The grand jury transcripts from the Melissa Huckaby murder case were released late Friday by the San Joaquin County Superior Court.
The document is nearly 2,000 pages and contain disturbing details of the investigation into the kidnap and murder of eight-year-old Sandra Cantu of Tracy.
See the transcripts here. Warning graphic content in .pdf.
Its release comes on the same week Huckaby was sentenced to life in prison for killing Cantu in a plea deal. Huckaby admits to killing the little girl and dumping her body in a nearby irrigation pond inside a suitcase.
A kitchen cloth fashioned into a noose was found inside the suitcase containing Sandra Cantu's body, and a medical examination suggested the girl may have previously suffered sexual abuse, according to a grand jury transcript.
The records also reveal Cantu's sister, Miranda Chavez, spent the night at the home of her sister's killer, Melissa Huckaby, after 8-year-old Cantu disappeared.
Miranda Chavez recalled seeing Huckaby carry suitcases out to her vehicle, according to the transcript. Cantu's body was found inside a piece of luggage sunken in an irrigation pond a couple of miles north of the Tracy mobile home park where she lived.
"This was not something heat of the moment. This was a very calm, calculating mind at work. It was not something that was done in a hurry. It's possibly something that may have been premeditated," Medical Examiner Dr. Bennet Omalu said, describing how Cantu's body was placed in the luggage.
Omalu also testified that certain examinations revealed Cantu "may have been sexually abused in the past" and told the grand jury that the girl suffered an agonizing death.
The documents do not include the autopsy report, which is good news for the little girl's family.
They are trying to stop the San Joaquin County coroner from releasing that part of the investigation. "I am absolutely baffled that the media still wants more ... more details, more misery, more disgustingly graphic details," Tabak said. "What else do they possibly need, since we know the public does not want nor need to know any more."
Cantu's mother and sister filed a request Thursday for a temporary restraining order on the release.
The family said they don't want "unnecessary and invasive details of the brutal murder of an 8-year-old girl" made public.
A judge was considering the family's request on Friday, but there was no word on when he would rule.
Huckaby was originally charged with murder and rape, but rape charge was eventually dropped in the plea deal.
She has been transferred to the Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla.
