EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. — The murder trial of Letecia Stauch, the El Paso County woman accused of murdering her step-son, continued Wednesday with cross-examination of the defense's key witness.
The defense team started the day by filing a motion to drop all charges against Letecia Stauch, specifically the first-degree murder charges. Josh Tolini, Letecia's lawyer, claimed there is a lack of evidence from the prosecution proving that the murder of Gannon was premeditated by Stauch.
District Attorney Michael Allen said there’s been more than enough evidence of premeditation, including the internet searches for apartments in Florida and employment opportunities found on found on Stauch’s phone before Gannon's disappearance.
Cross-examination continued for Dr. Dorothy Lewis, a psychiatrist who conducted a sanity evaluation on Letecia Stauch on November 17. Cross-examination from prosecutor Dave Young became heated Tuesday as he pressed Dr. Lewis about her credibility and evaluation.
Young asked about dissociative identity disorder (DID) and the controversy around it. It is widely debated by psychology experts.
“The essential controversy is whether people believe it exists or not,” said Dr. Lewis.
Young asked Dr. Lewis how she knows if someone is acting out their symptoms.
“What I do is be able to show that there were unmistakable signs of switches, changes, different states and different abilities to function, long before I was ever asked to be in any case,” said Dr. Lewis.
Dr. Lewis said she remembered in her notes about Stauch, “Someone had said when she was younger, she asked to be called Maria… That in and of itself is not a proof of anything, but it’s a confirmation if you have a lot of other things that go along with it.”
As Dr. Lewis described her notes about the incident, DA Allen continually shook his head.
Young told Dr. Lewis, “Your obligation as an expert is to turn over all information… Why was that not in your report?”
“This is an observation as you go through hundreds of pages of notes, so I’ll jot it down and think,"Gee, that’s kind of interesting,"” replied Dr. Lewis.
Young asked Dr. Lewis if she had considered that Stauch’s family members said they didn’t notice Stauch showing signs of DID.
“I didn’t think about that specifically… it’s interesting that they did not notice this,” said Dr. Lewis.
“Do you think anyone who commits murder has a brain injury?” asked Young. “No,” replied Dr. Lewis.
Young then asked Dr. Lewis' opinion about Stauch calling Gannon's school and saying he would not be there.
“It’s a puzzle why she called in saying that he could not go to school,” the psychiatrist said.
“So it had nothing to do with planning?” Young asked. “I don’t know. It could’ve had to do with planning," Dr. Lewis replied.
Young asked Dr. Lewis about Stauch's alleged use of three separate instruments to kill the boy.
“Does that tell you she has the capacity to inform the intent to kill?” asked Young. “I don’t know… I can’t be certain what was going on in her head," the psychiatrist said.
“I don’t know why she had a gun in her hand or why she shot Gannon," Dr. Lewis continued. "It is not clear that she simply wanted to kill. This is a child she loved. If we want to believe what other people said, she loved Gannon."
The prosecutor asked Dr. Lewis if she believed Stauch knew right from wrong when she allegedly put Gannon's body in the back of a car and drove to the airport.
“I don’t feel qualified to conclude that. She certainly had the capacity to move it from one place to another. Whether or not she felt this was right or wrong, I can’t speculate,” said Dr. Lewis. “Any speculation is possible. If the body is in your car, you may want to avoid going anywhere near that car.”
Video from Dr. Lewis' sanity evaluation of Letecia Stauch were played for the courtroom.
“Going into this interview, did you have any concerns that Mrs. Stauch may not be truthful with you," Young asked Dr. Lewis, to which she replied, "Of course."
In the evaluation, Stauch said she calls her lawyer Josh Tolini by his first name, but her alter-ego, Maria, calls him a**hole in Spanish. Stauch then descrobed her ego, Jasmine, saying she has a lot of risky behaviors, gets into trouble, drinks a lot and parties a lot.
“I’m not a partier,” said Stauch. “I can be at work and be okay, and then something really stressful happened, and then I’ll end up on a plane somewhere… My body goes through the motions."
Dr. Lewis testified about when Stauch said she talked to a friend in Russian. At one point in the evaluation, Stauch began speaking to Dr. Lewis in a language that was not English.
"It ain’t Russian. It’s some kind of entity that sounds like Russian,” Dr. Lewis testified.
"I am all over the place... It was not my intention to hurt Gannon. No, absolutely not. I loved Gannon... It would not be to hurt a child. Absolutely not,” Stauch said in the evaluation. “I’m being projected as some monster, and you don’t know that this is not me. I don’t do these things.”
“I thought this was one big nightmare… Sometimes I don’t know what’s going on and what’s not really going on," Stauch continued. "But when bad things happen to good people, it’s hard — especially because I’m sitting there lost."
During the evaluation, Stauch said she was planning to leave her husband, claiming Gannon told her to leave then asked to come with her.
“He knew I was leaving to go back home to the East Coast. I said, "Son, I can’t do that. It’s kidnapping,"" Stauch told Dr. Lewis. "If I would’ve just did that, everyone would’ve just been fine."
Jurors were shown a clip of an interaction between Dr. Lewis and Stauch which allegedly showed one of Stauch's alternate personalities.
"I’m not a violent person. I’m not violent at all… I don’t do this to people. If someone is trying to hurt people, I’m going to make sure they’re okay because that’s what I do each and every time,” said Stauch.
