EL PASO COUNTY — The fate of Letecia Stauch, the El Paso County woman accused of killing her 11-year-old stepson in 2020, is still unknown. She previously entered a plea of Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity.
Stauch appeared in-person in court for the first time in months on Thursday. The results from Stauch's third mental health evaluation were finalized on August 4 by the state hospital, but are sealed.
Finalizing a trial date was postponed again after the Defense filed a motion for a second mental health evaluation, saying they plan to challenge the results from the state hospital.
These evaluations are meant to determine Stauch's sanity at the time of the alleged crime, not her competency to stand trial. She has been found competent to stand trial twice.
"Competency just means - Do you know what's going on? Do you know that the person sitting up there with the black robe on is a judge? Insanity... is the tough one. That means... if you're accused of committing a crime, at the time when you were actually doing the criminal action... you have no idea what you're doing, you have no idea that what you're doing is wrong," explained Shawn Conti, a Criminal Defense Attorney in Pueblo.
The Defense has retained their own doctors to do their own evaluation, but want to use the state hospital's facility in Pueblo to for roughly 72 hours to do it.
The Judge told the defense they will need to discuss their plans with the state hospital separately and wants to know roughly how long it will take to get back the results of a second mental health evaluation.
The state hospital has been juggling a combination of bed shortages and staffing issues recently, which is part of why the result of Stauch's first sanity evaluation took roughly nine months to get back.
The defense says their expert should have a report ready and delivered to the judge within 30 days after the second evaluation is completed.
The judge addressed Stauch directly explaining her that any report, audio, or video recordings during the second evaluation can be given to the prosecution and used against her.
More information regarding the status of the second evaluation should be revealed at the next hearing, scheduled for September 15 at 1:30 PM.
The most recent motion filed by the Defense will be made public on August 26.
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