OAKLAND, Calif. -- The former Tracy Sunday schoolteacher charged with kidnapping, raping and killing her daughter’s 8-year-old playmate will face the death penalty when she goes to trial, prosecutors announced Thursday.

San Joaquin County deputy district attorney Thomas Testa announced the decision during a court hearing in the case. At that same brief hearing, Huckaby once again pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment against her.

Former San Francisco Assistant District Attorney Jim Hammer said the death penalty decision means the prosecution has a strong case against the 28-year-old.

“Death cases are different,” Hammer said. “ In normal cases you have to be beyond a reasonable doubt, in a death case, if you even have a shadow of a doubt, jurors can vote not guilty.”

Hammer also predicted the upcoming trial would be full of strange twists and turns.

“This crime seems so strange,” Hammer told KTVU. “As a prosecutor for 25 years, I have never heard of anything like this -- a rape or the sexual assault of a kid -- then the murder of your kid’s playmate -- it just sounds so bizarre. I’ve got to ask – Was there someone else? I think there are going to be a lot of surprises at the trial.”

Huckaby is accused of kidnapping, raping, and murdering Sandra Cantu, whose body was discovered in stuffed a suitcase in a drained irrigation canal near her Tracy home.

In July, a grand jury indicted Huckaby on the Cantu charges and also for allegedly drugging a 7-year-old girl and 37-year-old man in unrelated cases.

Recently, reports have surfaced that Huckaby may have tried to harm herself in her jail cell. Authorities said she has been discovered with a blanket wrapped around her neck and on another occasion had told jail officials she had “taken pills” and was taken for a medical examination.

“If there is overwhelming evidence against someone what do you have left – the insanity defense,” Hammer said. “When someone starts acting crazy that plays into it. It raises the question of what frame of mind was she in when she committed the crime…And did she do it alone?”

Hammer also said the publicity surrounding the Dugard’s reappearance in the Bay Area city of Antioch will have an impact on the upcoming Huckaby trial.

“They do have an effect on each other in this sense – every juror walks in with his or her life experiences,” Hammer said. “When you get cases this outrageous and frightening to people, people get whipped into frenzy… It’s a tough climate to go to trial in.”

Dugard was kidnapped as an 11-year-old from a South Lake Tahoe bus stop in 1991. For the next 18 years, she was allegedly held prisoner in a hidden compound in Bay Area backyard by Philip Garrido and his wife, Nancy.

She reemerged late last month when Garrido allegedly confessed to the kidnapping to his parole officer. The Garridos were currently being held in the El Dorado County jail on kidnapping and rape charges.