More than three years since Gannon Stauch’s body was found in northern Florida, his alleged killer and stepmom Letecia Stauch’s trial is nearly ready to begin opening statements. 

Stauch’s trial began March 20 with jury selection, where attorneys worked to select a pool of potential jurors to call back on April 3.

Robert McCallum, the public information officer for the Colorado Judicial Department, confirmed to The Gazette that a pool of 120 potential jurors had completed being assembled earlier this week. Attorneys on Monday will work toward narrowing down the 120-person pool to an 18-person jury, with opening statements expected to be given that afternoon. 

Testimony and evidence presentation aren’t expected to begin until Tuesday, according to McCallum. 

Gannon Stauch was first reported missing on Jan. 27, 2020, by his stepmom, Letecia Stauch, 39. 

Over the course of the five-week investigation into Gannon Stauch’s whereabouts, detectives began to suspect that Letecia Stauch had killed her stepson and reported her missing, despite Letecia Stauch publicly maintaining her innocence throughout the investigation.

Missing boy’s stepmother slams El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, claims rights violated

On March 3, 2020, Letecia Stauch was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and tampering with a corpse for allegedly killing Gannon Stauch. 

A few weeks later on March 18, the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office in Florida announced it had discovered Gannon Stauch’s remains. District Attorney Michael Allen, one of three prosecutors trying this case, said during jury selection that evidence in the trial will show Gannon Stauch was shot, stabbed, and beaten before being put in a suitcase by Letecia Stauch and driven to Florida, where she threw the suitcase over a bridge into a river below. 

Previous reporting from The Gazette details that during Letecia Stauch’s transport from South Carolina to Colorado, she assaulted a transporting deputy somewhere in Kansas. 

Stauch would go on to make her first appearance in Colorado 4th Judicial District Court on March 9, 2020, more than three years before the first day of her trial last Monday. 

Gannon’s parents watch as stepmom appears in court on murder charge

Over the past three years, several delays have occurred in Stauch’s case. Initially, delays occurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic that began to impact all court proceedings in El Paso County around the time she was arrested in March 2020. 

The case against Stauch would continue to encounter problems in 2021, when she had numerous disputes with her public defenders, at one point insinuating she may represent herself in a trial.

Stauch would later go on to drop her bid to represent herself in trial and hire defense attorneys Josh Tolini and Will Cook to represent her.

The last significant delays were incurred due to Stauch choosing to switch her plea from not guilty to not guilty by reason of insanity in February 2022. 

The new plea required Stauch to have two separate sanity evaluations conducted on her. The first sanity evaluation, conducted by psychiatrists at the state hospital in Pueblo found her to be sane, Judge Gregory Werner stated in August. 

The findings of the second sanity evaluation, conducted by defense expert Dr. Dorothy Lewis, were unknown until last week when Tolini reported to potential jurors that Lewis found Stauch to be insane at the time of the incident. 

Lewis is a former clinical professor of psychiatry at Yale University, the author of several books on the topic of 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 Muhammed and many others.

Opening statements are expected to be given Monday afternoon in the Stauch trial, expected to last six to eight weeks. 

The prosecution’s endorsed witness list obtained by The Gazette is over 150 people long.

Stauch faces 13 charges including first-degree murder, child abuse and tampering with evidence. If found guilty of the first-degree murder charge, Stauch will be given a mandatory sentence of life of prison, per Colorado law. 

In addition to the murder trial, 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 against Stauch is on hold until the completion of the first-degree murder trial.