Prosecution Closing Statements
Closing arguments in the murder trial for
#LeteciaStauch are underway.
Prosecutor Dave Young said it’s been a long trial and jurors have sat through a lot of evidence. “I want to say thank you for that. You guys have been very attentive. You’ve asked some very good questions that I’m going to use in my closing argument,” said Young.
"Gannon’s been in a box for the whole trial. This is what the trial should be about. I’m not doing this to get sympathy from you. I’m doing this to tell you what Gannon had to tell you through this trial through the autopsy is all you need to know," said Young.
Young asked, "If his body wasn’t found in Florida, do you think we’d be talking about insanity in this trial?"
Jurors are now looking at the autopsy report of Gannon Stauch.
“Just by looking at these injuries what does that tell you? Gannon was defending himself, he was fighting off. Despite having hydrocodone in his system, despite being lethargic. He was able to fight her off… 18 times she took a knife and stabbed him," said Young.
"As Gannon is fighting, the stab wounds are to his back. But it’s not just the stab wounds. She has to use judgment and reflection to get another weapon. What that weapon was, who knows. But she got another weapon and hit him in the skull several times," said Young.
“Why do they drive all the way from Decatur in one night and drive to Florida? Why did she want to get to Florida? The Gulf of Mexico,” said Young.
Young asked, “Does she think there’s water underneath the bridge? Is that logical thinking when you cross the bridge and can’t see anything… She gets rid of the body. Does she ever think the body is going to be found again?”
Young talked about Macon Ponder, the bridge inspector who found the suitcase in Florida. “They dump it out and see the most horrific thing they’ve probably seen in their lives, Gannon’s body in a fetal position… Wearing the same clothes he’s wearing when she killed him.”
“Did she intend to kill Gannon when she did what she did with Gannon? I would suggest that’s not disputed," said Young.
When talking about the definition of insanity, Young said, “These words mean a lot. This is not something you’re going to find in the DSM5… This is a legal definition of insanity… The law presumes everybody to be sane.”
Young asked, so what does insanity mean? She was so diseased or defective in mind, she couldn’t distinguish right from wrong. But “If you lost your temper, you don’t get to claim insanity.”
Young goes over the legal definition of insanity: “Mental disease or defect means only those “severely abnormal mental conditions that grossly and demonstrably impair a persons perception or understanding of reality.”
“Do you think Harley might notice she might have a grossly and demonstrably mental condition?... Do you think Al stauch might have noticed for it to be grossly and demonstrably… What about her brother? Dakota Lowery? You think he might have noticed it," said Young.
Young talked about Dr. Niederhauser and Dr. Mohr, who worked with Stauch. Dr. Niederhauser worked with Stauch in December 2019. Stauch told her she has general anxiety. Dr. Mohr worked with Stauch after she was arrested. Stauch also told her that she only had general anxiety.
Young said it wasn't until June 2020, where Stauch brought up questions about her competency.
Young said, Stauch said, ‘I’ve got bipolar disorder. I’m a manic depressant. I ramble. I’m a manic depression, that’s my mental illness.’ Nothing about dissociative identity disorder, which according to Dr. Lewis she’s had since a very young age. Nothing about Maria Sanchez.”
Young asked, “Do you think she might be faking it? During that evaluation No history of inpatient treatment of psychosis either during that evaluation.”
Young said during the second competency evaluation with Dr. Grimmett in December 2020, “Now she starts talking about dissociative identity disorder and bipolar disorder… She says she has four distinct personalities. None of those four were Maria Sanchez.”
Young said Stauch pleaded not guilty by reason insanity in February 2022. He said Dr. Lewis recommended that Stauch change her plea to not guilty by reason of insanity. Then Stauch went back to the state hospital for a sanity evaluation.
Young said, “What is the defendant saying now? She’s not bipolar. Now she’s created more personalities as part of dissociative identity disorder. Is it a coincident that she’s consulted with Dr. Lewis prior to this? And now Maria Sanchez comes into play during this evaluation.
Dr. Torres and Dr. Grey asked if they could talk to Maria. “We saw how that happened on Wednesday. It was magic according to Dr. Lewis,” said Dr. Young. Dr. Torres and Dr. Grey said Stauch has a personality with borderline and narcissistic features.
Young talked about how Dr. Lewis testified, “She’s acting… You have to look at her demeanor and manor while testifying. She wouldn’t answer any of my questions because she didn’t want you to know the answers… She shows up to court late. Talk about narcissistic tendencies.”
Young continued to talk about Dr. Lewis and asked, “Are they going to do a documentary if she says she’s sane? I think it speaks for itself how she testified.”
Young said, “Dr Lewis, she didn’t know the legal definition of insanity in the state of Colorado ladies and gentleman. The whole reason she came into testify.”
The video that’s been played for jurors several times as Gannon is asking about his burns, is played again for the jurors. Young asked, “Why did she videotape this? Do you think it was about Gannon’s burns?”
Young said, the next morning, Stauch texted her assistant principal saying her step father was killed. “Could it possibly mean she knew what she was going to do? Because shortly after that, she calls Gannon’s school and says he’s not coming in. And then texts Al.”
Young said then she takes a picture of Gannon in bed. “Why did she take a picture of Gannon in his bed in his bedroom and then text it to Al?… 'Look Gannon’s alive. He’s here, he’s sick, he’s in bed.’”
Young asked, “You think he might be lethargic from the hydrocodone? You think she wants to prove he’s still alive because she knew how much hydrocodone she gave him?”
Young asked, “Do you think it’s that far fetched she knows Gannon had been poisoned and she knows something might happen to Gannon?”
