Preliminary hearing begins in case against woman accused of killing stepson

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) - The case against Letecia Stauch is inching closer to trial as prosecutors Thursday prepare to show the judge there is enough evidence for the case to move forward.

Over the next two days, prosecutors will be laying out why the evidence shows Stauch should be tried in the death of her stepson, Gannon. This preliminary hearing is a standard stop on the route to trial.

On Jan. 27, 2020, 11-year-old Gannon was reported missing from his home in the Lorson Ranch neighborhood near Fountain. Initially reported as a runaway by stepmother Letecia, investigators now believe she killed the little boy and discarded his body, first off Highway 105 and Perry Park Road in Douglas County, then later in a suitcase under a highway bridge in Florida. The arrest affidavit can be read below. (Warning, some of these details are disturbing.)

Stauch’s case has taken several twists and turns since her arrest in March 2020, starting with allegedly slipping out of her handcuffs in the back of her transport vehicle from South Carolina to Colorado and attacking a deputy. In May 2020, her attorneys filed a pair of motions calling for her preliminary hearing to be pushed back, as well as possibly allowing the woman accused of killing her stepson to bond out of jail. The latter motion cited COVID-19 as a concern and suggested granting Stauch a bond “so that she is able to have video and phone access with counsel from the safety of her home.”

Then in June of that same year, Stauch was handed escape charges for allegedly hatching a plot to break out of the El Paso County jail.

Two competency hearings followed that alleged escape scheme, and she was found competent to stand trial. But then another delay when Stauch earlier this year requested to represent herself. After repeatedly questioning whether she really wanted to do that, the judge obliged. Stauch would later reverse course and ask for her lawyers back -- pushing her May preliminary hearing first to August, and then to this week.

Thursday was no less short on drama, as Stauch asked to be excused from her own preliminary hearing.

11 News reporter Spencer Wilson is live-tweeting from Stauch’s preliminary hearing. Follow his updates below:

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