Sandra Cantu Media Releases

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Sandra Cantu's family files motion to uphold gag order

May 20, 2010

STOCKTON, CA (AP) -- A lawyer for the family of an 8-year-old Tracy girl killed by her playmate's mother are seeking to stop details of her slaying from being released.

The family of Sandra Cantu opposes lifting the gag order in the case. Their lawyer says in a motion filed Thursday that the release of murder details would be "not only morally reprehensible but unconstitutional."

The motion also seeks to keep under seal any documents related to examinations of the victim's body and crime scene photographs.

A San Joaquin County judge maintained the gag order after Melissa Huckaby pleaded guilty to murder and kidnapping last week.

The Associated Press, Bay Area News Group and The Record of Stockton have sought to lift the order, citing public interest.

Huckaby's sentencing is scheduled for June 14.

http://www.news10.net/news/local/sto...=81829&catid=2

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Sandra Cantu's Mom Doesn't Want Death Details Released

Andria Borba FOX40 News May 25, 2010

TRACY —

In a five-page document filed in San Joaquin County Superior Court, Maria Chavez begged Judge Linda Lofthus to keep the gag order in her daughter's murder in place.

"Whenever we see or hear about the heinous crimes which took the dignity and life of our beloved Sandra, we will have nightmares when we think about how she must have spent the last few minutes and seconds of her life," Chavez said in her deposition.

On Monday, the judge upheld the gag order, but promised to re-visit the issue after Melissa Huckaby is sentenced next month. Boni Driskill, a victim's rights advocate says Chavez would like to see court documents included in the restrictions. "The family would like to have them sealed indefinitely," says Driskill.

Attorneys for Sandra's family argued that Marsy's law, a 2008 expansion of the Victim's Bill of Rights allows for that happen.

Ruth Jones, a law professor at McGeorge Law School says not so fast.

"It's not clearly articulated that victims have the right to foreclose the public from seeing waht are otherwise public documents," says Jones.

Typically, post-sentencing, gag orders are lifted, despite often vocal objection from the victim's family. "So, the question in this case is does the privacy, the feelings, the anguish, the grief overcome the right of the public to know what goes on in criminal cases."

In her deposition, Chavez said she feels the family has suffered enough.

"Sandra's death and the details that have been made public to date have truly traumatized all of us. I cannot imagine the trauma and horror that my children will experience if any crime scene photographs of Sandra are released," said Chavez.

Jones, says though, lifting the gag order is not necessarily an all or nothing proposition and that the photos Chavez is so worried about could remain sealed.

"The judge could release certain documents, could put certain restrictions on documents," says Jones.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/...,7857686.story

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Sandra Cantu Gag Order Will Remain in Place

Andria Borba FOX40 News May 24, 2010

A bored Melissa Huckaby propped her head in her hand and drummed her fingers on the defense table as lawyers argued about whether to lift the gag order that's been looming over the Sandra Cantu case for months now.

After listening to 90 minutes of arguments Judge Linda Lofthus decided to uphold the gag order and re-visit the issue after Huckaby is sentenced on June 14th.

In a surprising reversal of decision, Huckaby's attorney Samuel Behar decided he didn't want the gag order lifted, which differs from court documents FOX40 obtained a few days after Huckaby changed her plea to guilty. The motion to drop the gag order was brought by the Associated Press, Bay Area News Group and the Stockton Record. The motion would have not only allowed both sides to discuss the plea deal Huckaby struck, but also unseal grand jury transcripts and autopsy reports in the case. It's something Sandra's family doesn't want to see happen.

"The family knows what happened, that's all they need to know and that's all we think the media needs to know," said Cantu family attorney Arch Bakerink.

Judge Lofthus says her decision was partially based on the 2008 Victim's Bill of Rights, also known as Marcy's Law. The law protects the victims of violent crime, but Monday morning attorneys argued it also extends to victim's family members who want to keep documents out of the public eye. Marcy's Law hasn't faced a real legal test yet, but this likely could be the first one. Either way, victim's rights advocates are pleased with Judge Lofthus' decision. They claim keeping the gruesome details of Sandra's death out of the hands of journalists and off the internet, where they'd be available for instant mass distribution is the only way to protect the Cantu family.

"The family would like to have them sealed indefinitely. What purpose would it serve other than to hurt this family more? What purpose would it serve?," said Boni Driskill of advocacy group Wings of Protection.

Attorney Duffy Carolan, who represents the newspapers behind today's motion, says Marcy's Law doesn't extend to victim's families and was not meant to seal documents from the public forever.

"I am not aware of a case where family members of violent crimes have been able to seal court records after a guilty plea and after sentencing," said attorney Duffy Carolan.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/...,2576684.story

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Melissa Huckaby's parents speak out for first time on NBC's 'Today'

By Sophia Kazmi
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 07/02/2010 11:25:48 AM PDT
Updated: 07/02/2010 02:21:11 PM PDT

Melissa Huckaby's parents did not see any signs that their 29-year-old daughter could kidnap and kill a child, they said in a live interview Friday on NBC's "Today."

"We are so baffled," Huckaby's mother, Judy Lawless, told "Today" host Matt Lauer. "There was no warning signs. She's never, ever, you know, displayed any kind of anger issues."

Huckaby, a former Tracy Sunday school teacher, was sentenced last month to life in prison without the possibility of parole for kidnapping and killing her 8-year-old neighbor, Sandra Cantu.

Lawless said she has since gone through many emotions, including anger at her daughter, "for the destruction" she caused.

Huckaby has struggled with emotional issues since reportedly being raped by a police officer when she was 19. The details surrounding the claim remain unknown.

As a result, said Brian Lawless, Huckaby's father, she never got the mental health treatment she needed. Whenever she was admitted into a facility, she would tell the doctor it was "just a bad moment." The doctor would write it off and release her.

"She was very good at covering things up," he said.

Huckaby has since been diagnosed bipolar schizophrenic.

Sandra disappeared March 27, 2009. A massive search for the second-grader ensued, capturing the attention of national news media. Ten days later, the girl's body was found stuffed in a black suitcase in an irrigation pond about two miles from the mobile home park where she and Huckaby lived. An autopsy showed she had been drugged and sexually assaulted.

Investigators first noticed Huckaby the day after Sandra's disappearance, when she told them she found a misspelled note on the ground saying Sandra was locked in a stolen suitcase thrown in the water, and that her suitcase had disappeared the same day as Sandra.

Other circumstantial evidence — including items found at the church where Huckaby taught Sunday school and where her grandfather was the pastor — eventually made her Tracy police's prime suspect. On the night of April 10, 2009, a crying Huckaby broke down and told police Sandra death's was an accident. She was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and killing the child.

Her aunt, Joni Hughes, told Lauer that she spoke with her niece after the sentencing, and that Huckaby cried "a lot."

"She feels so terrible for what she's done," Hughes said.

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_15429166