Young asked, “How could she do this? How could she talk to Gannon’s father like nothing happened? Is that traits of an antisocial personality order? The fact you can be so cold and callous and act like nothing happened. And she does it through the whole day. You guys know that.”
Young is talking about how Letecia put Gannon’s body in the back of her Tiguan, then dropped it off at the airport, and rented another vehicle. Then Letecia picked Al up. Young said Letecia returned to the airport, presumably to check on the Tiguan with Gannon’s body in it.
Young said Al then went to French Elementary School that day. “When he sees the Tiguan is not there, he now knows that his wife had something to do with the disappearance of Gannon… and the investigation now looks at her.”
Young said Letecia then drove the S curve in Palmer Lake. “Why is she going out to hide the body there? Probably because it’s a good location. She can’t keep it in the Tiguan. Did she know right from wrong?”
Again, I am sitting directly behind the defense’s table and Letecia Stauch. Her head has been down during most of the closing arguments by prosecution.
Prosecutors then played the KKTV interview that Letecia did after Gannon’s disappearance. Words like "was" and "manipulation" kept showing up on the screen.
During the video, photos were shown of Gannon in bed, the blood evidence in his room, the GPS data from her phone and car, the area where the blood-stained piece of wood was found, a map of of her drive to Florida, and where the suitcase with Gannon’s body was found.
Young went over several of Letecia’s stories about what happened to Gannon. “Eduardo, immunity, Quincy Brown, several different versions of that, bike accident, uncle Matt. The one that is really significant is, 'When she says I’m so sorry Al, I wasn’t telling you the truth.’”
Young said, “What people who are truly legally insane do under these circumstances… They don’t act like that,” as he points to Letecia Stauch.
Young said, “There is only one right verdict in this case and that’s guilty to every charge that she’s charged with.” That ended closing arguments by prosecutors.
Defense Closing Statements
Closing arguments in the murder trial for
#LeteciaStauch from defense are underway.
Josh Tolini began with, “the one thing they cannot answer is motive. Motive of how we can go from this picture on the hike at Garden of the Gods, loving and kind, to less than 24 hours, 18 stab wounds, four blunt force trauma injuries, and shot.”
“This wasn’t a preplanned, calculated killing for some game. This was a psychotic break fueled by rage, attacking a demon from the past,” said Tolini. “This was not pre-mediated murder. This was a psychotic break. That is the only thing that makes sense.”
Tolini said this was the biggest investigation in the history ever of El Paso County, and no family members ever said anything bad about Letecia and Gannon’s relationship.
Tolini said the fire from the candle incident set off some trigger, and Stauch had a meltdown after the fire. He said she wasn’t sleeping, and was manic at the time. She was texting throughout the night and early in the morning.
Tolini said, “Something is going on in her mind. Something in there is losing it. Something occurs in the basement, a brutal attack with rage… The brutal attack is the strongest evidence in this case.”
Tolini said there are only two things that account for her actions at this point in time. It’s either dissociation or she puts what happened to Gannon, that brutal attack, into a place in her mind that she doesn’t remember.
Tolini said, “The strongest evidence of dissociation of what’s going on here, look at the body worn camera when they come in that night looking for Gannon.”
Tolini said, “A horrible attack has just happened, and she’s acting and presents herself to these police laughing, joking, being incredibly friendly just after this has happened.”
Tolini said, “Because at that time she has dissociated this horrible act that she has committed. There is no other logical explanation of how she is doing that.”
Tolini reiterated that Stauch was not sleeping at all, and she was in a manic situation and her mind was not working. He added, what she did and all the stories she told, was irrational.
Tolini said, “It makes no sense for somebody who has pre-planned to brutally kill Gannon, then to report him missing right away, and then a matter of three days later to go police with a completely illogical story… None of that is rational. None of that makes sense.”
Tolini is now talking about Dr. Lewis, the defense’s psychiatrist who conducted a sanity evaluation on Stauch. Tolini said she’s 85 years old, and has been researching people with mental illnesses for decades. “She was groundbreaking in her field,” said Tolini.
Tolini said Dr. Lewis has more expertise on this subject that anyone else in the country. He admitted that Dr. Lewis confused some things with her memory during her testimony. “I’m not disputing that… Do not discount her decades of her experience. To not discount her expertise.”
Tolini said that Dr. Lewis said, “Mrs Stauch is one of the most mentally ill people she’s ever dealt with.” Tolini said, she didn’t endorse that it was Maria who did this. What she said was that Stauch dissociated the memory of the homicide because she can’t bear to deal with it.
Tolini said Stauch cannot accept the idea that she committed this brutal, horrible homicide. “To accept the fact in her mind would crush her, would crush her soul, would crush her identity. So she’s trying to come up with another fantasy of what happened.”
Tolini said all the doctors agreed Stauch has some kind of mental illness, but they didn’t agree with which one she had.
As jurors heard during testimony, with borderline personality disorder, people can suffer from psychosis, become irrational and dissociate with things they cannot deal with.
Tolini talked about Dakota Lowery’s testimony, who is Letecia’s half brother. He said Lowery testified that Letecia would leave knives with him so he could protect himself from something or someone. “You have the connection of Gannon being stabbed with a knife 18 times.”
Tolini said, “We are asking you to find her not guilty by reason of insanity… We’re saying for you to take into account the mental illness that she suffered.”
The defense is finished with their closing arguments.
Court is in recess for about 10 minutes. Prosecutors will have a rebuttal when we return.
After closing arguments, Letecia Stauch's lawyers once again, patted her on the back.
