CrimeWatch

TRACY (CBS 5 / AP) ― Several thousand people gathered Thursday afternoon to remember an 8-year-old Tracy girl who most only knew as a smiling face on search flyers but who, in the 10 days between her disappearance and the discovery of her body, became everyone's child.

"This little girl, Sandra, in two weeks became much more than a little girl who lived down the street in a town in California," said Tracy Police Chief Janet Thiessen. "Sandra Cantu became our little girl, a child whose spirits touched us as we searched for her and prayed for her safe return."

Many among the 2,600 who attended the service in the West High School gymnasium, some wearing T-shirts with Sandra's face, wiped tears from their eyes as family members and community leaders remembered an exuberant, loving second-grader who screamed with joy when she rode the Matterhorn roller coaster at Disneyland and enjoyed skipping down the city's streets.

Images of Sandra marking the milestones of an 8-year-old graduating from preschool, blowing out birthday candles, opening Christmas presents played on two screens.

"She had arms of an angel gently giving you a hug," said Sandra's aunt, Angie Chavez, reading a poem she wrote from a lectern behind a large portrait of Sandra. "When she told you I love you, on your heart she would tug."

Chavez spoke on behalf of the family, thanking supporters for their help in the massive 10-day search for the girl, who went missing March 27, and the outpouring of sympathy in the days after her body was found. Sandra's relatives, including her mother and sisters, lined the front row of the auditorium, holding each other and crying at times.

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and state Attorney General Jerry Brown also spoke at the event, where an overflow crowd of more than 600 people watched the ceremony on a screen in the school's cafeteria and listened to it through speakers on the football field.

The discovery of Sandra's body in a suitcase pulled from an irrigation pond near her home last week shocked residents in the small city of Tracy, as did the discovery that a local Sunday school teacher, whose daughter was a playmate of Sandra's, was accused of the murder.

Melissa Huckaby, 28, who lived just a few doors down from Sandra's family in the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park, was arraigned Tuesday on charges that she kidnapped, raped and murdered the child.

"For this time, lay down your judgment, your bitterness, your rage, so that our remembrance is done in love and dignity," Tracy police chaplain Don Higgins told the crowd. "And in so doing, we can begin to take the first steps of healing and renewing our strength together."

Mayor Brent Ives said life in Tracy would go on, but not as it had before.
 
"A good community is like a family, and I think that we'll always feel the loss of our little girl," Ives said. "Most of us didn't know her, but we all can relate to her."

"The community will forever be changed, different," he continued. "Hopefully, very keenly aware of the evil in this world and cautious and wiser, trusting yet verifying, but definitely stronger as a community as we watch over one another and one another's children."

Thursday's memorial also was emotional for the Tracy police, FBI and other law enforcement officers who took part in the investigation.

"Everyone who worked on the case had an emotional attachment," police Sgt. Tony Sheneman said after the service. "Even when you're told to remain professionally detached, we're all human."

Dominic Griego, 35, a cousin of Sandra's mother, brought his 6-year-old daughter to the service and said "seeing so many people here makes it easier to cope."

Griego added: "I'm hoping justice will prevail. We have a very long process ahead." 

Cantu's gruesome death has shocked and terrified residents in Tracy, a Central Valley community of about 78,000 people.

Several dozen people, including family, friends and some police officers who had worked on the case, gathered Wednesday afternoon for a private funeral for Sandra. A horse-drawn carriage then carried the casket to the Tracy Mausoleum.

(Editor's note: The family said donations in Sandra's memory may be sent to the Carole Sund/ Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation, 301 Downey Ave., Modesto, CA 95354.)

The criminal complaint filed against Huckaby on Tuesday included no details about how or why Huckaby may have killed the little girl, whose body was found April 6 stuffed in a suitcase that was pulled from an irrigation pond about two miles from her home.

Huckaby told CBS 5 in a phone interview shortly before her arrest that the suitcase containing Sandra's body belonged to her. Police confirmed that claim.

In addition, sources close to the investigation told CBS News that the girl was killed inside the church where Huckaby taught Sunday school - and that Huckaby tried to committ suicide following the girl's slaying.

Huckaby was enrolled in a court-ordered mental health program at the time authorities claim she kidnapped, raped and killed the girl.

But to succeed with an insanity defense, Huckaby will need to show that she truly did not know what she allegedly did was wrong. That scenario could be especially difficult to prove, experts said, if prosecutors can show she deliberately hid Sandra's body by putting it in the suitcase and dumping it in a pond.

"She might be extraordinarily mentally ill but still legally responsible for the crime," said Loyola University criminal law professor Laurie Levenson.

Huckaby remained jailed without bail Thursday, charged with one count of murder with three special circumstances: kidnapping, rape with a foreign object and lewd or lascivious conduct with a child under 14.

Huckaby's attorneys are likely to raise the question of whether she is mentally competent to assist in her defense and stand trial, legal analysts said. That determination will hinge on psychiatric evaluations and her mental health history, including use of medications.

Huckaby's family has said she would sometimes become depressed as she struggled with the challenges of single motherhood and finding and holding a job.

After Huckaby was arrested in November and charged with burglary and petty theft from a store, records show that the judge suspended the case and appointed a doctor to assess Huckaby's mental health. Court records did not indicate what led to that decision.

Based on the doctor's report, the court found Huckaby competent to stand trial. In a deal with prosecutors, she pleaded no contest in January to the petty theft charge and the burglary charge was dropped.

The court sentenced Huckaby to three years probation and ordered her to participate in a county mental health program for a year. But records show she failed to appear at a scheduled April 3 hearing a week after Sandra's disappearance for a progress report on her participation in the program. The hearing was rescheduled for this Friday.

