PALM BEACH, Fl – After being found guilty of aggravated child abuse, false imprisonment, and neglect of a child, Timothy Ferriter was sentenced on November 16, 2023.

Judge Howard J. Coates, Jr. listened to hours of testimony both in favor of and against Ferriter, and arguments made by both the defense attorney and prosecution. Among the testimony, there was the victim, the defendant’s adopted son Ronan Ferriter, and his eldest child, Fiona Ferriter. Both children spoke on behalf of the state.

Fiona Ferriter described her father as, “a stone statue of a parent.” She talked about the affect the abuse on her younger brother had on her and her other siblings, along with the fear they lived in not knowing when, or if, their father would turn on them.

Ronan Ferriter spoke mostly of love and forgiveness. “I came here today to see your face again. It may be the last, so let’s make this right,” he began as he addressed the defendant, his father, and the court. He went on to speak of the good he seen in his father. “I still love you, and I always will love you, until the end of my days…I just wish you the best. I want to say I will always love you until the end of my days. I just with you the best. I want to say you were everything I needed all along. I want you to be happy whether it is with me or not.”

He then addressed the court in asking for the judge to not go too harsh on his father. “My father was a good person; he just made a very big mistake. Judge Coates, I wish you could sentence my father to 6 months jail time, and 5 years probation.”

The defendant addressed the court as well. He apologized to his children that they have “had to go through this.” He went on to speak of his Catholic faith and how things are done for the benefit of the children. “Everything I have [done] was out of love.” Missing from his address was an acceptance of his actions and them being wrong. He showed no remorse or apology for what he had done, something the judge would later point out.

After listening to all the arguments, evidence, and testimony, the judge ultimately sentenced Ferriter to 60 months, with 37 days credit time, incarceration at the state prison for all three charges, to run concurrent, 5 years of probation on the first charge. He is to have no contact with the 3 older children until age of majority, after which the children may choose to have contact with the defendant. Ferriter is to have 40 hours of anger management course and 40 hours of parenting course. Any contact the youngest child is to be supervised with adoptive mother and is to have no part of the discipline of the child.

Ferriter is to have no contact with any of the children until all probation conditions have been completed. Ferriter is to go through a mental health evaluation and treatment and be fitted with a monitor prior to release from the department of corrections. As a condition of probation, he is charged with costs totally $1,900.

Judge Howard Coates, Jr. granted a motion to hold the defendant in custody of Palm Beach Sherriff’s Office until a hearing on appellate bond can be held.

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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.

More Articles on the Trial of Colorado vs. Letecia Stauch

Trial to Start for Letecia Stauch, Woman Charged with Killing Her Stepson

State’s Exhibit #35, The Phone Call

Father of Murdered Child Testifies

Internet Searches Give Jury A Look into Defendant’s State of Mind

The Defense’s Case, A Win for The State?

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