Letecia Stauch trial scheduled to start and she claims predator abducted her stepson

Given the high-profile nature of the case, jury selection for the murder trial of Letecia Stauch, who is accused of killing her 11-year-old stepson, Gannon Stauch, is scheduled to begin on Monday in Colorado.

According to court records, she initially filed a plea of not guilty after being arrested in March 2020, changing it to not guilty by reason of insanity in February 2022.

The judge allowed for this change in plea without first having the results of a sanity evaluation, and 13 months later, the defense still hasn't given the court the documentation of the evaluation.

According to the probable cause statement submitted in the case, authorities contend that Letecia killed Gannon on January 27th, and then worked to conceal his body before telling law enforcement that he had vanished when she called them later that day.

Letecia killed Gannon in his bedroom, put his body in the trunk of her car, and then allegedly drove out to hide his remains along the side of the road once she learned that police planned to search the family's home, according to Detective Jessica Bethel of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office (EPCO) in the affidavit.

On Jan. 29th, Stauch voluntarily met with investigators from the EPCO to discuss Gannon's disappearance.

Less than 48 hours had passed since Stauch first reported Gannon missing, but the probable cause affidavit states that she now has a very different account of what happened before her stepson vanished.

According to the affidavit, Letecia told authorities that a man she identified as "Edguardo" had sexually attacked and raped her on the night that Gannon vanished. Letecia asserted that "Edguardo" reportedly kidnapped Gannon following the incident.

Letecia declined to have a nurse examine her for signs of sexual assault according to the affidavit, and also told investigators that after the assault she thoroughly cleaned the alleged crime scene.

According to the statement, authorities eventually convinced Al Stauch, Gannon's father, to record his phone chats with Letecia.

When Gannon went missing, Al was in Oklahoma for National Guard training, leaving his then-wife Letecia to look after their children, Gannon, Laina, and Harley, her teenage daughter.

When Al consented to EPSO's request to have his calls with Letecia monitored, the two were no longer living together.

The affidavit makes frequent mention of those calls.

According to the affidavit, Letecia allegedly said the following over a 48-hour period:

"When EPSO came to the house on January 27, 2020 the abductor was still in her residence and that she tried to signal the EPSO deputies that there was somebody in the residence."

"She was raped by a man at her residence, and he abducted Gannon. She knew the man's identity because she saw a paper and his identification card fell out of his pocket that had his name on it."

"A man followed her from Petco, and at some point, was laying in the middle of the road in front of a car. When Letecia stopped to avoid running the man over, he jumped into her car and made her take him home and raped her."

"Letecia and Gannon were near northern El Paso County on January 27, 2020. Gannon is riding a bicycle in the area and fell off, hit his head, and was then abducted by a man."

"Letecia stated that the blood in the corner of Gannon's room was a combination of hers and Gannon's. In this explanation, she stated that the abductor anally penetrated her and Gannon, with an object. Additionally, she was tied up at some point in the abduction, and the abductor was still present during the EPSO visit that night."

Despite the fact that Gannon's body had not yet been discovered, a judge approved an arrest warrant on February 28, 2020, after reviewing the affidavit.

On March 2, Letecia was detained in South Carolina before being extradited to Colorado.

Gannon's body was found in a suitcase on March 17th, under a highway overpass near Pensacola, Florida.

Sgt. Jason Yoder of the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office discussed the discovery of Gannon's body at Letecia's preliminary hearing in September of 2021.

He stated that during construction, Florida Department of Transportation bridge inspectors discovered a suitcase underneath the bridge. When they opened it, they saw what seemed to be a boy's body wrapped in blankets.

According to Sgt. Yoder, Gannon had a fractured skull, chest and back stab wounds, and a gunshot wound to the jaw. He also said that Gannon also had a bullet lodged in his skull and defensive wounds on his arms and legs.

During his testimony during the preliminary hearing, EPSO Sgt. Rosario Hubbell said that the rounds were from a gun that was in the Stauch residence and had traces of Letecia's DNA.

Then, he said, in testimony that Letecia rented a van and traveled 1,500 miles from Colorado to Florida two days after she initially claimed her accused rapist had kidnapped Gannon.

The journey took three days, and Letecia checked into a hotel three miles from where Gannon's body would eventually be found on February 4 after arriving in Florida after midnight.

Since that day, more than three years ago, Letecia has been detained pending trial. She will soon find out if she will be imprisoned for the rest of her life.

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Credit:

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/stepmother-missing-colo-11-old-173639417.html

https://www.the-sun.com/news/634068/letecia-stauch-raped-gunpoint-gannon-kidnapped-suitcase-eguardo/

https://www.9news.com/article/news/investigations/gannon-stauch/letecia-stauch-court-updates/73-19c0a44f-a26d-448e-929b-f850227481b6

https://www.kktv.com/2023/03/09/trial-colorado-woman-accused-murdering-her-stepson-gannon-stauch-still-scheduled/