Charges added in Tracy case

The Tracy Sunday school teacher accused of slaying an 8-year-old girl has been charged with slipping harmful substances to a 7-year-old girl and a man earlier this year.

Melissa Huckaby, 28, was in court Friday to enter a plea to charges that she raped, kidnapped and murdered Sandra Cantu on March 27. But a San Joaquin County Superior Court judge continued the matter until June 12 after public defender Sam Behar asked for time to review the new charges and more than 1,000 pages of evidence recently provided by the prosecution.

Prosecutors on Thursday filed additional charges, alleging that Huckaby gave a “harmful substance” to a child identified only as “Jane M. Doe” on Jan. 17.

That day, a resident of the trailer park where Huckaby lived had reported her daughter missing. The mother later told police that when Huckaby returned the girl, she had been drugged with a muscle relaxant.

Huckaby was also charged with mixing a harmful substance with food or drink given to Daniel Plowman in early March. The complaint did not further identify the man and did not describe the circumstances or the substance involved.

Outside the courtroom, Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Himmelblau described Plowman as a “victim and a witness” but would not comment further on his connection to Huckaby.

When asked if the new charges were related to the murder case, Himmelblau said, “You can add counts that don’t necessarily relate to the main count if they are the same class of crime or are connected.”

Himmelblau declined to elaborate, citing the gag order in the case.

During the brief session in a packed courtroom, Huckaby sat calmly in a red jail jumpsuit and shackles. She did not speak except to answer “yes” when the judge asked whether she understood that the case was being further delayed.

She is accused of killing Sandra, her daughter’s playmate. Huckaby was also charged with the special circumstances of rape, kidnapping and lewd or lascivious conduct with a child under 14, which could make her eligible for the death penalty upon conviction.

Huckaby was arrested April 10, just days after Sandra’s body was found in a suitcase pulled from an irrigation pond near her home in a Tracy mobile home park.