COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Letecia Stauch, accused of killing her 11-year-old stepson three years ago, was convicted by a Colorado jury on Monday and sentenced to two terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Stauch, 39, was convicted by an El Paso County jury of first-degree murder of a child under 12 by a person of trust, child abuse resulting in death, tampering with a body and tampering with physical evidence, KUSA-TV reported.
Stauch was sentenced to life in prison for the two first-degree murder charges, according to the television station. She received a 12-year sentence for the first tampering charge and 18 months for the second.
The jury rejected Stauch’s defense that she suffered a mental breakdown and was legally insane when she stabbed and shot Gannon Stauch on Jan. 27, 2020, according to The Denver Post.
NEW: An El Paso County jury on Monday concluded that Letecia Stauch was sane when she killed her 11-year-old stepson in the basement of the family’s Colorado Springs home three years ago. https://t.co/MHpoe9wMhB
— The Denver Post (@denverpost) May 8, 2023
“The family has been thinking about this day for three years,” Judge Gregory Werner told the court, according to KDVR-TV. “They are ready for sentencing.”
Closing arguments concluded on Friday after five weeks of testimony, KMGH-TV reported.
On Jan. 27, 2020, Letecia Stauch called the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office and reported that her stepson had left their home near Colorado Springs and never returned, according to KUSA. Investigators believe that Gannon Stauch was killed sometime after 2 p.m. that day, the television station reported.
Letecia Stauch was arrested in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on March 2, 2020. Investigators said that she put her stepson’s body into a suitcase and drove it in a rented cargo van to Florida. where she tossed the luggage off a highway overpass, the Post reported.
Gannon Stauch’s body was found in Pace, Florida, on March 18, 2020, according to KUSA.
During closing arguments on Friday, defense attorney Josh Tolini argued that the strongest evidence pointing to Letecia Stauch’s lack of mental clarity came when she was interviewed by El Paso County deputies the night the boy went missing, KMGH reported. Deputies wearing body cameras said that Letecia Stauch was allegedly laughing and joking while speaking to authorities, according to the television station.
“Those are not the actions of a sane and rational person,” Tolini told jurors. “Those are the actions of someone who is delusional.”
Prosecutors alleged that Letecia Stauch disliked her stepson.
“We don’t have to prove motive, but yet we did anyway,” Prosecutor Michael Allen told jurors. “She has one stepson, and she hated him. She was planning to leave Al Stauch. Move back to the East Coast. She wanted to hurt Al. She wanted to hurt Landon (Gannon’s mother) for that matter. She did, to the core. They will never (recover) from what she did to them.”
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