Letecia Stauch trial: Cross-examination of defense expert gets heated
Letecia Stauch’s trial became heated on Wednesday when the prosecution continued its cross-examination of defense expert Dr. Dorothy Lewis, who claims Stauch was insane at the time she allegedly killed her 11-year-old stepson Gannon Stauch.
Lewis began her testimony on Tuesday, where she told the defense on direct that she concluded Stauch suffers from dissociative identity disorder and was insane at the time she killed Gannon. Lewis’ testimony vastly differs from the conclusion of forensic psychologist Loandra Torres, who testified last week that Stauch was sane at the time she allegedly killed Gannon, and that she does not suffer from dissociative identity disorder.
Cross-examination of Lewis on Tuesday was tense, but paled in comparison to the heated cross-examination on Wednesday, which took all day to complete.
Prosecutor Dave Young, in a potential attempt to damage Lewis’ credibility in the eyes of the jury and show a lack of knowledge of the case, grilled Lewis on Stauch’s actions before and after Gannon’s death. Young asked after each piece of information whether Lewis knew Stauch had done the action being referred to, such as hiding Gannon’s body in the trunk of her car at the airport, and if she had the capacity to understand right from wrong at that time.
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Lewis responded to the majority of these lines of questioning with “she wasn’t sure,” or “didn’t know.”
Lewis complained at several points during her testimony that she was unable to conduct an MRI and an electroencephalogram (EEG) on Stauch, something she claims would have significantly supported her findings.
The prosecution also opted to play five different video clips of Lewis’ interview with Stauch, conducted over several days in November 2022, that show Stauch flipping between her alleged personalities while speaking with Lewis.
In the first two videos, Stauch can be heard discussing some of her alleged personalities with Lewis, saying that her personality Jasmine would sometimes take over and go on trips around the world to places like Dubai.
Immediately following the first video, Young confirmed with Lewis that Stauch had never been to Dubai.
In the third video clip, Stauch transforms into one of her alleged personalities, which is the first evidence of her doing so far in trial. Stauch in the video claims she is Taylor and informs Lewis that she can’t speak to the Maria personality, who Stauch claims in several different interviews was the one responsible for killing Gannon.
In the fourth and fifth videos played to the jury, Stauch can be seen donning a foreign accent — Lewis testified she believed it was a Russian accent — stating she is “Maria Sanchez” and says that she was the personality who had shot Gannon, saying she saw a man in a “black cape” and shot him.
“You don’t understand — I had to protect the people in the home,” Stauch said to Lewis while claiming to be Maria.
“I’m trained to kill,” Stauch said at least five times during the interview.
In the fifth and final interview Stauch, speaking as Maria, continues to take responsibility for Gannon’s murder, insists that Stauch had nothing to do with Gannon’s death, and that Stauch had no knowledge of dumping Gannon’s body in Florida.
Stauch acting as Maria continued to deny ever stabbing Gannon, just admitting to shooting him.
In the first week of the trial, Susan Ignacio, a medical examiner from Florida, testified that Gannon was stabbed 18 times and suffered four blunt-force trauma injuries and one gunshot to the head.
For nearly the entirety of all five video clips, which combined were about two hours long, Stauch could be seen at the defendant’s table with her head facing directly down at the table, almost never looking up to watch the videos. At several points during the day when video of the interviews was being played, Stauch could be seen putting her hands over her ears.
At points on Wednesday, Young’s questioning of Lewis boiled over into nearly hostile territory, with the most heated moments coming during points where Lewis referred to notes that had not been previously entered into evidence.
The first example came in the morning, when Lewis informed Young she had a note from one of her interviews that alleged Stauch liked to be called Maria as a child, but that she “forgot” to mention this note on Tuesday. Lewis also could not recall how she learned the information contained in the note.
Young was visibly unhappy that the note was never entered into evidence, which is required under Colorado law for forensic interviews of defendants, and that this was the first time he was hearing of it.
The second instance came in the afternoon, immediately after the lunch break. Before the jury was called in, Young informed the court that he wanted to confirm on the record that a piece of paper signed by Stauch during one of the forensic interviews was lost, and that Lewis would not pull it out mid-testimony.
Stauch’s defense attorney Josh Tolini and Lewis confirmed that the document was lost, until about 20 minutes into the afternoon session, when Lewis stated she actually did have those documents with her.
“Did I not say this was going to happen?” Young remarked immediately after.
After Judge Gregory Werner removed the jury from the courtroom, Young and Tolini reviewed the documents Lewis had brought with her and informed the court that the signed document in question was not present. Werner ruled that Lewis could not have her file of notes with her for the remainder of her testimony.
Young’s frustration boiled over again just minutes later, when he asked Lewis “yes or no,” does Lewis have the notes from the interview that was just played. Lewis responded “yes,” but Tolini had to confirm again that the documents signed by Stauch in the interview were not in the notes that Lewis had with her.
Wednesday’s proceedings ended with Stauch informing Werner that she would not be testifying, and Tolini informing Werner that the defense would be resting its case on Friday morning. Closing arguments are expected to be given at that time.
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