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New Charges: Melissa Huckaby Drugged People
Paul Sakuma / AP Photo
The Sandra Cantu murder case takes another twist, reports Jennifer Wadsworth—who helped crack the case—as her alleged killer is charged with drugging a 7-year-old and a man she may have dated.
A shackled Melissa Huckaby appeared in court for a few minutes on Friday, facing new charges that she poisoned a man and a 7-year-old girl.
The 28-year-old woman already stands accused of kidnapping, raping, and murdering 8-year-old Tracy, California, girl Sandra Cantu, who went missing on March 27 before farmworkers 10 days later found her lifeless body stuffed in a suitcase. On Thursday, the story took a turn for the strange when prosecutors added allegations that Huckaby also drugged two people: a man who may have been her ex-boyfriend, and one of her 5-year-old daughter’s playmates. Together, the litany of felonies could lock up Huckaby for life or land her on death row if she’s convicted.
It’s hard to know what to make of the new allegations. A sweeping gag order prevents anyone officially involved in the case from talking about it to the public and the media. But it does beg the question of whether police botched an earlier investigation into whether Huckaby had drugged a young child as many as two-and-a-half months before Sandra Cantu’s murder. Police said they had too little evidence, but prosecutors apparently have enough to press formal charges.
Polk hugged her daughter, then took her to get some dinner at a local fast-food joint. But on the way there, the girl started slumping over.
What we now know is that prosecutors believe Huckaby on March 2 drugged a 36-year-old man named Daniel Plowman, who lives in Hayward, a town about 40 miles west of Tracy. It was late that night when she allegedly mixed “a harmful substance with food or drink with the intent that the same be taken by a human being,” according to the amended criminal complaint file this week. Hours later, at about 1:30 a.m. the next day, Plowman was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence. He had pulled his car into the drive-through of a McDonald’s about five minutes away from Huckaby’s mobile home. He ordered some food and paid for it just before passing out on the wheel, according to an employee who called police about the incident. When he came to, still disoriented, he drove into a wall. Police showed up and towed his gold-colored Ford Tempo. They took him into custody, but later released him and never pressed charges. I couldn’t track Plowman down for comment, but I heard from neighbors that he dated Huckaby for a while.
Two months earlier, Huckaby allegedly took her 5-year-old daughter Madison’s playmate out “to the park.” They were gone for four hours, the girl’s mother, Lora Polk, 41, told me. So Polk called the police, who searched everywhere, but the search ended when Huckaby appeared back at Polk’s home and dropped the girl off.
Relieved, Polk hugged her daughter, then took her to get some dinner at a local fast-food joint. But on the way there, the girl started slumping over. She slurred her words.
“Something wasn’t right,” Polk said. “So I rushed her to the hospital.”
Polk nervously waited in the lobby at the nearby hospital for doctors to come back with the results. About five hours after Polk admitted her daughter, she says doctors told her they found benzodiazepine coursing through the little girl’s body. They called the police, who questioned Polk, who accused her of supplying the pills to her daughter but evidently ended the night without an arrest.
Huckaby had said that the cops questioned her in connection to that case. And Polk offered for detectives to search her own home. But police said they just couldn’t form a strong enough case to file charges against anyone. Polk said they called her up after Sandra Cantu’s disappearance to express their regrets that they couldn’t have resolved the mysterious drugging incident back then. Cops didn’t even test the 7-year-old girl for signs of sexual assault until after Huckaby’s arrest—months after the suspect allegedly took the child, who said Huckaby gave her water that “tasted funny,” “like medicine,” said her mother.
This week, it became clear that whatever evidence prosecutors found against Huckaby in regards to the drugging incident was enough to file an amended complaint
In court on Friday, Huckaby appeared calm. She smiled once and said “yes” when the judge asked if she understood why the arraignment was delayed until June 12. Huckaby’s public defender Sam Behar asked for more time to review fresh evidence, including some collected from a personal computer, some from a silver Cadillac, and about 1,000 pages of transcripts pertaining to the case.
