Woman kills stepson in ‘mental crack’, US jury says

A U.S. woman stabbed and shot her young stepson 18 times before driving across the country and dumping a suitcase, according to a Colorado prosecutor.

Letecia Stauch allegedly killed 11-year-old Gannon Stauch in her bedroom hours before reporting her missing on January 27, 2020.

Her defense attorney suggested she was unhappy with the marriage and resented being treated like an unpaid babysitter.

Stouch’s attorney, who is pleading not guilty to insanity, says she suffered a “significant psychotic crack” as a result of her childhood trauma when she killed Ganon.

District Attorney Michael Allen said in his opening statement at Stouch’s trial Tuesday that the steps Stouch took to cover up his actions were evidence that he knew what he had done was wrong. He therefore claimed to be sane.

He said she cleaned up the blood in Ganon’s bedroom and hid his body in various places before dumping it “like garbage” in the river.

Stauk also lied to investigators, Allen told jurors in Colorado Springs, offering conflicting accounts of what happened.

But defense attorney Will Cook said that the horrific details Allen highlighted, such as how Ganon was killed and his lack of motive, make no sense, and thus the proof that Stouch was “crazy”. said it was.

“These are all signs and evidence of a broken mind, a soul, in the most fundamental and profound way,” he said.

Cook suggested that Stauk developed dissociative identity disorder as a result of being abused by his absent mother’s series of partners during childhood.

He said that when she killed Ganon, she didn’t mean to kill her son-in-law, but a “demon” from her childhood and life.