The Vandenberg Village mother charged with the murder of her 9-year-old daughter last fall appeared before a judge once again on Wednesday.
It was the first hearing Ashlee Buzzard has attended since Jan. 21. She’s been absent from her two hearings that followed due to reported illnesses.
Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Stephen Dunkle said last month that if Buzzard did not appear at the next hearing, an extraction order would be issued, giving authorities permission to remove Buzzard from jail to attend court.
She’s been in custody at the Northern Branch Jail in Santa Maria, being held without bail since her Dec. 23 arrest. Along with first-degree murder, the 40-year-old is also charged with a special circumstance of lying in wait and a special allegation of discharge of a firearm causing death. She’s pleaded not guilty.
Buzzard’s public defender, Erica Sutherland, filed a motion this week to quash and traverse. Sutherland told Judge Dunkle she would like the motion heard before the preliminary hearing is set, explaining the motion cannot be addressed during that stage.
Judge Dunkle pushed back, asking for a formal written filing explaining why, before deciding when the motion will be heard.
Buzzard agreed to waive time through May in the case, meaning her preliminary hearing won’t take place before June.
She entered the courtroom with handcuffs, which were removed briefly during her hearing, sitting in a separate part of the courtroom from previous hearings.
Wearing a beige cardigan with a blue, button-up dress shirt, brown pants, and her hair half-up, half-down, Buzzard was seen taking deep breaths with her eyes closed, and shaking her head back and forth until the moment her case was called.
For the first time since her arrest, Buzzard said more than one or two words to the judge. After being asked if she was okay with returning April 1, Buzzard responded, "Yeah, as long as the court date is not on a holiday."
More discussion on the latest motion will take place at the next hearing.
Buzzard was arrested and charged following the discovery and positive identification of the body of her daughter, Melodee, in a rural area of Wayne County, Utah, in early December.
Authorities say the girl was shot in the head multiple times and that it’s believed the killing happened while the mother and daughter took a three-day road trip last October that spanned as far east as Nebraska.
During the search for Melodee, which began in mid-October and spanned multiple states, investigators said that during the October trip, the mother and daughter wore wigs with Buzzard also swapping out the license plate on her rental car at least once before returning to Lompoc on Oct. 10 without Melodee.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown called the killing “ruthless and heartless,” adding it was “calculated, cold-blooded and criminally sophisticated premeditation.”
He also said that Buzzard remained uncooperative with the investigation even after her arrest and would not provide information to authorities during the ongoing search for Melodee as to where her daughter might be.
The defense later requested a gag order be placed on the sheriff’s office for the remainder of the criminal proceedings against Ashlee.
The judge approved the order, which prohibits authorities from releasing additional details about the investigation to the public.
Buzzard has waived time through May, which means her preliminary hearing, where the judge will hear evidence in the case to determine whether to uphold the charges against the mother and move the case forward to trial, will not take place before June.
Her Mars Avenue home has been cleared out and placed back on the market for rent.
