Colorado woman Letecia Stauch apparently requested for the court to reappoint her counsel. This happened after Stauch asked a judge to let her represent herself during her upcoming murder trial.
Stauch pushed for weeks to represent herself, claiming she could do better than the legal experts who she claimed wouldn’t take her case seriously. On April 28, Stauch filed a new motion and requested a “state attorney instead of the public defender’s office” to represent her.
Stauch stands accused of killing her stepson, Gannon Stauch, 11, in January 2020, while at their home in Fountain, near Colorado Springs.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Stauch appeared before Judge Gregory Werner at the El Paso County courthouse in El Paso County, Colorado, in February, and said she wanted to fire her public defender and be her own lawyer.
Werner ultimately approved Stauch’s request, which allowed her access to thousands of pages of discovery, along with time in the jail’s law library. Court documents indicate that on two different occasions, Stauch refused to go to the law library, claiming the early morning times scheduled for her library visits were cutting into her sleep while not considering her medical issues.
Cy Gillespie, the commander of the security division at the jail, told the judge that when he went to get Stauch for her law library time, she told him her “drowsiness would interfere” due to the early morning time slots she was given.
Gillespie said that he reminded her that she can’t choose her own hours; he added that she should keep the hours given to her. Stauch asked Gillespie if he expected her “sleep all day,” then thanked him and asked him to pull her name off of the list for law library privileges, claiming that she didn’t need the law library.
On April 8, Stauch’s privileges to the law library were suspended for 90 days. On April 30, Werner accepted Stauch’s request to have the court appoint her counsel, but instead of a state attorney, he reappointed Stauch’s previous public defenders.
“Based on that request, the Court re-appoints the Office of the Public Defender on behalf of Stauch.”
What Happened to Gannon Stauch?
Last year, prosecutors said in a 32-page affidavit that that “probable cause exists to believe that” Letecia Stauch murdered her stepson. Text messages and Internet searches indicate that Stauch may have possibly been overwhelmed with taking care of Gannon.
Search queries allegedly found on Stauch’s phone included, in part:
- find real military singles
- parenting should be 4 people, not one
- ‘im doing all the work for my stepkids and their mom doesnt help
- I wonder if my husbands wife is sending me a card since I. raise. her. kids
- why should my husband choose me over family
- one day some people will wish. they treated you differently
- find me a rich guy who. wants me to take care of his kids
“Based on Letecia’s internet history, it’s reasonable to believe she was unhappily married to Mr. Stauch and had some degree of resentment toward the family as a stepparent,” the affidavit read. “Furthermore, days before Gannon’s murder, Letecia appeared to be researching a move to another state to a two-bedroom apartment.”
Stauch was the sole caregiver at the time of the boy’s disappearance. Gannon lived with Stauch and his father, Al Stauch.
Al Stauch was on a work trip with the U.S. National Guards in Oklahoma when his son vanished. Gannon’s biological mother, Landen Hiott, was in South Carolina. Gannon’s body was found months later, under a bridge in Pace, Florida.
According to the affidavit, Stauch brutally attacked and killed Gannon inside his bedroom on January 27, 2020. Despite a neighbor who said his video showed Stauch leaving with Gannon that morning and later returning home alone, investigators believe that “Gannon likely did return home with Letecia that afternoon,” and died inside the residence.
Evidence from inside Gannon’s bedroom includes blood spatter on the walls, blood that soaked through the carpet, 50 droplets of blood on the wall, blood on wall sockets, and blood on the boy’s mattress.
“Based on the orientation of Gannon’s bed, the vast majority of the blood would be in line with the position of his head and torso,” the affidavit read.
A store receipt obtained by investigators showed a purchase for baking soda, a carpet cleaner, and trash bags on January 27, after 6 p.m. Investigators obtained Stauch’s phone and according to text messages, she instructed her 17-year-old daughter to buy the items for her.
Prosecutors allege that Stauch used the purchased items to clean up the crime scene. Investigators said the 17-year-old was likely not present when Gannon was killed.
Letecia Stauch is facing charges of:
- Murder in the First-Degree (Child Under Twelve-Position of Trust §18-3-102(1)(f))
- Child Abuse Resulting in Death §18-6-401(1)(a), (7)(A)(I)
- Tampering with a Deceased Human Body, §18-8-610.5
- Tampering with Physical Evidence, §18-8-610(1)(a)
Additional Information
PART ONE: Tecia Stauch Interview
PART TWO: Tecia Stauch Interview
PART THREE: Tecia Stauch Interview
Neighbor Roderrick Drayton Interview
CLICK HERE to see all of our coverage on Gannon Stauch
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[Feature Photo: Gannon Stauch/Handout; Letecia Stauch via KRDO-TV/The Gazette/ AP, Pool]
