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today’s record

Classified C5Comics B7Crossword B6Lottery B8

Movies B2Obituaries B3Opinion A12TV B6 Complete weather, Page B5

Partly cloudy

Stockton: 70/44Manteca: 70/46

horne broke racial barriers

Jazz singer and actress Lena Horne, who turned “Stormy Weather” into something to look forward to, dies at 92. B3

just call him ‘mr. stockton’

Dallas Braden’s hometown is feeling the positive effects of the pitcher’s perfect performance Sunday. C1

teens helping out their city

A group of motivated students joins Stockton Mayor Ann Johnston’s push to increase volunteer efforts. a3

Tuesday, May 11, 2010 • 75¢

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SUSD trustee lives in Davis

Guilty of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of kidnapping. Prosecutors dropped all other counts against Huckaby, including charges she raped Sandra with an instrument and drugged two others, another neighbor girl and a 37-year-old man.

Under the deal, Huckaby is spared a possible death sentence, which prosecutors had intended to seek in trial. She will spend the rest of her life in state prison without the possibility of parole.

For now, Judge Linda Lofthus has chosen to leave a gag order in effect. She said she needed time to con-sider lifting it, fearing a compromise of the plea deal. The key documents remain under seal, including the transcripts of a two-week-long grand jury hearing that ended with Huckaby’s indictment.

what she pleaded: what it means: gag order remains:

huCkABy pleAdsAdmission of guilt brings end but not answers in Cantu case

ViCki ELLEn BEHrinGEr/Special to The record

Melissa Huckaby and San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Linda Lofthus speak during Monday’s hearing.

By Scott SmithRecord Staff Writer

STOCKTON — Seated be-tween her two attorneys, Me-lissa Huckaby admitted in court Monday that she kidnaped and murdered 8-year-old neighbor Sandra Cantu last year in a bi-zarre crime that stunned Tracy residents and captured national attention.

The surprise development spares Huckaby, 29, a possible death sentence, which pros-ecutors had intended to seek at trial. Under the negotiated plea deal, Huckaby will spend the rest of her life in state prison without the possibility of pa-role.

Her plea deal eliminates the need for a trial.

In Monday’s hearing, which lasted about 20 minutes, San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Linda Lofthus explained

to Huckaby that by pleading guilty, she would give up her constitutional right to a trial. Lofthus asked if Huckaby knew what she was doing.

With guidance from her at-torneys, Huckaby responded calmly to the judge’s questions. She was composed, unlike her emotional frailty in earlier hearings.

“You would never be released on parole,” Lofthus told her. “Do you understand that?”

“Yes,” Huckaby replied.

more onlineView archive stories, photos, videos and documents relating to the case at recordnet.com/sandra.

recordnet.comBy Daniel ThigpenRecord Staff Writer

TRACY — Brian Lawless said he and his daughter, Melissa Huck-aby, had long jailhouse discussions before she admitted committing a murder that will put her in prison the rest of her life.

A year ago, Lawless said he be-lieved she was innocent. On Mon-day, standing outside his family’s tiny Tracy church, which investi-gators once searched for clues to little Sandra Cantu’s grisly death, Lawless said he is OK with his daughter’s guilty plea.

“Very saddened, of course,” he said. “I don’t have words to even describe what I feel right now.”

Lawless stood behind a blue pickup, furniture stacked in the bed. A trailer attached to the truck held an office chair.

He said he was picking up per-sonal items for his parents, Con-nie and Lane Lawless, with whom Huckaby once lived doors down from Sandra in the nearby trailer park where the child disappeared.

His parents, Brian Lawless said, have since moved away.

The rest of Tracy, too, is trying to move on. News of Huckaby’s courtroom admission spread quickly, ripping open old wounds from a horrific crime that sparked unwanted scrutiny and lingering fears.

In Tracy, some residents find peace in surprising turn of events, while others remain searching for closure

By Roger PhillipsRecord Staff Writer

STOCKTON — Sal Ramirez, who has served as a Stockton Unified School District trustee since 2006, lives 60 miles away in Davis, a violation of state law that requires local elected officials to live in the communities they serve.

The California Education Code and former state Attorney General Bill Lockyer clearly define a person’s home as a primary place of residence.

For Ramirez, that place is Davis. The Record made a dozen visits over a 30-day period to a home on Nutmeg Lane in Davis. Ramirez’s car was there each time.

The leafy, middle-class street is far from the gritty south Stockton neighborhood he repre-sents as Stockton Unified’s Area 2 trustee.

Ramirez lists a duplex on Church Street in south Stockton as his residence, but the gate to that dwelling is padlocked, and neighbors say they have never seen or heard of Sal Ramirez.

Retired Stockton Unified teacher Rosalinda Galaviz has filed a complaint with election of-ficials asking for an investigation into Ramirez’s residency. “The strong rumors about this man are that he works and resides in Davis,” the one-page complaint says in part.

Ramirez, 46, last week calmly denied he lives in Davis while standing at the front door of the house where he has been seen repeatedly in the past month.

Stockton Unified School District trustee Sal Ramirez leaves a home in Davis on Wednes-day for a substitute teacher position in Wood-land Unified.

CALiXTrO rOMiAS/The record

see trustee, page a7

see huckaby, page a6 see tracy, page a7

By David G. Savage and Christi Parsons McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Presi-dent Barack Obama on Monday hailed his nominee to the Su-preme Court as “one of the na-tion’s foremost legal minds,” but Elena Kagan’s biggest asset in upcoming confirmation hear-ings may be her lack of an ex-tensive public record, providing

few openings for Republicans to attack.

A year after making Kagan his administration’s advocate

before the Supreme Court, Obama now hopes her personal skills are good enough to craft consensus with the court’s con-servative majority — and to win Senate confirmation to the posi-tion in the first place.

“She is a trailblazing leader, the first woman to serve as dean of Harvard Law School,” the president said as he made his announcement in the ceremo-nial East Room of the White

House. “Elena is respected and admired not just for her intel-lect and record of achievement but also her temperament, her openness to a broad array of viewpoints ... and skill as a con-sensus builder.”

GOP leaders were quick to criticize her as an out-of-touch elitist, someone who has “spent her entire professional career in Harvard Square, Hyde Park and the D.C. Beltway,” as Sen. John

Cornyn, a Texas Republican, put it.

But Republicans stopped well short of declaring war on the nomination, with one GOP law-maker telling reporters Mon-day that, given what they know about Kagan now, they consider a filibuster unlikely.

With 59 Democrats in the Senate, Kagan, a single woman from Manhattan’s Upper West Side, should have little trouble

being confirmed this summer, barring a major surprise. She would be the third woman on the current high court but the first justice in nearly four de-cades who has never been a judge.

She also has the advantage to Obama of being relatively young. At 50, she could carry out his legacy on the court for decades.

elena kagan

Would be the first justice in nearly four decades who has never been a judge.

Early signs suggest few obstacles standing in Supreme Court nominee’s path

see nominee, page a7