STOCKTON — Melissa Huckaby admitted guilt today to the murder and kidnapping last year of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu in a crime that shocked Tracy and captured national attention.

The surprise development spares Huckaby, 29, of the possible death sentence, which prosecutors intended to seek in trial. Under the negotiated plea deal announced in a Stockton courtroom, Huckaby will spend the rest of her natural life in state prison.

Huckaby pleaded guilty to murder with the special circumstance of kidnapping. All other charges against her were dropped, including charges of rape and poisoning.

Huckaby's guilty plea came a little more than one year after a surveillance camera captured one of Sandra's last living moments on March 27, 2009, as she happily skipped through Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park in Tracy.

Both Sandra and Huckaby's families lived in the mobile home park. Sandra was a playmate of Huckaby's young daughter.

Days later farm workers discovered Sandra's body about two miles north of town stuffed in a black suitcase and discarded in a dairy pond. Hucakby was linked to the suitcase and charged with special circumstances murder. Her trial was set to begin in October.

San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Linda Lofthus set Huckaby's formal sentencing date for June 14.

Read Tuesday's Record for more on this story by staff writer Scott Smith.

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