STOCKTON — Melissa Chantel Huckaby, 28, sobbed today as a judge read the charges against her: Rape, kidnapping, murder.

She entered no pleas and spoke only to say “yes” when the judge asked her if she wanted a public defender.

The Sunday school teacher was arrested Friday night on suspicion of killing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, the Tracy girl who went missing for 10 days before farmworkers found a suitcase in a filthy dairy pond north of town. Inside the suitcase was her lifeless body.

Huckaby, a single mother of a 5-year-old girl who lives five doors down from Sandra, appeared in the San Joaquin County Superior Court today clad in a red jumpsuit, her wrists and ankles chained. For the entire minutes-long arraignment, her lip trembled. Her eyes welled with tears. At times, she closed her eyes as if the accusations were too painful to hear. Sandra’s uncle and aunt, Joe and Angie Chavez, showed no emotion at the proceeding, witnessed by three dozen reporters and about 70 other onlookers. More than 10 bailiffs stood guard.

It was Huckaby’s first public appearance since her Friday night arrest.

Prosecutors Tuesday morning filed charges of murder with special circumstances of kidnapping, lewd or lascivious acts with a child and rape by a foreign object.

As charged, Huckaby could face the death penalty or life in prison without parole. That’s something prosecutors will bring up later in the case, said San Joaquin County District Attorney Jim Willett.

District Attorney Robert Himelblau said he couldn’t remember a time when San Joaquin County prosecutors had ever considered the death penalty for a woman.

Judge Richard Vlavianos ordered Huckaby back in court on April 24 for further arraignment. He also appointed public defender Ellen Schwarzenberg to represent her.

During the hearing, Schwarzenberg, who had represented Huckaby in a previous petty theft case, asked the judge for a gag order in the murder case. Vlavianos said that question would be answered by his colleague, Judge Terrence Van Oss, who would be presiding over future hearings.

Prosecutor Thomas Testa will handle the case for the district attorney’s office. He has put two men on death row in California and several murderers behind bars for life.

Huckaby’s family left the Stockton courthouse followed by a gaggle of reporters. They declined to comment.

Josie Orozco emerged from the courtroom crying after the arraignment. She said that while Huckaby may have appeared remorseful during the hearing, she didn't believe the emotion was genuine.

"She knew what she was doing. She could have asked for help. She could have gone to a doctor if she was sick this way," Orozco said.

Outside the courthouse, Louie Vasquez, who with his wife had volunteered in the 10-day search for Sandra, said they came to show support for the victim's family and had hoped to find answers.

"We want to know who actually did the killing, because we can't believe it was that woman," he said.

Huckaby’s family spoke to reporters earlier this week and said they believe Huckaby is innocent. She struggles with depression, they said. She went through a divorce and has had a tough time as a single mom, but it’s out of character, they said, for her to hurt anyone.

Police say Huckaby raped and killed Sandra, a girl who used to play with Huckaby’s daughter. Sandra went missing March 27 and was dead hours later, police say, even though it wasn’t until last week that farmworkers found her dead body, dressed in the same pink “Hello Kitty” shirt she wore the day she disappeared.

Results of Sandra’s autopsy have yet to be released and might not be for several weeks.

Huckaby still must undergo psychiatric examination — an ongoing order from when she pleaded no contest to felony burglary and misdemeanor petty theft charges Jan. 9, Vlavianos said Tuesday.

Willett said Huckaby’s mental health problems will impact the case, though how remains unclear at the moment.

“Obviously, any mental health issues will have an effect on this case,” he said.

Hours before her arrest Friday, Huckaby denied her criminal background to the Tracy Press and said things in a published interview that conflicted with two prior conversations she had with investigators, police said.

Tracy police arrested Huckaby late Friday night after a five-hour interview with her and booked her without bail at the San Joaquin County Jail in French Camp. Authorities put her on suicide watch — routine for a case of this magnitude, said Tracy police spokesman Sgt. Tony Sheneman.

Huckaby denied all requests for media visits and was kept from her family until Monday, when she got to pray and talk with them for 45 minutes.

Police arrested the preacher’s granddaughter on charges of kidnapping and murder, but prosecutors Tuesday added the special circumstances of rape and lewd and lascivious acts on a young child.

Willett talked to reporters after Tuesday’s hearing to say that his office would update the press only through its Web site and would take no calls about evidence or for any comments about the case.

Sandra’s family wouldn’t answer the phone after the hearing. Neither would Huckaby’s grandparents, Connie and Clifford Lawless. She lived with them in Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park, where Sandra spent her final free moments March 27.

Community upheaval

The girl’s disappearance sparked a massive search and thrust Tracy into the national spotlight.

“On a human level, I didn’t think I’d ever face something like this,” Sheneman said Tuesday about the case. “Personally, it’s been difficult.”

It’s a sentiment echoed throughout Tracy.

When the hunt for a missing girl turned into a homicide investigation last week, the case attracted unheard of attention for a town of 80,000. During the past few days, the story has only become stranger.

Statistically, it’s unheard of for a woman to kill another family’s child, according to the FBI. It’s even more unusual for a woman to stand accused of kidnapping and rape.

Police haven’t officially said where they think Sandra was killed. But news reports point to the Clover Road Baptist Church, a short walk from the mobile home park, as the scene of the crime.

Since Huckaby’s arrest, stories of her past have come to light, though they offer little insight into what led to the charges she now faces.

She has no history of violence, according public records and those who knew her. She spent her childhood in Southern California, where she graduated from high school. She married a few years after, in her early 20s, and had a daughter.

She filed for bankruptcy in 2003 because she was unable to pay thousands of dollars in medical bills to Sutter Tracy Community Hospital and maxed out credit cards.

That same year, she lived in an apartment on North Tracy Boulevard. It was a year after, in 2004, that she filed a restraining order against an ex-boyfriend. She still went by her maiden name.

Sutter Tracy sued her around that time for $10,000 she owed for medical treatment, and she was fired from Tracy’s Food 4 Less grocery store.

Huckaby got married about a week after she filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2003 and gave birth to her daughter, Madison, just months later. She divorced in 2005, a year after separating from her husband, court papers show.

The year after, in 2006, she was arrested, convicted of and jailed for property theft where she lived in Orange County.

In November, when she lived with her grandparents in the northern Tracy mobile home park, she was arrested again on charges of property theft. She was ordered to be examined by two psychiatrists, who said she was fit to stand trial.

Her best friend from high school said the person she knew 10 years ago would have never done the things Huckaby is accused of.

Emily Fontes, 28, said her former friend was on the dance team, had a great personality and did OK at school.

“If she did the things they say she did, then she’s changed a lot since I knew her,” Fontes said. “I’m so shocked to hear this, just to hear the accusations.”

• Contact Tracy Press reporter Jennifer Wadsworth at 830-4225 or jwadsworth@tracypress.com.