Letecia Stauch has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for the 2020 murder of her stepson,11-year-old Gannon Stauch.
Gannon Stauch; Letecia Stauch.El Paso County Sheriff’s Office; El Paso County Sheriff’s Office via AP
Prior to her sentencing, the judge, Gregory Werner, said that the “facts in this case are the most horrific I have ever seen,” according toCBS Colorado.
He added that Stauch’s “conduct in this case deserves the maximum sentence that I can impose according to Colorado law.”
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“There is no time during the minutes, hours and days following the murder where Letecia came out and wondered ‘Gee, why am I carrying a body around a body in my luggage?’ That just isn’t credible,” Werner said, per AP.
Stauch was accused ofstabbing Gannon 18 timesbefore hitting him in the head and shooting him.
Hisbody was foundabout two weeks later in a suitcase below a bridge in Florida.
“Evidence recovered from the residence and inside Gannon’s bedroom supports that a violent event occurred in the bedroom,” read the affidavit, “which caused bloodshed, including blood spatter on the walls, and enough blood loss to stain his mattress, soak through the carpet, the carpet pad, and stain the concrete below his bed.”
According to the affidavit, Stauch asked her 17-year-old daughter to purchase trash bags, baking soda and carpet powder on the same day, which investigators said were used to clean up blood.
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At one point, Grusing told Stauch that her internet search history had been obtained, and showed searches including “I don’t like my stepson” and “blood spurting from arterial bleed,” theColorado Springs Gazettereported.
Throughout the case, Stauch concocted various stories to mislead investigators, according to AP. She even claimed that a man she had hired to repair a carpet raped her and then abducted her stepson.
Gannon’s father, Al Stauch, divorced hershortly after her arrest in March 2020.
AP reported that Al Stauch allowed the FBI to listen to his phone calls with his then-wife after he became suspicious of her.
Before Stauch’s sentencing in court on Monday, Gannon’s father spoke to the courtroom and requested that her sentencing include a year for every mile she drove from Colorado to Florida, where she dumped Gannon’s body in 2020, according to local affiliateFox 21 News.
The outlet reported that the judge told Stauch, “You took away everything Gannon was and everything he could’ve been.”
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source: people.com
