An El Paso County jury on Monday convicted Letecia Stauch of first-degree homicide within the dying of her 11-year-old stepson, discovering the lady was sane throughout the brutal assault within the household’s Colorado Springs residence three years in the past.
Jurors rejected Stauch’s protection that she suffered a psychological break and was legally insane when she stabbed and shot Gannon Stauch on Jan. 27, 2020.
The 39-year-old girl was additionally discovered responsible of tampering with a human physique and tampering with proof.
Instantly after the conviction, Stauch was sentenced to life in jail with out the opportunity of parole plus 13.5 years in an emotional listening to throughout which Gannon’s household spoke about his life and dying. The 11-year-old boy was born prematurely and weighed only one pound, 6 ounces at start, his mom, Landen Bullard stated. When he was born, his father’s marriage ceremony ring match over Gannon’s arm as much as his shoulder, one other relative stated.
“You got here into this world combating, and sadly you left this world combating,” Bullard stated, crying as she spoke in court docket.
Gannon’s father, Al Stauch, remembered Gannon’s love of video video games and sports activities, in addition to his joyful way of living. He apologized to his son for leaving him alone with Letecia Stauch.
“Gannon, I by no means in my wildest goals would have thought you'll have been at risk, buddy, or I might not have left you at residence with what turned out to be a assassin,” he stated, earlier than placing his head down on the rostrum and weeping. “I’m so sorry.”
Letecia Stauch didn't seem to visibly react when the decision was learn; she yawned, mounted her hair and drank water as Gannon’s household spoke. Earlier than she was sentenced, she smiled and laughed whereas speaking to her attorneys.
Fourth Judicial District Courtroom Choose Gregory Werner stated the case was the “most horrific” he’d ever seen. He sentenced Stauch to the utmost attainable penalties on every cost. He stated Stauch crafted a “net of lies” after the homicide in an try to keep away from accountability and that her declare of madness did a disservice to people who find themselves really mentally ailing.
“That simply isn’t credible,” he stated. “You knew what you had been doing. You made various clear and acutely aware selections to cowl or conceal what you had carried out.”
Gannon’s disappearance three years in the past prompted nationwide consideration throughout the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Letecia Stauch reported the boy lacking on Jan. 27, 2020, saying he had gone to a good friend’s home to play and by no means returned residence, however virtually instantly drew suspicion as a result of she gave shifting accounts to investigators.
For weeks, authorities coordinated an enormous public search effort for Gannon, whereas investigators privately zeroed in on Letecia Stauch because the prime suspect within the killing, testimony revealed throughout the month-long jury trial.
After killing Gannon, Letecia Stauch hid the boy’s physique in a distant space alongside the El Paso/Douglas county line, earlier than shifting the physique right into a suitcase and driving it in a rented cargo van to Florida, the place she tossed the suitcase off a freeway overpass.
She was arrested and charged with homicide on March 2, 2020, days earlier than a building crew discovered Gannon’s physique on March 17, 2020.
“Gannon was born severely untimely and barely crammed my two arms the primary time I held him,” Al Stauch stated Monday. “However on the finish of his life, after his physique was cremated right into a pile of ashes, he was in the end no greater than the primary time I held him.”
Throughout the trial, Stauch’s protection attorneys claimed she suffered severe childhood abuse that led to the event of a number of character dysfunction and that she suffered a psychological break when she killed Gannon.
Prosecutors countered that Stauch was sane and motivated by hatred of Gannon. They stated she resented caring for the boy and pointed to her in depth efforts to cowl up the crime as proof of her sanity.