Attorneys for a woman accused of killing 11-year-old Gannon Stauch have asked a judge to postpone a court hearing scheduled for next week, saying that a COVID-19 outbreak at the El Paso County jail has interfered with a planned psychiatric evaluation.

Letecia Stauch, 37, is awaiting a second mental competency evaluation, after state psychiatrists in September found her competent to proceed to trial.

Woman accused in slaying of 11-year-old Gannon Stauch found competent to stand trial, will seek second opinion

Under state law, the defense is entitled to its own review. But a coronavirus outbreak that started Oct. 26 at the jail led the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office to halt visits to inmates, scuttling Dr. Jackie Grimmett’s Oct. 31 appointment to evaluate Stauch, the woman’s public defenders said in an Oct. 30 court filing. Grimmett cannot visit Stauch in jail until some time after Nov. 30, the motion said.

The coronavirus outbreak — which began with eight inmates — has since sickened at least 690 inmates, setting a record for the largest outbreak in a jail or prison in the state.

The motion asks 4^th Judicial District Judge Gregory Werner to push back Stauch’s Nov. 12 hearing to Dec. 14 to allow Grimmett a chance to examine Stauch and prepare a report on her findings. The judge has yet to rule on the request.

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Stauch is accused of first-degree murder, among other charges, in the January slaying of her stepson Gannon, whose remains were found in March in a suitcase left near a highway in the Florida panhandle, east of Pensacola, authorities said.

The case against Letecia Stauch was temporarily halted in June after her defense team raised concerns about her mental state. Evaluators at the Colorado State Mental Health Institute in Pueblo later concluded she was mentally fit to be prosecuted.

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If Grimmett’s findings conflict with those of state experts, a mental competency hearing would likely be held, leading the judge to rule on Stauch’s competency. She remains held without bail in the El Paso County jail, where she has drawn additional charges on suspicion of a failed escape attempt and claimed that she received threats that someone wanted to poison her.

In arrest documents, El Paso County sheriff’s investigators said they believe Gannon was killed with a knife or other weapon in his Lorson Ranch home, probably on Jan. 27, the day his stepmother reported him missing, setting off a search for the boy that attracted national attention.