Some of Sandra Cantu’s family looked on, clad in black T-shirts emblazoned with a picture of the smiling fifth-grader and white letters that spelled “Justice for Sandra.” A bailiff made them turn their shirts inside out, to avoid breaking a state law that bans signs and messages in the courtroom supporting one side or the other in a court case.
Huckaby, clad in her red jailhouse jumpsuit, shuffled out just a few minutes after she entered, stealing a glance from her family, who sat toward the front of the tiny courtroom. Huckaby’s demeanor in court Friday—her third appearance since her April 10 arrest—came once again as a stark contrast to her initial arraignment last month, when she broke down crying, wrinkling her face to unsuccessfully fight back tears when the judge read the words “murder” and “rape.”
The emotionally troubled single mother was then on suicide watch at the San Joaquin County Jail because she tried to kill herself days before her arrest. The day word got out that police got their hands on her black Eddie Bauer suitcase April 6, Huckaby swallowed three razor blades, her ex-husband later told an Orange County judge. She was rushed to the hospital, where she later told me that doctors treated her for internal bleeding. I pressed for more information the day after she was released—incidentally, just hours before her arrest—but she refused to elaborate. Today, she’s still locked up in solitary confinement.
And as new evidence and new charges further delay the case, questions about motive and method remain unanswered. The presiding judge has a history of sealing documents related to the case, in part, she said, to avoid angering the public. But at least one person is already angry. Polk, a weathered single mom who admittedly struggles with drug and alcohol problems, said police should have done more when they first heard about how her daughter got drugged. She said she wants to know what stopped them. Other people may be wondering the same thing.
Jennifer Wadsworth is a reporter for the Tracy Press in Tracy, California, where she writes about schools, politics, and crime.
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Martin Jacques is the cofounder of the UK think tank Demos, writes a regular column for The Guardian, and is a visiting research fellow at the London School of Economics Asia Research Centre. His new book, When China Rules the World, is available now.
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Christopher Buckley's books include Supreme Courtship, The White House Mess, Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, and Florence of Arabia. He was chief speechwriter for Vice President George H.W. Bush, and is editor-at-large of ForbesLife magazine. His new book is Losing Mum and Pup, a memoir. Buckley's Daily Beast column is the winner of an Online Journalism Award in the category of Online Commentary.
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Jennifer Wadsworth is a reporter for the Tracy Press in Tracy, California, where she writes about schools, politics, and crime.
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Jennifer Wadsworth is a reporter for the Tracy Press in Tracy, California, where she writes about schools, politics, and crime.
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Jennifer Wadsworth is a reporter for the Tracy Press in Tracy, California, where she writes about schools, politics, and crime.
This is a very sad, sad story, and this Huckaby character is obviously a very sad, and troubled individual. What gets me, though, is why we, as a society need to keep people like this from committing suicide.
Years ago, a co-worker of mine in the insurance biz in S.F. shot his wife to death and then killed himself. Society was deprived of any sense of closure, and felt somehow cheated that he had ended both lives so suddenly.
That story erupted on the front pages, and then disappeared from the public consciousness. Now we have another tragic tale, and for some reason we need to go to extraordinary lengths to protect the life of someone, who along with all of society, would benefit by that life ending.
Is it a vicarious need for revenge? I do not understand it, even though feeling it myself. But it shows up again and again, even in the ongoing debate about whether waterboarding is torture.
If we, as a species, can ever resolve this issue, perhaps we could actually make some progress.
I am not a Christian but I have always wondered how some who are can justify condoning the death penalty.
Are there any 'ifs' or 'well, ok, in that case you can do it' after the proclamation 'Thou Shalt Not Kill'? Isn't that statement difinitive in its intent?
And there are those who rally against abortion while rallying for the death penalty... how's that for oxymoronic?
The supposed conundrum lies in the misleading term "pro-life" for those who are really just "anti-abortion" or "fetus worshippers." As somebody was quoted the other day in comments to another blog (and I'm sorry I don't remember the source): "They think life begins at conception and ends at birth."
You're absolutely right about abortion and the death penalty. The death penalty is way too humane for the worst criminals. Tim McVey was allowed to die with a shot in the arm after killing and maiming 100's of people. However, when someone who is suffering from a terminal disease is denied the right to die peacefully like Tim McVey, I find that to be oxymoronic......
