From turning his book into a movie script to helping Mexico develop its first space program, Hernandez is busy as ever.

Hernandez, who grew up working in the fields as a child in the Valley, completed an outer space mission for NASA a few years ago and is now an aerospace and electrical engineer consultant.

Hernandez is working with movie director, Alfonso Arau, who produced “Like Water for Chocolate” and directed “A Walk in the Clouds,” to turn Hernandez’s book, “Reaching for the Stars,” based on his life journey from the fields  to outer space, into a movie script.

Hernandez said Arau’s vision is to produce a movie based on the book. “Of course I’ll insist he film here in the Valley,” Hernandez said.

In his professional career, Hernandez, who had helped develop the first mammography equipment at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory years ago (before he went to NASA), continues working on technological advances as a consultant.

He is consulting with an aerospace company in Tustin to get air ships certified by the Federal Aviation Administration. These blimp-like air ships are capable of hauling 65 tons of equipment to remote areas of the world.

And Hernandez  is working on bringing investors and users together to design “economically feasible” solar energy programs.

He is helping develop a solar plant in the Mexican state of Sonora.

Also in Mexico, he is assisting the secretary of communications and transportation to start the country’s integrated aerospace community.

Hernandez continues to travel delivering motivational speeches, as well.

Another run for Congress, he said, is still in his future, if not in 2014 then surely in 2016. Read that story here:  http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130602/A_NEWS/306020307&cid=sitesearch

Tracy High made it to the state finals after winning the county mock trial competition in February.

Indran volunteers to help the students prepare for the events.

Sixth place is the farthest the county has ever gone at the state level, according to Indran. The state  finals were held March 24 in Riverside.

Most of the interview didn’t fit into the story http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130327/A_NEWS/130329904/-1/a_special0263, which was published Wednesday.

Here’s more on it.

When Sandra was reported missing from the Orchard Estate Mobile Home Park in Tracy, it was pretty evident that there was foul play, Testa said.

Testa requested to be assigned to the case, having successfully prosecuted a number of murder trials in the past in which there was no body found, including the cases of serial killers Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog.

Sandra seemed to just have “disappeared from the face of the earth.”

Circumstantial evidence can be offered to prove who did it, Testa said, in what is referred to as habit evidence. In other words, looking at her habits and seeing if anything is out of the ordinary.

Nothing was missing from her room. If she had run away, she would have likely took some of her belongings.

“You put that kind of evidence together and you make a case that they’re dead,” he said.

Testa said he feels the case was properly resolved with a plea deal in which Melissa Huckaby admitted to the murder, receiving life in prison without the possibility of parole. (She did not admit to the rape, however). The family approved the deal and they were spared from reliving the case in a trial.

It’s “somewhat dissatisfying” to Testa, however, that many of the facts couldn’t be more carefully scrutinized in a trial where witnesses would have been cross examined.

“A trial answers questions because all the facts come out,” Testa said. “So there are still some nagging questions.”

Like did anyone aid Huckaby in hiding anything or in protecting her?

There’s a good chance Huckaby would have taken the stand and therefore prodded for those answers.

Nonetheless, Testa emphasized that he believes the plea deal was a “good resolution.”

About a week into the investigation and a daunting search that drew hundreds of volunteers, Sandra’s body was found stuffed inside an Eddie Bauer black suitcase in an irrigation ditch just north of the mobile home park.

There were so many people investigators were looking at, including sex offenders who lived at the mobile home park, “that they did not look at a female let alone Melissa Huckaby,” Testa said.

But that changed when Huckaby started doing suspicious things.

He believes they started suspecting her when she claimed to find a note – the note ultimately pinpointed the location where Sandra’s body was found and mentioned Huckaby’s supposed stolen Eddie Bauer suitcase –  the day after Sandra disappeared. She was hyperventilating as she told them about it.

Then, when she was questioned, her demeanor changed to being calm and collected. It was strange how she could turn it off and on.

Then, the finding that Sandra’s rape by a foreign object was more grounds to suspect a woman rather than a male, Testa said.

“It was an extremely unusual fact pattern,” Testa said.

“I do from time to time think about it,” he said.

Testa’s timeline of events: DOC (1)

“Hoffman and Humphrey, who won the NCGA Master Division Four-Ball Championship less than six months ago, proved why they’re a formidable team to be reckoned with, posting a 36-hole score of 135, seven-under par at the par-71 layout,” the association said on its website.