DENVER — The woman found guilty of killing her stepson in 2020 is trying to appeal her conviction, and the latest step in the process came Tuesday with oral arguments presented in front of Colorado Court of Appeals judges.

Letecia Stauch, 42, was convicted in May 2023 of stabbing her stepson, 11-year-old Gannon, 18 times, beating him with an unknown blunt object and shooting him once in the head at their home in unincorporated El Paso County southeast of Colorado Springs.

She was sentenced to two life sentences without parole, 12 years in prison for tampering with a deceased human body and 18 months for tampering with physical evidence.

Court records show she filed for appeal after the conviction, but oral arguments would not come until Tuesday, when both parties addressed a panel of three Colorado Court of Appeals judges.

Oral arguments

Concerns over whether a juror should have been allowed to sit on the case took center stage during Tuesday’s short hearing.

During jury selection, it was learned that one of the jurors had a son-in-law employed as a deputy district attorney in the El Paso County District Attorney’s Office, something the defense initially objected to, attorney Eric Samler said.

Despite this, the juror served as an alternate — later going on to fill the role of a juror who was dismissed during the trial.

“The court was presented with the facts necessary to establish the statutory relationship and the juror served,” the defense wrote in a May 2024 brief. “This is a structural error requiring reversal of the convictions.”

Prosecutors at the time said the juror had not said anything during questioning to show he had bias, Senior Assistant Attorney General Katharine Gillespie said Tuesday.

Gillespie argued that when the juror in question was moved from the alternate position, the defense did not object. She questioned if this was a strategic plan to possibly have grounds for appeal.

Samler denied that the decision not to object again was a plan for a later appeal, saying the best way to win an appeal is to just win at trial instead.

Samler continued, saying the fault falls on the trial judge for not knowing the law correctly.

“The court got it wrong,” Samler said.

No decision on the appeal was made Tuesday, but a ruling is to be expected at a later date.

How the case started

Stauch reported her stepson missing from their Lorson Ranch home in January 2020. She killed Gannon in his bedroom and hid his body in a suitcase, according to past Gazette coverage.

In the weeks that followed, Stauch seemingly tried to cover her tracks by telling a series of “fictitious stories” and hiding evidence. She was eventually arrested on March 2, 2020, in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Evidence in the 2023 trial showed that Stauch moved the suitcase containing Gannon’s body from a basement storage room to a parking lot at the Colorado Springs Airport, then to a wooded area near Palmer Lake, eventually throwing it off a bridge in Florida, where it was found on March 18, 2020.

On Feb. 11, 2022, Stauch pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to four counts in connection with Gannon’s murder. 

Stauch’s defense didn’t deny that she killed her stepson, but argued the killing happened during a psychotic breakdown.

Stauch’s trial began with jury selection on March 20, 2023, and took five weeks to complete. She was found guilty and sentenced on May 8, 2023.

Civil lawsuit dismissal

Stauch challenged the conditions of her confinement in the El Paso County jail prior to being convicted of murder.

While incarcerated before her 2023 trial, Stauch filed a lawsuit against the county and the jail’s medical and food providers. She claimed staff were inappropriately labeling her food, violating the sanitary requirements for a kosher diet and then delayed or denied her food in retaliation of her complaints.

Stauch also alleged the jail was not providing proper medical treatment to her.

The defendants moved to dismiss the lawsuit, according to past Gazette coverage, but Stauch repeatedly failed to respond to court orders or filings.

In an Aug. 8, 2024, order, U.S. District Court Judge S. Kato Crews decided to dismiss Stauch’s lawsuit due to her failure to prosecute. Crews cited Stauch’s pattern of nonresponse and noncompliance with the procedural rules.