The Finale

As this winds to an end, I figured I'd talk a little about all of the charges and prison sentences Stauch ultimately received. 

The judge on the case, Gregory Werner, described the case as "the most horrific I have ever seen." Many of the courtroom details are sealed.  

This grisly case concludes in Florida, where Gannon's remains were ultimately found beneath a bridge. On March 2nd, Colorado law enforcement arrested Letecia in Myrtle Beach, SC. She was extradited back to Colorado where she was charged with first degree murder of a child by a person in a position of trust, the two tampering charges already mentioned and child abuse resulting in death. This was roughly a month and a half after he was first reported missing, which was January 27th.

For the first degree murder of her 11 year old stepson Gannon, Letecia Stauch received two life sentences with the possibility of parole. She also received an additional 12 years in prison with three years of parole for tampering with a deceased human body and 18 months for tampering with evidence. 

As a person in the community who heard about this case before it made national news, there were pleas from the parents in which they talked about how excited Gannon had been to see the Sonic movie (the first one at the time in 2020).  I can't speak for everyone in my community, but to this day five years later, I cannot help but think of that child every time another sonic movie is released. 

In May of 2023, she was convicted on all counts plus solicitation to commit escape after another inmate reported her attempts and plans to escape along with a promise of 75K in exchange for help escaping. 

Personally, I think if a person is truly innocent, they certainly wouldn't do anything that could extend their sentence or attempt escape, but then, Letecia Stauch left Colorado with Gannon's body in a suitcase she managed to get to Florida before going home to South Carolina. An interesting choice given a step child you supposedly love is missing in another state. 

In 2023, she was moved out of Colorado to Kansas. She is planning on appealing because she insists she is innocent, and unfortunately may have a case in that her defense attorney was too close with her to speculations of flirtations. I've watched most of the days of the court hearing, and it seems like it is possible she could get an appeal based on ineffective counsel. Others think it was simply a misguided attempt to "humanize" his client but a lot of people still talk about how it seemed like full on flirting. People speculated he was doing this on purpose so she'd get a new trial.

With my personal knowledge and experiences, the lawyer is an option as state appointed counsel, but does not have a great track record. In cases like these, I think we want the lawyer for the accused to be good enough that it's hard to appeal or risk them getting out on technicalities.