If Huckaby is declared competent to stand trial on the murder charge, experts said her attorneys will face a steep climb to prove insanity.

The insanity defense relies on showing that the defendant was mentally unable to distinguish between right and wrong at the time of the crime.

"Hiding the body shows you knew what you were doing was wrong," Levenson said.

Police said they believe Sandra was killed shortly after she went missing March 27, and her body was found 10 days later stuffed in the suitcase discovered by farmworkers draining an irrigation pond.

Prosecutors may try to prove that Huckaby also had the presence of mind to create a cover story, Levenson said. Police reinterviewed Huckaby and arrested her after investigators said she made inconsistent statements.

Regardless of the evidence, convincing any jury of insanity in a child-killing case is difficult, said Sacramento defense attorney William Portanova, a former state and federal prosecutor.

Jurors are likely to believe that anyone who murders a child is "crazy" but should not escape punishment on that basis alone, Portanova said. Such a sentiment, he said, is especially likely to hold true in California's conservative Central Valley.

"You're talking about salt of the earth jurors who are not impressed with lawyers spinning on behalf of killers," Portanova said.

The defense also might find itself fighting to discredit any confession, experts said.

Although police have not said Huckaby confessed, they described her as "resigned" during questioning before she was arrested.

A confession loses its credibility if an attorney can show the suspect was mentally disturbed at the time, Portanova said.

"For all you know, you're dealing with somebody who is delusional," he said.

If Huckaby is convicted, experts said, her mental health history and the apparent absence of a violent criminal background would make it less likely that she receives the death penalty. Still, they said the heinousness of the alleged crime could trump all other factors.

"Even without a bad background, the details of an individual case can be so bad that the jury would impose the death penalty," Portanova said.


Sandra's burial came a day after her alleged killer, 28-year-old Melissa Huckaby, was arraigned on a murder charge with the special circumstances of kidnapping and sexual assault. The woman lived down the street from the Cantu family and is the mother of one of Sandra's playmates.

The criminal complaint filed against Huckaby on Tuesday included no details about how or why Huckaby may have killed the little girl, whose body was found April 6 stuffed in a suitcase that was pulled from an irrigation pond about two miles from her home.

Huckaby told CBS 5 in a phone interview shortly before her arrest that the suitcase containing Sandra's body belonged to her. Police confirmed that claim.

In addition, sources close to the investigation told CBS News that the girl was killed inside the church where Huckaby taught Sunday school - and that Huckaby tried to committ suicide following the girl's slaying.

Huckaby was enrolled in a court-ordered mental health program at the time authorities claim she kidnapped, raped and killed the girl.

But to succeed with an insanity defense, Huckaby will need to show that she truly did not know what she allegedly did was wrong. That scenario could be especially difficult to prove, experts said, if prosecutors can show she deliberately hid Sandra's body by putting it in the suitcase and dumping it in a pond.

"She might be extraordinarily mentally ill but still legally responsible for the crime," said Loyola University criminal law professor Laurie Levenson.

Huckaby remained jailed without bail Thursday, charged with one count of murder with three special circumstances: kidnapping, rape with a foreign object and lewd or lascivious conduct with a child under 14.

Huckaby's attorneys are likely to raise the question of whether she is mentally competent to assist in her defense and stand trial, legal analysts said. That determination will hinge on psychiatric evaluations and her mental health history, including use of medications.

Huckaby's family has said she would sometimes become depressed as she struggled with the challenges of single motherhood and finding and holding a job.

After Huckaby was arrested in November and charged with burglary and petty theft from a store, records show that the judge suspended the case and appointed a doctor to assess Huckaby's mental health. Court records did not indicate what led to that decision.

Based on the doctor's report, the court found Huckaby competent to stand trial. In a deal with prosecutors, she pleaded no contest in January to the petty theft charge and the burglary charge was dropped.

The court sentenced Huckaby to three years probation and ordered her to participate in a county mental health program for a year. But records show she failed to appear at a scheduled April 3 hearing a week after Sandra's disappearance for a progress report on her participation in the program. The hearing was rescheduled for this Friday.

If Huckaby is declared competent to stand trial on the murder charge, experts said her attorneys will face a steep climb to prove insanity.

The insanity defense relies on showing that the defendant was mentally unable to distinguish between right and wrong at the time of the crime.

"Hiding the body shows you knew what you were doing was wrong," Levenson said.

Police said they believe Sandra was killed shortly after she went missing March 27, and her body was found 10 days later stuffed in the suitcase discovered by farmworkers draining an irrigation pond.

Prosecutors may try to prove that Huckaby also had the presence of mind to create a cover story, Levenson said. Police reinterviewed Huckaby and arrested her after investigators said she made inconsistent statements.

Regardless of the evidence, convincing any jury of insanity in a child-killing case is difficult, said Sacramento defense attorney William Portanova, a former state and federal prosecutor.

Jurors are likely to believe that anyone who murders a child is "crazy" but should not escape punishment on that basis alone, Portanova said. Such a sentiment, he said, is especially likely to hold true in California's conservative Central Valley.

"You're talking about salt of the earth jurors who are not impressed with lawyers spinning on behalf of killers," Portanova said.

The defense also might find itself fighting to discredit any confession, experts said.

Although police have not said Huckaby confessed, they described her as "resigned" during questioning before she was arrested.

A confession loses its credibility if an attorney can show the suspect was mentally disturbed at the time, Portanova said.

"For all you know, you're dealing with somebody who is delusional," he said.

If Huckaby is convicted, experts said, her mental health history and the apparent absence of a violent criminal background would make it less likely that she receives the death penalty. Still, they said the heinousness of the alleged crime could trump all other factors.

"Even without a bad background, the details of an individual case can be so bad that the jury would impose the death penalty," Portanova said.

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