Letecia Stauch, accused of murdering her stepson Gannon Stauch over two years ago, changed her plea to not guilty by reason of insanity during a Friday afternoon status hearing, and said through her attorneys she’s considering waiving her jury trial over concerns she won’t be able to get a fair panel.

After pleading not guilty last November to killing 11-year-old Gannon Stauch in 2020, Letecia Stauch was granted her request to change that plea to not guilty by reason of insanity by Fourth Judicial District Judge Gregory Werner during a Friday afternoon status hearing.

I’m at the hearing for #LeticiaStauch. Judge Gregory Werner just called the case.

— esteban candelaria (@ubercandelaria) February 11, 2022

That request, defense attorney Josh Tolini said, was made because an expert who had reviewed some of the evidence in Stauch’s case indicated a “high likelihood of psychosis” which may qualify as an insanity defense. He noted the change in plea may restart the case’s speedy trial clock.

He added the request wasn’t being made to delay the trial, but because it was the best possible defense for Stauch.

Fourth Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen said the People didn’t object to good cause being found for the change in plea.

Per Colorado law for insanity pleas, he ordered Stauch to undergo a sanity evaluation at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo, where she’ll be held until that evaluation is completed. He agreed with Tolini’s assessment about the speedy trial clock resetting, but said that may not occur until the evaluation is in.

Defense attorneys also filed a Feb. 4 motion to dismiss the jury trial in the case, a decision Stauch alone can make under Colorado law. Tolini said Stauch was considering waiving the jury trial over concerns that due to her case’s “massive amount of pre-trial publicity, she will not be able to find a fair jury pool.”

Stauch’s trial, previously estimated to last around six weeks, is currently set to start March 28.

Allen said the People didn’t consent to a waiver of a jury trial because they didn’t know what the sanity evaluation would say, adding they may change their minds based on the report and that decision should be addressed later.

Werner, speaking to Stauch directly, said that in his experience, jurors are conscientious and that generally, “by the time we get through selection […] they come in with a pretty open mind about what should be done.”

The alternative to a jury trial, a court trial in which Werner alone would judge the facts of the case and deliver a verdict, “would just be my viewpoint and my viewpoint only,” he told Stauch.

Werner left that ruling to a later date, with prosecutors and defense attorneys agreeing they could make a better determination as they received further information on Stauch’s mental evaluation. Tolini added he would continue to speak with Stauch on whether to waive the jury trial.

All sides indicated the trial date currently set for March 28 would be difficult to keep given the pending mental evaluation, but Werner kept the date in place with the plan of reconvening on the issue at a review hearing set for March 17.

Prosecutors in September presented evidence linking Stauch to the murder, including blood linked to Gannon that was found on Stauch’s shoe, tracking data showing she had traveled to an area near where Gannon’s body was found, and her DNA, which was found on a gun tied to the killing.

Defense attorneys sought to create doubt that Stauch committed the murder by suggesting that someone else could have entered the home around the time Gannon died, and sought to tie home security data with the unknown DNA on the gun investigators found.

But FBI agent Andrew Cohen testified in September that Stauch was the only person investigators believe could have committed the murder.

“I haven’t seen any evidence of anyone else coming into the house,” Cohen said.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct the year of which Stauch is accused of killing her stepson Gannon Stauch.