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Huckaby case to be sealed until sentencing
STOCKTON, Calif., (UPI) -- A California judge says she will not consider releasing details of the case against convicted child killer Melissa Huckaby until after Huckaby is sentenced.
"This case is not over," the San Jose Mercury News reported Superior Court Judge Linda Lofthus as saying Monday. "I don't want the cat out of the bag, so to speak. I'll never be able to put it back in."
Huckaby, 29, made a deal May 10 to plead guilty to kidnapping and murdering 8-year-old Sandra Cantu of Tracy, Calif., if the death penalty were taken off the table. Additional charges of lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 14 and rape by instrument were also dropped.
Huckaby is to be sentenced June 14 to life in prison without parole, the newspaper said.
"As far as I'm concerned the public knows what it needs to know," said attorney Stewart Tabak, who represents Sandra's older sister, Simone Mokol Chavez. "How much more gawking, really, does the public need to do? Obviously this is material that is going to set up a feeding frenzy."
Sandra disappeared March 27, 2009. Her body was discovered April 6, 2009, in a suitcase in a pond not far from her home.
STOCKTON, Calif., (UPI) -- A California judge says she will not consider releasing details of the case against convicted child killer Melissa Huckaby until after Huckaby is sentenced.
"This case is not over," the San Jose Mercury News reported Superior Court Judge Linda Lofthus as saying Monday. "I don't want the cat out of the bag, so to speak. I'll never be able to put it back in."
Huckaby, 29, made a deal May 10 to plead guilty to kidnapping and murdering 8-year-old Sandra Cantu of Tracy, Calif., if the death penalty were taken off the table. Additional charges of lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 14 and rape by instrument were also dropped.
Huckaby is to be sentenced June 14 to life in prison without parole, the newspaper said.
"As far as I'm concerned the public knows what it needs to know," said attorney Stewart Tabak, who represents Sandra's older sister, Simone Mokol Chavez. "How much more gawking, really, does the public need to do? Obviously this is material that is going to set up a feeding frenzy."
Sandra disappeared March 27, 2009. Her body was discovered April 6, 2009, in a suitcase in a pond not far from her home.