STOCKTON - A criminal grand jury concluded its deliberations Friday afternoon in the case of Melissa Huckaby, a Tracy woman accused in the kidnapping, rape and murder of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu.The grand jury's decision to indict her - or not - will remain secret unless Huckaby, 28, is brought back to court for arraignment. The indictment would take the place of charges San Joaquin County prosecutors filed against her after her April 10 arrest.
Huckaby's next hearing before San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Linda Lofthus is scheduled for Sept. 8.
For the past two weeks, witnesses have been called to testify before the grand jury. If they return an indictment, the case will next go to a trial in open court.
Huckaby is charged with slaying Sandra on March 27, the day the girl vanished. Huckaby and Sandra were both residents of Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park in Tracy. Farm workers found the girl's body 10 days later in a suitcase two miles north of town.
Huckaby's case was set for a September preliminary hearing. If the grand jury issues an indictment, the preliminary hearing won't be held, and key details of the case will remain out of the public's knowledge.
A judge's gag order has kept investigators and prosecutors from explaining a possible motive for the killing and how Sandra died. Legal experts have suggested prosecutors took it to a grand jury, where proceedings are always secret, to quiet the public interest in an attempt to prevent moving the trial out of San Joaquin County.
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