Isn't it just as oxymoronic to be pro-abortion and against the death penalty??
Pardon the pun, but: Christ, if only life was always so black an white.....
This reporter is among the best in journalism today. Just the facts, ma'am. None of the rank & file yellow journalism smear campaign like Nancy Grace & Jane Valez Mitchell feed upon & broadcast to the masses. Well done, as usual, Ms. Wadsworth.
Masses? As in the masses could be cancerous, but most likely benign.
I believe it's because suicide is seen as an easy out for the criminal...we are a nations of laws
and justice requires that all the facts are known and the perpetrator publicly declared guilty...no perpetrator no capacity to learn the truth, no condemnation...
It would be neglectful to not stop her from killing herself.
Society promotes justice, not criminal acts, that's why we have have trials. If we allowed criminals to committ suicide, they circumvent the penalty for their crimes. Maybe we can agree that stiffer penalties may deter crime. I don't believe the death penalty is appropriate, to me it's another form of suicide and is not a deterrent. As for the waterboarding, the U.S. signed into law along with several other free world countries that torture in any form would be illegal. However as you know the past administration violated that treaty. What did it accomplish? Nothing, but it did tarnish our image of being a humane society. But don't worry, we have a President surrounded with a group of young intelligent scholars that will return us to the respectability we had prior to 2002.
The phrase is that the "RIGHT to life begins at conception but ends at birth." I believe it should be credited to Eleanor Smeal.
I think the phrase is "pro-life ends at birth"/
Deep.
The answer to your question HockeyDog is simple....Why is everyone trying to keep Huckaby from killing herself? People want to see this monster suffer...suicide is too easy of an escape for this beast. There is no method of death suitable for her. She should be made to sit day after day, night after night in a small cell ALONE to think about what she has done until she draws her last breath. In my opinion, occassionally she should be "let out" into the GP to be beat down while the CO's turn their heads. If she did this to my child, I would savor the fact that she would never see the sun shine again. Death is too good for her.
As far as her other 2 victims, there were significant "red flags" in which the authorities were involved. I would be interested in seeing the investigation reports for these 2 incidents....perhaps if the correct questions were asked, Huckaby's involvement would have materialized and poor little Sandra Cantu would still be skipping through the trailer park, visiting her little friends like a child should be doing. Instead, her family/friends that have to relive this nightmare every morning when they wake up; it's the ONLY thought on their minds 24/7 and they most likely can't escape it even in their dreams, if they even sleep at all.
I can tell you right now that the investigations went no further than they did with Jane Doe because her mother is an admitted addict/alcoholic and Plowman, the ex-boyfirend just seemed "drunk". How many times do people pull into a fast food joint stoned or drunk and fall asleep behind the wheel? Nightly I'm sure.
Anyhow, I have strong opinions but as a mother and recent domestic violence survivor, I feel I must speak out when it comes to these topics.
The other victim here is Huckaby's own daughter and family. What do you tell this little girl about why her mom is no longer in her life? How do you protect her when she is teased in school about her murdering mother? Eventually, someone somewhere will find out who she is and what her mother is accused of doing, no matter where she goes. She is destined for a lifetime of her own hell.
Huckaby was clearly establishing a pattern here....January it was Jane Doe, in the beginning of March her ex-boyfriend, then the end of March, Sandra. Have you listened to her cell interview on YouTube with the Channel 5 reporter? She sounds so cocky it is disgusting. From what I heard, it sounds like she is actually flaunting the fact that she actually feels no one will make a connection here!!She also sounds as if she is "helping" in the investigation. Do you remember Jesse Timmendiquas? He helped search for Megan Kanka when she went missing. I lived not 3 minutes from the Kanka's home when this happened. Really sick.....
What can I deduce from this? If she wasn't arrested for Sandra's murder, it would not have been long before another child in that trailer park went missing. Tell me I am wrong!!
I do have to condone the court's efforts in establishing this "gag order". By doing this they are increasing the chances of minimal media exposure so Huckaby and her moral-less defenders cannot blurt out in a desperate plea that they want a "mistrial".
