COLORADO SPRINGS — Testimony in the second week of Letecia Stauch's murder trial opened with a review of the autopsy report showing her stepson's injuries.
According to the medical examiner, Gannon Stauch, 11, was shot, stabbed, and beaten before being placed in a suitcase and dumped on the side of the road in Florida.
Susan Ignacio is an associate medical examiner in Largo, Florida. She testified there were 18 sharp force injuries and four lacerations associated with blunt force trauma to Gannon's body. Ignacio said some of the injuries are consistent with defensive wounds.
She also noted hydrocodone was found in the victim's system during the autopsy. She said it’s unusual to find this prescribed controlled substance in a child’s system.
The cause of death was determined to be a gunshot wound and blunt force trauma to the head.
Al Stauch, Gannon's dad, was called to the witness stand. He testified about how he injured his finger in May 2019 and got prescription medications to deal with the pain, including hydrocodone. He said only he and Letecia knew where it was kept.
The next witness to be called to the stand is Andrew Cohen, a special agent for the FBI since 2014. District Attorney Michael Allen said Cohen will be testifying more than once during this trial. Cohen said he was involved in the wiretap investigation into Letecia Stauch. He said it was apparent that Letecia was switching the way she was communicating after Gannon’s disappearance.
Cohen said Letecia had her original phone taken by law enforcement shortly after Gannon was reported missing. He said Letecia then bought a phone from a Walmart in Trinidad, Colorado, then left the state. He said the phone was purchased using a name that wasn’t hers.
The courtroom listened to four wiretap phone calls initiated by Letecia in February 2020. Cohen said the phone number that Letecia called was connected to a website for fake polygraphs. On one of the wiretap phone calls, Letecia asked about a report she made to the fake polygraph company that included questions about infidelity.
Cohen said Letecia had contacted Al Stauch about the results of the fake polygraph. She told him she had passed the polygraph test, and continued vouching for her innocence and that she had nothing to do with Gannon’s disappearance.
The next witness who was called to the stand was Christina Cervantez. In early 2020, she was an evidence technician with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office. Cervantez said she received several phone calls from callers saying they would like certain items and pieces of the property back that belonged to Letecia Stauch.
Cervantez said she received several phone calls from Letecia herself, and several phone calls that allegedly sounded like Letecia, where she claimed to be her daughter, Harley. Cervantez told her they cannot release any of the items because they are being held as evidence in the case.
This ended Cervantez's testimony.
The next witness called was Detective Michael Bauman, a digital forensics detective with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office. He said his job is to find and preserve data that may be evidence on electronic devices like computers, cell phones, and DVRs.
Bauman said he created a report for two devices during the Stauch investigation, a cell phone that belonged to Letecia, and another cell phone that was seized from Letecia when she was in South Carolina.
The next witness called to the stand was Detective Christina Perry with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office. In early 2020, she was assigned to look into social media pages to gather more information or find any notable leads into Gannon’s disappearance.
Perry testified, saying after she learned that Letecia had a rental car, she searched for Letecia’s car at local schools and at the Colorado Springs Airport, and she said they could not find Letecia’s car.
Perry said she was there for a conversation between Harley, Letecia’s daughter, and law enforcement after Gannon’s disappearance. Perry said anytime she mentioned anything about Gannon’s disappearance, Harley refused to say anything. Perry said she found that odd.
Detective Perry said they searched local dumpsters, a landfill and more to find evidence, but they didn’t find anything. Perry said she was also made aware of a $2,600 transaction from Harley’s account to Letecia’s account after Gannon's disappearance. Perry said this made investigators think that she was moving money to be able to flee the state.
Perry also testified saying Letecia showed up late for an interview at the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office. Perry said that Letecia was driving the vehicle they had been searching for, and she said it appeared that Letecia’s vehicle had just been washed.
Perry said investigators got a tracking warrant to be aware of Letecia’s location, and a tracking unit was placed on Letecia’s vehicle.
Clips of surveillance video from a neighbor’s home were then played for the court. In it, Letecia walked to the vehicle and backed it into the driveway. Gannon then walked to the vehicle and got inside. The vehicle left at 10:15 a.m. on Jan. 27. The vehicle returned around 2:30 p.m. Perry said Letecia got out of the vehicle, and there was also a shadow with what appears to be Gannon stepping outside of the vehicle.
On Friday, jurors in the Letecia Stauch trial learned more about the evidence in the case, including the suitcase Gannon Stauch's body was found in, the 12-hour stay at a Florida hotel a week after her stepson disappeared, the local school she just got hired at, and suspicious text messages with her neighbor. Click here for a day 4 testimony wrap-up.
Stauch has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in this case.
Background of Gannon’s disappearance
At the time of his disappearance, law enforcement began a search for Gannon based on information provided by the stepmother, who claimed he had gone to a friend’s house and had not returned.
Following several weeks of law enforcement and community-led searches for the missing boy, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office arrested Letecia Stauch in early March on charges of murder, child abuse, and crime of violence before his body was recovered.
Throughout all efforts to locate Gannon, investigators were already focused on Letecia Stauch based on her statements to law enforcement and evidence found at the family home and within her car.
During an initial interview with detectives, Letecia Stauch claimed a Hispanic male had raped her and kidnapped Gannon. According to court documents, she refused to undergo a medical examination to find evidence of a sexual assault and refused to provide any further description of an attacker. She later provided many different versions of events, which investigators detailed in the arrest affidavit.
Investigators believe Gannon was shot, stabbed, and beaten in his basement bedroom by the stepmother on Jan. 27, 2020. A forensic search of the family home found blood stains on the boy’s mattress, carpet, baseboards, and electrical socket by his bed.
Police say Gannon’s body was loaded into Stauch’s Volkswagen Tiguan to hide his body before she parked the car at the Colorado Springs Airport where she rented another vehicle and picked up his father after he traveled for military service.
One of the areas searched by law enforcement was a stretch of Highway 105 in Douglas County where investigators recovered a piece of bloody wood. The arrest affidavit states investigators believe Gannon’s body was originally dumped at this location using her Volkswagen, but she later returned to the area in another vehicle.
Gannon’s remains were eventually found on March 17, 2020 inside a suitcase dumped under a bridge near Pace, Florida. Investigators believe the stepmother dumped the body during a trip to South Carolina.
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