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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KDVR) — Letecia Stauch was found guilty Monday of all counts related to murdering her 11-year-old stepson, Gannon.

The counts include first-degree murder after deliberation, first-degree murder of a child under 12 years old by a person in a position of trust, tampering with a deceased human body and tampering with physical evidence.

“The facts in this case are the most horrific I have ever seen. Your conduct in this case deserves the maximum punishment that I can impose under Colorado law,” Judge Gregory Werner said.

Before the sentencing, the family gave powerful impact statements, asking for the maximum sentence.

Gannon’s mother: ‘You came into this world fighting’

Gannon’s mother, Landen Bullard, described him, saying, “Our first biggest blessing came into the world weighing only 1 pound and 6 ounces. You fought all the odds and developed a personality and a smile that’s larger than life. You became my hero that day.”

“You came into this world fighting, and unfortunately you left this world fighting. Your honor, he fought against someone that he loved and trusted, someone that myself and Albert both trusted and loved,” Bullard said, speaking also of the boy’s father, Al.

Bullard said she trusted the defendant with her children “mother to mother.” Al Stauch later added that the defendant had the credentials that should have made her trustworthy with a child, including a background in teaching, social work, higher education and even babysitting.

“I never in my wildest dreams would have ever thought you would be endangered by anyone or I would have not left you at home with what turned out to be a murderer and the last person to ever see you on this earth,” Stauch said.

Gannon Stauch
Gannon Stauch (Credit: El Paso County Sheriff’s Office)

Bullard said that she knows that while the defendant was attacking and killing her son, that he fought for his life and defended himself from her while still loving her.

She said the jury cannot understand the significance of things that she says or does, noting that she “projected abuse and addiction claims against all of us” in an effort to destroy who Bullard was or who Stauch was as a father.

“Leticia tried to steal many things from my niece, she called her a drug addict, she called her homeless when she was in the hospital having her third child. She was there for months and months trying to save her life and her baby,” great aunt Veronica Birkenstock said. “Her only son was taken away by someone who was just ferociously jealous of my niece.”

But the case has brought people together. She said that even after the defendant murdered the 11-year-old and tried to “taint any positive image of him, he has caused families and communities to come together.”

Gannon’s father: Letecia would ‘manipulate’ tension

This proved true when Melissa, Al Stauch’s wife, wrote, “I too know the pain of losing a child, and there is no greater pain. We are now lifelong grief partners, as this is a lifelong journey of pain with two sons waiting for us in heaven.”

Gannon’s father even paused during his statement to add something that he did not have planned in his speech, and said, “Me and Landen already had a conversation about this, and I owe her an apology, as well as she already gave me one, that we allowed Letecia to manipulate us into some of the pain and disagreements that we had between one another.” He turned to the courtroom and said, “Landen, I am sorry.”

He also addressed the court and said he needed to clear something up with the defense.

“Somehow, Gannon has been compared to a demon, and I understand the process I do, but if they want to take the case up of Gannon being a demon I will line people up from Alaska to Denver to Colorado Springs all the way to South Carolina to testify against them,” he said.

Read FOX31’s coverage of the trial:

‘Our fragile trust in one another has been further eroded’

Birkenstock said that despite Gannon’s unlikely odds when he was born prematurely, he was intelligent and full of love and joy. She said his 11 years had an impact and hopes people remember him for who he was, and “not what this evil deed did to his memory.”

Gannon’s father said the most alarming thing he did before his death was call him “dad” instead of “daddy.”

His great uncle, Jeff Davenport, spoke of the preciousness and potential of an 11-year-old, saying the defendant took away all of the love and joy that Gannon and his children would have brought to the world. He said that the impact of this case spreads through the millions of people who have heard about it, who will now be less trusting and more suspicious.

“Because of her crime, all of our fragile trust in one another has been further eroded,” Davenport said. “Because of her specious, cynical, calculated use of the NGRI (not guilty by reason of insanity plea) in this case, those who are truly mentally ill will be treated with more suspicion and may never receive the help that they need.

Little sister gives statement to the court

Gannon’s grandfather, Bob Rogers, was at “a loss for words,” focusing on the impact on Gannon’s younger sister.

“She is a beautiful child, she sings beautifully, she is talented … What she doesn’t have is an older brother to stand beside her,” he said.

“This has gone from my children to my grandchildren, little children who lost a cousin who never understood why something like this could happen,” grandmother Debra Pearce added.

She said if Gannon were here today, he would plead for his family to be protected and taken care of as they go forward in this life.

Stauch spoke for Gannon’s little sister, Laina, who when asked if she wanted to say anything to Letecia, said “that you do not do that to people, especially your step kids,” and that it’s “never alright to do those things.”

‘Nauseating and infuriating to hear her called Miss Stauch’

Al Stauch asked the judge to strip Letecia Stauch of his last name immediately, as it was “nauseating and infuriating to hear her called Miss Stauch.”

He asked that for every mile she drove the boy across the country, she spends one day in solitary confinement. After that, he asked her sentence to be equal to every year she took of Gannon’s life, plus every year of her daughter Harley’s life that Leticia Stauch “abusively manipulated” her.

He refused restitution, saying, “For the dollar-fifty a month I receive from the defendant Letecia would just keep me connected to her for the rest of my life, and I don’t want that.”

And despite another unsettled count on solicitation to commit escape, the district attorney asked to drop the charges on the pending case.

“In the grand scheme of things, while I’d love to prosecute this defendant for that charge as well, in the interest of justice I would like to see this defendant in Department of Corrections custody as soon as possible, and so we are dismissing that count or that charge,” District Attorney Michael Allen said.

After a short recess, the judge gave Letecia Stauch the maximum sentences, including life in prison without the possibility of parole for each murder count, with an additional 12 years for tampering with a deceased human body and another 18 months for tampering with physical evidence.