The Judge Gets the Final Word: The Sentencing of Letecia Stauch

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COLORADO SPRINGS, Co. – After 20 days of trial and approximately 8 hours of deliberations, the jury in the trial of Letecia Stauch trial came back with a verdict. Stauch was found guilty on all 4 counts, the most serious being first-degree murder and murder of a child under 12 by a person in a position of trust.

Both the prosecution and defense in agreeance, it was decided sentencing would be immediate. Judge Werner excused himself for a half hour to address the jury before returning to the courtroom where we heard victim impact statements. Victim statements were followed by the final words before sentencing was handed down. Those words belonged to a visually emotional Judge Gregory R. Werner.

The Betrayal

“Ms. Stauch, you betrayed the person you loved enough to marry. You told your husband lies and took away someone he loved. You took away every day that Mr. Stauch or Ms. Hubbard could have had with their son. When you take a life, regardless of how you do that, you forever alter the future. Neither Mr. Stauch or Ms. Bullard will ever see their son graduate from high school, go through the joy and the pain of that first love, or get married. They will never know what impact their son would have had on the world had he lived to become an adult. And, had Gannon’s body not been found they never would have known what happened to Gannon.”

The Motive

As Werner continued, he hit the different aspects of Stauch’s case. A key point in the defense’s closing was the lack of motive. In a trial, it is not necessary for the prosecution to prove motive, but most people have come to expect one. “Claiming a lack of motive is a common defense tactic, and it can be a sound strategy” Werner said. “The truth is, however, that it only takes a moment to make a bad decision that results in disastrous consequences. An 11-year-old boy with burns who feels that he’s not being take care of…it is not hard to imagine Gannon saying something like, ‘You’re not my mom. I want my mom. I want my dad.’ And that would be enough to make you really angry, but anger is not an excuse.”

Anger is a common reason behind many acts of violence. So is jealousy, hatred and resentment. This case seems to have all of the above. Werner expressed this when he said to Stauch, “It’s clear that you hated and was jealous of Landon Bullard. You saw yourself as a better mother than she was. It’s clear you had some resentment from being left with Mr. Stauch’s children…It’s clear you felt trapped. You wanted out…I can imagine you saw your whole future consisting of taking care of Mr. Stauch’s children and that is not the future you wanted. You took all of that out on Gannon.”

The Lies

Then there are the lies. There were too many to count. Stauch told “lie upon lie, but [she] slipped up at various points and let kernels of truth escape” and that, according to Werner, played a big part in her getting caught. But what did all of those lies have in common? In all of the versions of the truth she told, she was “always the victim…in all of them, [she] could claim it wasn’t [her] fault.”

The Sentence

After Werner put into words what so many were thinking, the time came to address the final piece of the trial process, sentencing. “One of the purposes is to impose an appropriate sentence for the criminal conduct that occurred. Another purpose is to punish an offender by imposing a sentence that take into account the seriousness of the offense. Yet another purpose of sentencing is to prevent crime and promote respect for the law.”

“This is not the first murder case that has come before me,” Werner says, directing his words to Stauch. “This is not the first case I’ve presided over which involves harm to a child…I have had a number of cases which have demonstrated one person’s capacity for cruelty. I can say, without hesitation, that the facts of this case are the most horrific I have ever seen. You’re conduct in this case deserves the maximum punishment that I can impose under Colorado law.”

With those closing words, Werner sentenced Stauch to 2 life sentences without the possibility of parole for the charges of first-degree murder and murder of a child under 12 by a person of trust. In addition, she received 12 years for the charge of tampering with a deceased human body and 18 months for tampering with physical evidence.