Letecia Stauch
Murder defendant Letecia Stauch wrote in a letter to the judge dated February 21 that she experienced mental illness, that her defense lawyers were in “cahoots” with the prosecution, that a doctor who examined her was “clearly an actress,” and that two men were involved in the death of victim Gannon Stauch, 11.
“I asked them to use the info from a non-biased doctor (who worked with me more than 2 hours) but instead they sent a lady who was clearly an actress and friends with the D.A.,” she wrote in the newly reported letter. “She spoke about him in an unprofessional manner, their history, and his election. Now I’m sure all this was true but I thought she worked for the court, not one particular side. My attorneys did this to make me look like a perjurious individual.”
Police say the defendant murdered her stepson and reported him missing on January 27, 2020, while the father was out deployed with the National Guard. She allegedly claimed he did not return from going to a friend’s home, but she changed her story multiple times, and did not give important information, such as the names of these friends he was supposed to be playing with or the names of their parents. Investigators claimed to find evidence of blood spatter on the walls of Gannon’s bedroom, blood stains on the boy’s mattress, blood soaking the carpet, and blood staining the concrete under his bed.
Stauch denies wrongdoing.
“Indeed I am innocent but I will not put myself or others in danger running the defense against my biological son when the system is letting two men run free who are involved,” she wrote on February 21. She acknowledged having “bouts of insanity, and still do,” but said she did not murder or abuse anyone.
She asserted the state was prosecuting her to save face, and claimed she was being threatened in the bathroom away from cameras to confess.
“They have far too much invested in this wrongful incarceration to admit they were/are wrong,” she wrote. “For these reasons and because my defense team is in cahoots with them, I am left with no other choice but to represent myself.”
Stauch noted early in her letter that she was diagnosed with something in 2016, but the condition was redacted. A former teacher, she said a school district let her resign because of “ongoing reality breaks.”
By February 21, two separate evaluations found Stauch competent for trial. She would end up her getting her way, and the judge allowed her to represent herself at trial.
[Mugshot via El Paso Sheriff’s Office]