Everything appears to be on course for the start of Leticia Stauch's murder trial late next month in El Paso County. During a hearing on Thursday, the court received an update on where the prosecution and defense are in their pre-trial preparations, and there was a discussion on selecting a jury. There was no discussion about a potential change of venue.
Stauch is accused of killing her 11-year-old stepson, Gannon Stauch, in 2020. As of today, the court does not have a final report from the defense's sanity expert who interviewed Stauch. There's an issue with that expert getting documentation from the state hospital in Pueblo to finalize the report, but there appeared to be little concern that would not be available in the next two weeks.
The jury trial process is expected to start on March 20 with an estimated 2 weeks of jury selection, an expected start of evidence presentation no later than April 3, and about 6 weeks for the presentation of the case.
Judge Greg Werner said two members of the press, one print and one electronic, will be allowed in the courtroom for jury selection only. Only audio recording will be allowed during this process. As of right now, no cameras will be allowed in the courtroom to cover the actual trial process.
The judge expressed his opinion of the biggest obstacle in the jury selection process will be jurors claiming hardship for being involved in such a long case, and in his experience, concerns about the nature of the case and the age of the victim. Concerns about pre-trial publicity were considered secondary as the court does not expect to find people who have never heard about the case.
Details on what will be on the jury questionnaires are yet to be finalized as the prosecution and defense will discuss how to include material on potential jurors' opinions on someone pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. Those issues should be resolved by February 16.
Judge Werner based his estimates on the jury selection process from prior cases in El Paso County and elsewhere in Colorado. He plans to issue a summons for 75 jurors a day until they have a qualified jury pool of 50 candidates to seat 12 jurors and 6 alternates for the case. As the judge explained, people's lives are complicated due to work, personal, health, or other concerns that may preclude them from service, or cause an interruption in their time on a jury.
Pending Civil Case in Federal Court
Civil case filed in federal court
Leticia Stauch has a pending federal lawsuit claiming her first and eighth amendment rights were violated in jail. Stauch names a medical service provider, and a food service provider, as well as two El Paso County deputies in the complaint.
Stauch claims she's been mistreated while in jail by claiming she was not properly given kosher food and that the jail neglected to give her medical care.
Currently, the case is in the initial review period with the court. A judge will decide if the case should be dismissed or if it should proceed.
"It presents awful," Attorney Stephen Longo said, "it's a decently, well-written complaint that makes specific allegations regarding events that she's making, effectively, a [section] 1983 civil rights claim for."
With conversations surrounding Stauch's mental state, Longo points to the impact it could have on that ruling as the case continues.
"It's generally a complex area of the law and it's decently articulated in the complaint," Longo said, "imagine if you're her defense team, Judge Warner allowed you to change your plea to bring in some of the psychological factors that we've seen, you're really backtracking, it's kind of one step forward, five steps back with this case," Longo said.
____
Watch KOAA News5 on your time, anytime with our free streaming app available for your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV and Android TV. Just search KOAA News5, download and start watching.