Unfortunately, Florida should have done the same thing with Casey Anthony. It is beyond me how she will get a fair trial in any state or country for that matter. I'm sure this was part of Baezs' plan from the start. It appals me how her evil defense team can even stand within 5 feet of her without vomiting. Her parents and brother should be sent to prison with her. If she is so innocent, why aren't the Anthony's and the police looking for Caylee's "real" murderer? From watching Cindy speak in interviews and interrogations, I can see how her control issues of her family are revealed. She is a pig in the truest sense of the word and George and Lee need to grow a set already.
Whooo !! I'm done - for now.
Nanybug,I read all you wrote and you are right. But there is something that is the core of our systems, and is getting lost with the past year of sensatializing all the cases that are tried in the media. It has to be proven in a court of law.The Nancy Graces, is so nasty,Jane Velez is a nut, The prosecuters must prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. It is not healthy how we prosecute, everyone in the media now days.I believe Casey is totally gulty, but the media circus, can be making a loss for the prosecuters.As for the defense attorneys, I use to think they were scum bags.!!!But our laws make them necessary.!! where would we be without them, the proseutors, police, etc, without check and balances,without oppositions, are worst than those waterboarding,the terrorist.We are lucky to have defense attorneys, and they have to fight for their clients. to the fullest extend of the law.Cindy,s control issue is not the problem.I know many controlling human beings.The problem is, they knew what their daughter had done, and as parents are trying to save her.They do come off as liers, and she comes off as the killer,But where was the body, when it had been looked for the first time by the police,??after the utility man reported it.??it was not found then??did the brother pik it up and hide it.??Who knows, that is for attorneys. I have no problem,that killers like Cassy and this Huckabee woman,when proven guilty,be exeuted.And G-d can take are of them.later.But remember, the law has to work in the courts.We annot be at the mercy of human beings, media,or prosecutors. There are good and bad in all walks of life and all professions.and bad prosecutors and bad police are an injustice for us all.
NannyBug, thank you for replying to my little question with such passion.
I completely understand where you are coming from, as I am a dad. Our specie's innate need for revenge is deeply ingrained.
The thing I was trying to get a handle on, is whether or not we will ever be able to control these inner feelings. Look at the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, for example. The enmity, and hatred on both sides goes back so far with these cultures, each side has no shortage of valid reasons to seek revenge against the other.
Now, we have this Huckaby critter, as despicable a creep as any that has ever graced our media's attention. If, in receiving news reports about her, a complete stranger, we cannot control our need for revenge (albeit vicariously), how in the world would we ever be able to pull the plug on this emotional response?
The cycle of hatred can only be stopped internally, if at all.
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But these are soldiers, and a sick human being got infiltrated. and war always brings rape, hatred but most soldiers do not act like that. All in all we are not perfect, but we are still the best of all.I do not think this sick events should be in the media.They have to be proseuted,but not in the media.We cannot air our dirty laundries in public.This does not justify the wrong, but keep it quiet and punish it.That is not the majority of thye people fighting for our wellfare.
I agree this guy should have gotten the death penalty...and I'm against the death penalty...
primarily because
It is not fairly enforced
but also I don't think the state should turn itself into a murdering Sociopath...
This guy "got off" because he killed "foreigners" no one likes to kill their own soldiers
it's all dispicable
Sometimes police know a suspect, a perpetrator did it, but they haven't the evidence for aarrest or trial.
Sometimes the situation is just so screwed up that they know someone did something, but they have no way of concluding who did what.
But generally, police do the best they can with what they have. Ask any officer of your acquaintance.
They do try.
Sometimes it just isn't enough.
And it is tragic when it isn't.
This is also true. and we are a nation of laws. and when the police,are allowed to go at it,just beause they know it and cannot proove it,they have to abide by that because the good officer wont abuse their positions but many would start to do it. and like in many ountries we would have to fear the police, the law and the politiicans and prosecutors without justice for the individuals.
