In Loving Memory Of Sandra Cantu

Описание: Softly crying, her feet chained and her hands shackled to her waist, Melissa Huckaby was arraigned Tuesday on charges that she kidnapped, raped and murdered 8-year-old Sandra Cantu of Tracy - allegations that could send her to the death chamber.

Huckaby, 28, shuffled into San Joaquin County Court in Stockton just before 1 p.m., the first time she had been seen in public since her arrest last week. Her lower lip quivered while she stood waiting for the proceeding to begin. Then she regained composure briefly.

But as Judge Richard Vlavianos read off the key charge, Huckaby broke down.

The judge read that she "did willfully and unlawfully and intentionally and with malice aforethought murder Sandra Cantu, a human being," and as the words left his lips, Huckaby wept quietly and closed her eyes.

She cried again as the judge read off the charge of "rape by instrument."

The only time Huckaby spoke was to say, almost inaudibly, "Yes," when asked if she wanted to be represented by a public defender. She did not enter a plea.

The hearing lasted just four minutes, after which Huckaby - by now looking morose and worn - was led by bailiffs out the same side door through which she entered. The next court hearing was scheduled for April 24.

Deputy Public Defender Ellen Schwarzenberg asked the judge for a gag order on all parties in the case, which would prevent them from talking publicly. The judge did not immediately rule on the request.

Huckaby is accused of killing Sandra after the girl went to her house to play with Huckaby's 5-year-old daughter March 27. Sandra was dead before her parents knew she was missing, investigators say. The criminal complaint filed Tuesday gave no details of how she was killed.

The girl's disappearance triggered a 10-day search throughout Northern California. Her body was found in a suitcase 2 miles away on April 6 by farmworkers draining an irrigation pond. Huckaby told a reporter for the Tracy Press before her arrest that the suitcase was hers, but had been stolen out of her driveway.