin County courtroom for her arraignment in a red jumpsuit and shackles. She trembled and cried as a judge read the charges: murder with the special circumstances of rape with a foreign object, lewd or lascivious conduct with a child under 14, and murder in the course of a kidnapping.

The special circumstances mean Huckaby, if convicted, could face life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty, though District Attorney James Willett said he hasn't decided whether to seek the death penalty.

Huckaby has been ordered to return to court on April 24, when she is expected to enter a plea.

By that time, Huckaby will have undergone a medical evaluation - suggesting a possible strategy for her defense: claiming insanity.
 
Huckaby has a pre-existing mental health diagnosis; which may play a major part of her defense, said Peter Fox, San Joaquin County Public Defender.

"If you want the truth, you have to involve her mental state," Fox told CBS 5.

Fox did not elaborate on the diagnosis nor the medication the accused murderer is receiving in jail for that condition.

"I've presided over cases over 20 years and I have never come across an incident where a situation where you have a woman, a mom, and apparently a good mom charged with this kind of offense," said Judge Ladoris Cordell, CBS 5's legal analyst. "

Cordell said a murder and sexual assault involving a woman is "highly, highly rare, so if there's an explanation and it has to do with a medical condition, I'd be very interested to find in what kind of medical condition she has that would lead her to do this."

At Huckaby's arraignment Tuesday, deputy public defender Ellen Schwarzenberg asked the judge for a medication evaluation for Huckaby. Fox said the request is a reminder to the jail that Huckaby needs her medicine.

Schwarzenberg also represented Huckaby in a recent unrelated theft case during which Huckaby claimed she was not mentally competent to stand trial.

Two psychiatrists determined that she was indeed mentally competent, and Huckaby subsequently pleaded guilty. She was sentenced to probation, along with a condition that she receive mental health treatment.

Some experts think Huckaby's actions leading up to her murder arrest would complicate any insanity defense.

"This is a suspect who made numerous efforts to cover up her previous remarks and those are the kind of things that make an insanity plea harder," said Dr. Michael Welner, a forensic psychiatrist and chairman of The Forensic Panel. "She had communication with media and other people that was rational to them. That may get in the way of some of what she's doing."

Schwarzenberg will not represent Huckaby in the future. Fox said another lawyer in the Public Defender's office will be chosen within the next several days.

Schwarzenberg also asked the judge for a gag order in the murder case on Tuesday, but the judge did not immediately rule on the request. "I do not want to add to the publicity tsunami," Fox said, acknowledging that a gag order would help keep the case in San Joaquin County and possibly avoid a change of venue.

"It's inconvenient," Fox said. "It's a drag having to live in another town during the course of a trial."

Huckaby was a volunteer Sunday school teacher at the Clover Road Baptist Church in Tracy, where her grandfather is pastor.

Police returned Tuesday evening to search the church, as well as Huckaby's home, a few doors down from Sandra's in the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park.

Police had searched the church, interviewed Huckaby's grandfather, Pastor Clifford Lawless, and taken items from the family's home in the days after Sandra's body was found. Huckaby lived with her grandparents.

At a Tuesday evening news conference, Tracy police Sgt. Tony Sheneman would not say why police returned to the church and home or what, if anything, they had taken. But he said police were continuing to investigate Huckaby, who they believe acted alone.

The slaying had already aroused fear among parents in Tracy and especially in the mobile home complex. Not only did Huckaby and Sandra live near each other, Sandra was also a close friend of Huckaby's daughter. So, the rape allegation has heightened concern for children.

Police were now advising parents to report any information they may have regarding other possible sexual assaults in the community.

"What we're asking is for the public, if they have any indication that any of their children may have had inappropriate contact with Miss Huckaby, to contact us," Sheneman told reporters.

Sandra disappeared March 27, and was last seen on a surveillance camera skipping outside the mobile home park.

A 10-day search by law enforcement and the community ended on April 6, when farm workers draining an irrigation pond a few miles away from the mobile home complex found the suitcase containing Sandra's body.

Police have said Sandra was found wearing the same clothes she had on when she was last seen: a pink "Hello Kitty" T-shirt and black leggings. Authorities have not said how or why she was killed, and the coroner's office has said autopsy results are pending.

The court complaint said the murder happened "on or about" March 27 and occured "with malice of forethought," but gave no other details. Sources close to the investigation have told CBS News that the murder occured inside the church.

Huckaby was arrested last weekend after what police said were inconsistencies in her story during hours of questioning.

She had told CBS 5 in a phone interview that the suitcase in which Sandra's body was found was hers, but that it had been stolen the day Sandra went missing.

Huckaby's family has described her as a loving mother who had a strong religious background and wouldn't hurt anyone.

Relatives visited Huckaby at San Joaquin County Jail on Monday night, where she has been under observation. That was the first time they had seen her since her arrest.

Huckaby's father, Brian Lawless, said the family cried and prayed together during the visit.

"She's not getting much sleep but in spite of all that that she looks good," he said afterwards. "We're in shock ... The young lady I see on film, that's not my daughter."

A public memorial service was scheduled for Sandra in Tracy on Thursday at 1 p.m. at Merrill F. West High School.

Her family held a private funeral Wednesday for the girl. Several dozen people gathered for the noontime service at Fry Memorial Chapel. A horse-drawn carriage then carried the casket to the Tracy Mausoleum for burial.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)