The police botched this one up big time most likely due to their own prejudice and thinking in "stereotypes." These people live in a trailer park; code for low-life trash. The conclusion was that they're all messed up, low-rent losers. I bet they would have investigated the disappearance and drugging of the first little girl more aggressively if she'd come from a more moneyed environment. If the police had done the job professional law enforcement is supposed to do Sandra Cantu most likely would be alive today.
Well, how could they blame the woman who found her, the grandaughter, of the minister a teacher in the community.??The one who brought the girl back home.Hineside is so easy,!!!!and if you have a drugaddicted and alcoholic mother???who knows what that child is suffering .,and ,unless there was reason to suspect the teacher, it seems like the story of the good semaratin, it would have been a scandal and unjust to acuse her.AND then again maybe they were lazy and incompetent. who knows.That is why many people in this ountry do not get envolved in things because you become the suspect. and carefull if the media gets ahold of it.!!!! They can destroy in 10 minutes a life.I am curious to know if this woman has ever hurt, her own daughter.??Unfortunately a pervert,drug addicts, aloholics,all come in many shapes and forms and hide it,Look at the priests, and they are concidered sexually confused not perverts,pedaphiles, or sickos,and they knew about it among each other and all continue to cover it up.
Everyone should have the right to their beliefs, religion plays a big part in our beliefs, people need their beliefs for themselves, it is alright,BUT they cannot ramm it down others throats, nor become fanatics about it. We are a land of many points of views, belifs,religions,races,and as long as we respet each other ,we are okay.This was very well written journalism.and I believe in an eye for an eye, and anyone who has touhed a child,has to be punished. We dont do it enough to rapist,pedaphiles,priests, we keep on giving chances, until they kill.Once these ladies are found guilty in the court of law, exeute them but every case has to be on a one to one.
This case is terribly sad, but I don't find these articles interesting.
What I do find interesting is the writer's lack of basic English grammar. From clauses that don't relate to the subject and the excessive use of "but" as a connector to misuse of phrases ("beg the question" means to avoid the question, not to raise the question.)
I can see why she writes for some local web news outlet. Is everyone in her generation so inept at writing basic English?
Arrogant jackass...
Don't even have to do much but type it into google:
What is "Begging the Question?"
"Begging the question" is a form of logical fallacy in which a statement or claim is assumed to be true without evidence other than the statement or claim itself. When one begs the question, the initial assumption of a statement is treated as already proven without any logic to show why the statement is true in the first place.
A simple example would be "I think he is unattractive because he is ugly." The adjective "ugly" does not explain why the subject is "unattractive" -- they virtually amount to the same subjective meaning, and the proof is merely a restatement of the premise. The sentence has begged the question.
Everyone here is missing the point (unless I missed a comment)... can't anyone see that this girl that was drugged previous to Cantu was ignored by police because these are not affluent people?
AtomicLaura, please read NannyBug's post above. She also addresses this valid point.
I think you may have missed this discussion amongst all the hyperbolic frenzy in these threads and surrounding this case (it's up-there somewhere and convoluted). I think: Tracy, Trailer-Park, Church Ministry, and Female. And nobody here would think differently in spite of the righteousness expounded above your comment. Thanks AtomLady.
Wonder if she is related to candidate Huckaby? Same religious background! Maybe, someone should be keeping a better eye on old Mike.
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Planned Parenthood most certainly is.
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I wish we could get past the idea that rational people do this stuff and need to be punished for it. The vast majority of people in prison got there because of some degree of mental illness, poverty or both. Perhaps even all persons in jail. This is not a reason to throw the jail doors open. However, it would help if (1) we started addressing the real problem (the illness), and not the symptom (the crime); and (2) started addressing the illness early enough to prevent many of the crimes.
If Huckaby is guilty (and all evidence is that she is), she should be locked away. I just wish it would be somewhere she could be treated and find some meaning in the remainder of her life. For those who would punish her, her actions suggest that you could not devise a more cruel hell than what she has experienced already.
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May the little girl rest in God's care.
This is one sick chick. There is more to this story. People ignored the signs.
Most of us are naive about child porn and the incredibly seedy lives some people live. I wish there was more in-dept reporting so we , and the police can "get real" and do more to get rid of it.
Thank you.
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