Stepmom on trial for murder of 11-year-old tells boy’s dad on tapped Valentine’s call: ‘I don’t kill people’
The Colorado stepmother on trial for the murder of her 11-year-old stepson told the boy’s National Guardsman father on a recorded Valentine’s Day call “I don’t kill people.”
Letecia Stauch is accused of stabbing 11-year-old Gannon Stauch 18 times and shooting him in the head in his bedroom outside Colorado Springs a few hours before reporting him missing Jan. 27, 2020, while his father was on a National Guard deployment. When the boy was eventually presumed dead, she was arrested in her hometown of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in March 2020, and the boy’s body was discovered later that month in a suitcase prosecutors say Stauch dumped off a bridge in the Florida panhandle during the cross-country trek.
In taking the stand, the boy’s father, Albert Stauch, testified that he began working with investigators when he realized his then-wife’s stories about his missing son were not adding up.
In one call played out in court Wednesday, the boy had been missing for nearly three weeks when Albert Stauch called Letecia to wish her a Happy Valentine’s Day as detectives listened in.
Letecia Stauch pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the killing of her 11-year-old stepson, Gannon. The boy’s father took the stand this week. (El Paso County Sheriff’s Office via AP, File)
During the February 2020 call, Letecia Stauch repeatedly told her husband she wanted immunity before she would help. At one point, she blurted out, “I don’t kill people.”
In another call, Albert Stauch asked his now ex-wife directly if she had killed Gannon.
“Did you kill Gannon,” Albert Stauch asked.
“No,” Letecia Stauch replied, according to KUSA.
“OK. Did Gannon die on your watch, whether it was naturally or from some injury?” he asked again. “Did he have an accident of some nature, and you freak out and cover it up?”
Each time, Letecia Stauch answered “no.”
Albert Stauch testified that he played along with a variety of accounts his wife offered about what happened to Gannon to try to find out the truth.
However, he grew increasingly frustrated with her after she claimed a man named Quincy Jones had taken Gannon. The individual, according to Albert Stauch, was someone whose mugshot was easily found on a website for booking photos. In one call, Letecia told Albert that investigators were “barking up the wrong tree” by looking into her and not Jones.
She claimed the boy had an accident and was taken by the man she claimed to have met through Craigslist to purchase an exercise bike.
“He promised he was going to go back to his house to get some bandages and call 911,” Letecia told her then-husband.
Gannon Stauch was allegedly killed by his stepmother in January 2020. (El Paso County Sheriff’s Office)
Letecia Stauch had previously said that Gannon had not returned from playing with a friend, but she did not provide the names of any friends he may have been with or their parents. She later claimed that another man had raped her and then abducted Gannon, according to investigators.
When asked why there were no signs of struggle, Letecia Staunch claimed, “I cleaned it up. I got scared.”
She also tried to explain away the traces of Gannon’s blood found by saying he had been biting his fingernails so badly they were bleeding and later stepped on a nail in the garage.
“I’m done. Don’t email me, don’t call me until you tell me where my son is,” Albert Stauch eventually told his wife.
Letecia Stauch was charged with first-degree murder, tampering with a deceased human body and tampering with physical evidence. She pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in Gannon’s death. The defense claimed she suffered a “major psychotic crack” as a result of childhood trauma when she killed Gannon. Her lawyers have suggested she developed dissociative identity disorder as a result of being physically, emotionally and sexually abused by her absent mother’s string of partners during her childhood.
Authorities spent weeks searching for 11-year-old Gannon Stauch before his stepmother was arrested and his body was found in Florida. (El Paso County Sheriff’s Office)
However, District Attorney Michael Allen has repeatedly stressed that Stauch knew right from wrong, a key element he must show to disprove the insanity claim.
In response to questions from Allen, Albert Stauch said that everything, from his ex-wife’s ability to coach softball, to her reluctance to talk to investigators about Gannon’s disappearance, proved she knew right from wrong.
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In questioning Stauch, defense attorney Josh Tolini pointed out that Letecia Stauch had been seeing a psychologist in the months before Gannon was killed and had been prescribed medication that is used to treat anxiety. He also said that Stauch sometimes referred to herself as “Taylor.”
Albert Stauch said that was a name she liked, and had once used it as her middle name on her Facebook profile.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
