Sane or insane? That is the driving question in the trial of Letecia Stauch, who is accused of killing her 11-year-old stepson Gannon Stauch in January 2020. 

During opening statements on Monday afternoon in a near-capacity El Paso County courtroom, prosecutors and defense attorneys said they believe they have the answer to the question of sanity, and that they plan to present expert testimony to prove it. 

District Attorney Michael Allen told the 18-person jury composed of 11 men and seven women that a report from the state hospital in Pueblo found  Letecia Stauch, 39, to be sane at the time she allegedly killed her stepson. 

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Defense attorney Will Cook claims that a defense-hired expert, Dr. Dorothy Lewis, found Letecia Stauch had a “psychotic crack” at the time she allegedly killed Gannon Stauch, and thus, found her insane. 

Allen began his opening statement by displaying a picture of Gannon Stauch and telling the jury that the case will come down to insanity, and that by the end of the trial the prosecution will prove Letecia Stauch was sane at the time of Gannon Stauch’s killing. 

When Allen showed the picture of Gannon to the court, several family members in attendance could be heard crying, including one woman who ran out of the courtroom in tears. 

Gannon’s father, Al Stauch, was one of several members of Gannon’s family who were in attendance on Monday afternoon. 

“The evidence will show she could distinguish between right and wrong,” Allen told the jury. 

Allen walked the jury through the evidence that the prosecution plans to show, including how Letecia Stauch allegedly stabbed her stepson 18 times as he fought back before shooting him three times, and how she allegedly drove his body to Florida in the trunk of her car in a suitcase before throwing it over a bridge into a river below.

Allen alleges that all of this evidence, as well as testimony from psychiatrists at the state hospital in Pueblo, will prove that Letecia Stauch was sane at the time of Gannon Stauch’s killing. 

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During his opening statement Allen showed several pictures that prosecutors will enter into evidence, including alleged blood stains found in Gannon Stauch’s bedroom and a picture of the suitcase that Letecia Stauch allegedly used to hide Gannon Stauch’s body.  

“The defendant took deliberate actions to hide those crimes from the world,” Allen said. 

Allen ended his opening statement by playing audio of Stauch’s call to 911 to report her stepson as missing. When the dispatcher asks Stauch about the last person to have seen the boy alive, she responds: “I guess me?” 

In his opening statement, Cook said most people already think his client is “guilty” or “evil.” Cook then pretended to walk out of the courtroom acting defeated before returning to say he “can’t just check out now” because it “wouldn’t be fair to (Letecia Stauch).”

“We have lost in the court of public opinion and in the media; she is guilty,” Cook told the jurors. “Do your job. Listen to the evidence. … That is all I’m asking of you. Give us a fair shake.” 

Cook also displayed a selfie of Letecia Stauch and Gannon Stauch that Cook alleges was taken the day before Gannon Stauch’s death. When the selfie was shown in court Letecia Stauch could be heard quietly crying at the defense table. 

During the majority of opening statements Letecia Stauch had her head in her hands, not turning around once to look at the people sitting in the courtroom behind her. 

“Behind those photos and smiles Ms. Stauch … was dealing with trauma and abuse that had been going (on) since she was a toddler,” Cook said, referring to the alleged assault and molestation that Letecia Stauch endured as a child. 

This trauma, Cook said, led to her developing dissociative identity order and that Dr. Lewis found Letecia Stauch to be insane at the time of Gannon Stauch’s killing.

“You must, to be fair and impartial, you must believe it (insanity) is a valid defense,” Cook said. 

During jury selection, which began two weeks ago, a number of potential jurors were dismissed from the jury pool after questioning the validity of a not guilty by reason of insanity plea. 

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The defense’s expert, Dr. Lewis, is a former clinical professor of psychiatry at Yale University, the author of several books on the insanity plea and the subject of the documentary “Crazy, Not Insane.”

The documentary outlines Lewis’ work with notorious killers such as Ted Bundy, Arthur Shawcross, John Allen Muhammad and many others.

To finish his opening statements, Cook claimed that the prosecution’s lack of a motive will prove that Letecia Stauch was insane, and that she should be found not guilty by reason of insanity.  

“You’re going to have countless witnesses, evidence, exhibits, photos and videos,” Cook told the jury. “You know what you’re not going to hear? A motive.

“The reason is there is no motive; there is no reason. It doesn’t make sense. It’s insane.”

The prosecution will call its first witness on Tuesday morning, and the trial is expected to last at least six weeks. 

Letecia Stauch faces 12 charges including first-degree murder, child abuse and tampering with evidence. If found guilty of the first-degree murder charge, she would be given a mandatory sentence of life in prison, per Colorado law.

Letecia Stauch originally faced 13 charges, but Allen told Judge Gregory Werner that prosecutors were dismissing the charge of child abuse resulting in death. 

In addition to the murder trial, Letecia Stauch faces a second case in which she is accused of attempting to escape from the El Paso County jail in May 2020. The second case is on hold until the completion of the first-degree murder trial.