Attorney for Leticia Stauch, 39, told court she suffered a ‘psychotic crack’ that caused her to kill her 11-year-old stepson Gannon Stauch

Her trial began on Monday in Colorado on charges of murdering Gannon in January 2020

She was married to Gannon’s dad, Eugene ‘Al’ Stauch, who was away on deployment with the National Guard at the time – the couple have since divorced

Stauch prosecutors said, ‘stabbed [Gannon Stauch] 18 times, shot him in the head and dumped his body in a suitcase,’ before driving to Florida to dump a suitcase with his remains inside, in a river

Prosecutors argue that she was unhappy in her marriage and resentful of being treated like an unpaid babysitter

Stauch pled not guilty by reason of insanity, claiming she suffered a ‘major psychotic crack’ as a result of childhood trauma sexual and mental abuse when she killed the little boy

Prosecution said the steps that Stauch took to cover up her actions are proof that she knew what she did was wrong and was therefore sane

She cleaned up blood in Gannon’s bedroom, moving his body to various locations before disposing of it ‘like garbage’ in Florida a river

Gannon’s remains were found in March 2020 in the small city of Pace, on the Florida Panhandle

Stauch was charged with first-degree murder, tampering with a deceased human body and tampering with physical evidence.

Leticia Stauch is seen in court [photo], in Colorado in March 2020 pled not guilty by reason of insanity in the murder of her son

A Colorado woman went on trial on Monday accused of murdering her 11-year-old stepson in January 2020, then driving to Florida with his body to dump it over a bridge.
Ex-teacher Letecia Stauch, 39, pled not guilty by reason of insanity, and her attorney told the jury in Colorado Springs that she suffered a ‘psychotic crack’ that caused her to kill Gannon Stauch. Her legal team point to a traumatic childhood with years of sexual and mental abuse.
Prosecutors argue that she was unhappy in her marriage and resentful of being treated like an unpaid babysitter.
Her husband was away at the time of his son Gannon’s murder, on deployment with the National Guard.
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Gannon went missing from his home in Colorado Springs on January 27, and was reported missing by stepmom. She was arrested in March 2020, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and extradited back to Colorado.

Former Colorado Springs teacher Letecia Stauch [right], is on trial for the January 2020 murder of her stepson Gannon Stauch, [left], while he father was away, because she was ‘unhappy in her marriage’

The trial is expected to last several weeks. 
Michael Allen, the district attorney, argued in his opening statement that the steps that Stauch took to cover up her actions are proof that she knew what she did was wrong – and was therefore sane. 
She cleaned up blood in Gannon’s bedroom, moving his body to various locations to hide it before disposing of it ‘like garbage’ in a river that flows into the Gulf of Mexico in hopes it would never be found, he said.
Stauch also lied to investigators various times to try to hamper their investigation, Allen said, changing her accounts of what happened to the little boy. 
She claimed two different men had raped her and then abducted Gannon and, later, that one of those men had taken Gannon after he hurt himself in a bike crash.
‘All of her actions were purposefully designed by her to distance herself from what she did,’ Allen said.

Leticia was married to Gannon’s dad Eugene Stauch, who was away on deployment with the National Guard at the time. Eugene Stauch cited the killing of his son as the reason for splitting with Letecia immediately after the murder

But defense attorney Will Cook said the gruesome details highlighted by Allen, including how Gannon was killed and the lack of a motive, are proof that Stauch was ‘insane’ because it all does not make sense.
‘These are all signs and evidence of a mind, a soul, that is broken in a most fundamental and profound way,’ he said.
Cook suggested Stauch developed dissociative identify disorder as a result of being physically, emotionally and sexually abused by her absent mother’s string of partners during her childhood, sometimes sleeping in a car in the driveway to escape the abuse. 
Cook said that when Stauch killed Gannon, in her mind she was killing the ‘demons’ from her childhood and life.
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Gannon [photo montage], disappeared in Colorado Springs in January 2020. His body was found on March 20, 2020 – 1,400 miles away in Florida

Based on surveys given to potential jurors, many were skeptical of Stauch’s mental health defense, Cook said.
He urged jurors to put aside their impulse to make someone pay for such a brutal killing and keep an open mind because the judicial system requires Stauch to be presumed innocent.
‘I’m not telling you to like it. I’m just telling you that’s the way it is,’ he said.
Gannon, disappeared in Colorado Springs in January 2020. His body was found on March 20, 2020 – 1,400 miles away in Florida.
Leticia Stauch is accused of hitting Gannon with a blunt object, stabbing and shooting him before dumping his body in a suitcase.

The suspected killer, his stepmother Leticia Stauch [photo], Stauch is accused of hitting Gannon with a blunt object, stabbing and shooting him before dumping his body in a suitcase. She was arrested in South Carolina in March 2020

Initially, authorities said they responded after Stauch said Gannon had not returned from playing with a friend, but she did not provide the names of any friends he may have been with or their parents. 
Within days, she offered several version aimed at misleading investigations, including that a man she hired to repair a carpet raped her and then abducted Gannon, according to investigators.
Over 200 volunteers conducted searches for the boy in the area around where the family lived near Colorado Springs. However, about two weeks after he disappeared, searchers found a piece of particle board with Gannon’s blood on it in a rural area nearby.  
An investigator testified that phone records and browser history revealed that the defendant searched online for cheap car rentals the morning she reported her stepson missing, before she collected a rental car, which was used to transport the body.

Leticia Stauch was arrested in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in March 2020, and was extradited to Colorado Springs, where she was formally charged with the murder of Gannon Stauch

Mugshot of Leticia Stauch at her booking in Colorado in March 2020. Investigators found Gannon’s blood on her shoe, her DNA was found on a gun linked to his death and investigators learned she traveled to the Florida Panhandle shortly after he disappeared

Investigators found Gannon’s blood on his stepmother’s shoe. Her DNA was also found on a gun linked to his death. Investigators learned she traveled to the Florida Panhandle shortly after he disappeared.
Gannon’s remains were found in March 2020 in the small city of Pace, on the Florida Panhandle.
Stauch was charged with first-degree murder, tampering with a deceased human body and tampering with physical evidence.
Stauch was charged with one count of solicitation to commit escape after she planned to break out of El Paso County Jail in Colorado Springs, after she offered a fellow inmate a cash offer to help her break out, explaining that she planned to use a broom handle to break the window in her cell, and that she had already measured herself to make sure she could fit through.
Stauch was ruled fit to stand trial on January 27, 2021.  She had wanted to represent herself, before receiving new counsel.