Huckaby maintains innocence says grandmother

By The Record
April 14, 2009 12:59 PM

STOCKTON – Connie Lawless said in phone interview this morning that her granddaughter, Melissa Huckaby, [has declared] her innocence to charges that she kidnapped, murdered and raped 8-year-old Sandra Cantu.

Lawless said she and her husband, Pastor Clifford Lane Lawless, visited for the first time with Huckaby, 28, at the San Joaquin County Jail for 40 minutes Monday evening. That’s when Huckaby told her grandparents she was not guilty.

“We cried together, we prayed,” Connie Lawless said. She and her family were rushing out of the house to attend Huckaby’s initial court hearing in the case.

She’s expected to be charged with kidnapping, murder and the special circumstance of rape with a foreign object, lewd and lascivious conduct with a child – charges that make her eligible for a death sentence.

Connie Lawless asked everybody to maintain an open mind. Her granddaughter has yet to speak with an attorney and the only side of the story to come out so far has come from the Tracy Police Department, which is one-sided, she said.