“Who am I talking to?” asked Dr. Lewis. "Taylor,” Stauch replied before apologizing for allegedly not remembering what the two were talking about.
“This is a technique — the way in which we learned about how do you get to talk to alternate senses of self. We ask them, "How would we get to talk to this person?"" Dr. Lewis testified about the clip. "By and large, they have a special place that they go. It is known.”
"How do you know she’s not fooling you," asked Young. “Watch. Listen. See what she’s consistent with,” replied Dr. Lewis.
Before court resumed after afternoon recess, Young went on the record saying he does not want Dr. Lewis to testify or talk about documents that include signatures from Letecia Stauch and a confession in Latin. The defense agreed that those would not be discussed because Dr. Lewis “lost them.”
Dr. Lewis then began talking about documents and said she had them in her lap.
"This is exactly what I predicted. This was going to happen," Young said, showing signs of frustration.
Judge Gregory Werner asked Young and Tolini to look over the documents during a 15-minute recess.
Following the recess, Werner addressed the people in the gallery.
“There is a child who lost his life and a woman who may be facing a life sentence," he said, adding that no one who is testifying is an actor, and everyone who’s testifying has a connection to the case.
Young returned to the courtroom and asked Dr. Lewis if she knew the importance of turning over notes during a homicide investigation.
“Whatever she signed there, whatever I had was turned over to Mr. Tolini to be copied and shared with you,” said Dr. Lewis.
Young then brought up an email sent by Dr. Lewis to Tolini that said, “I have been reading more on Letecia, and I think we should drop the EEG request.” Young asked why Dr. Lewis told the jury Tuesday that she never requested to withdraw the EEG.
"I’m saying there’s other things that need to be addressed. I did not consider this withdrawing it permanently. I did not wish to fight with the court of are you getting this or are you not," replied Dr. Lewis.
Then, more video of the sanity evaluation was shown to the jury. In the clip, Stauch was discussing her alleged different personalities and said she was Taylor in that moment.
“How honest are you with me?” asked Dr. Lewis. “I am honest with you,” replied Stauch.
“On January 27, 2020, I had reported Gannon missing because he was. I was calm first because I didn’t think anything was wrong," Stauch continued in the evaluation. "I thought he was just playing a hiding challenge and he would be okay. I thought he would eventually come out of his hiding spot."
“I need to talk to Maria,” probed Dr. Lewis. Prior to this, Letecia wrote down on a piece of paper, “Maria said she will come on her terms, but don’t think she answers to anyone… Letecia can only talk to her. Not me (Taylor)."
“He was missing and then I called 911. I started to panic after a couple of minutes. That’s when I started to get worried because I realized that it started to rain and get cold outside,” said Stauch.
Stauch, still allegedly as Taylor, said Gannon wasn’t supposed to die.
“I did try to bring him back. I started praying over him and trying to bring him back to life. He didn’t come back to life," said Stauch. "Where was he lying?" asked Dr. Lewis. "In my arms," replied Stauch.
“I am not a monster. I’m not a monster… People thinking I’m just a mass murderer and I just killed someone. Under no circumstances did I know it was Gannon… I never knew it was him,” Stauch continued.
In the video, Stauch began to talk with a Russian accent and said there was someone in the home who was trying to hurt them.
“You don’t understand. I had to protect the people that were in the house. I had to protect them, and that’s all I did," said Stauch allegedly as Maria. “I’m trying to kill. That’s what I do — that’s what I do for a living. I took the gun and fired the gun at someone who had a cape on — a dangerous man."
Dr. Lewis asked where Stauch got the accent
"This is how I talk,” Stauch replied. “That’s what I do — I killed the man. I will protect the people that I love. That’s what I always do. I did what I was supposed to do. I killed a threat."
Dr. Lewis said it’s nice to meet Maria and went to shake Stauch's hand. Stauch then fist-bumped Dr. Lewis.
The jurors were then shown another clip that began with Dr. Lewis reading a confession that was written by Stauch's alter-ego Maria in Latin.
In the clip, Stauch said she gets flashbacks from the day Gannon was killed.
“Blood, cape… I remember seeing someone in a cape… I remember a baby crying and then seeing someone in a cape,” said Stauch.
Stauch identified herself as Maria to Dr. Lewis.
“Why did she get rid of Gannon’s body?” asked Lewis. “She did not do that… I know a lot of people,” said Stauch.
When asked about shooting the man in a cape, Dr. Lewis asked, “Did it turn out to be Gannon?” Stauch replied, “Not until later. Later on it was Gannon, but it wasn’t supposed to be. I had to call some friends to help me out… to help get the body.”
“What would you do if a man was in your home?” asked Dr. Lewis. “Probably run like hell,” replied Stauch. “I do different things. I have a special training in my past life.”
When asked about shooting, Stauch, allegedly as Maria, said, “I don’t care that I hurt people because it’s for the good. I don’t shoot crappy shots. My first thought was to get rid of the body.”
“How do you feel about [Stauch's daughter] Harley?” questioned Lewis.
“That has nothing to do with me ma’am," Stauch replied. "I protect Letecia."
In the video, Tolini can be heard asking, “How did Gannon get all the cuts on him?” Stauch replied, “There was no cuts. I don’t know anything about cuts. I did not know this, I did not cut anyone.”
The court then adjourned for the day. Testimony will continue Thursday.
