Jurors in her murder trial watched video of the unprovoked attack in court on Friday, while the detective who witnessed the incident testified about the events that unfolded that day.
Letecia Stauch unleashed on a member of law enforcement shortly after her arrest for the murder of stepson Gannon Stauch.
Jurors in her murder trial watched video of the unprovoked attack in court on Friday, while the detective who witnessed the incident testified about the events that unfolded that day.
"She assaulted a deputy who was armed and attempted to reach for her firearm," Detective Jessica Bathel stated on Friday.
In the video, Stauch can be seen wiggling and contorting her body around for approximately 30 seconds.
Her hand is then seen free of any restraints and clutching a fairly large object, which she lifts over her head and then uses to bludgeon Deputy Michaela James.
Letecia is then seen with her head and arms down around the dazed deputy's waist as the driver pulls over and gets out of the car to subdue Stauch.
Bathel was in the van at the time of the incident and gave her account of what happened on the witness stand Friday.
"The first clip is a view of Leticia, along with Deputy James in the backseat of the van," Bathel testified. "And during that portion of the video, you can see Letecia's moving around slightly and that's because her hands are handcuffed to a belly band around her waist and she is manipulating her hands out of those handcuffs."
Bathel continued: "She obtains a Monster Energy can and she strikes Deputy James in the face with a full, unopened can of Monster Energy drink and then struggles with Deputy James."
At the time , Bathel and James were traveling in a van to Colorado after extraditing Stauch from South Carolina, where she had been living in the weeks before her arrest.
Bathel testified that she made the decision to have a GoPro filming Letecia during that trip.
"I was concerned with her previous behavior that she may do something," she told the prosecutor in court on Friday. "And so I wanted to have documentation of the transport."
Video shows that after the attack, a petulant Stauch declares: "She keeps on threatening me. She keeps on."
Bethel can be heard telling Stauch to stop repeatedly as she begins the process of trying to get the murder suspect back into her cuffs.
Stauch resists, however, and contorts her body to make it increasingly difficult for the officers to get her back in restraints.
"Cooperate with me," Bethel says in the video.
"I will with you but not with her," Stauch says, while continuing to be uncooperative with Bethel .
She then complains about the pain in her arm.
Once Stauch is back in her restraints she starts to complain about the temperature in the car.
Bethel said that Stauch later claimed she had carried out her attack because she wanted to open the door of the van and get some fresh air.
All three members of law enforcement believe that it was an escape attempt, said Bethel.
“I believe she is sane and very manipulative and calculating," Bethel said in court.
LETECIA STAUCH MURDER CASE TIMELINE
Law enforcement officials arrested Letecia in South Carolina& despite being unable to locate Gannon's remains at the time she was apprehended.
Two weeks later, highway workers discovered the body of Gannon Stauch. The 11-year-old boy's remains had been stuffed in a suitcase and stashed under a highway bridge near Pensacola, Florida.
Her ex-husband, Al Stauch, testified that the suitcase belonged to the family, and her half-brother testified that he saw her carrying it days before she left for Florida, and told him it was heavy because it was full of softballs.
District Attorney Michael Allen said in his opening statement that Letecia stabbed Gannon 18 times and shot him in the jaw.
Letecia Stauch is facing 12 charges in total: First-degree murder after deliberation, first-degree murder of a person under 12 by someone in a position of trust, tampering with a deceased human body, tampering with physical evidence, seven counts of a crime of violence for using a weapon (the weapons listed in the complaint include a firearm, blunt object and sharp object), and one count of crime of violence – causing severe bodily injury or death.
Letecia has entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. The defense did not deny that Letecia killed Gannon in their opening statements, and said that her actions were due to a "psychotic crack" caused by years of childhood trauma.
Prosecutors claim that Letecia's decision to clean up the murder scene and try and dispose of evidence are proof that she knew right from wrong at the time of the murder.
Every witness for the prosecution, including Letecia's half-bother and ex-husband, have also testified that Stauch appeared to be sane around the time of her stepson's murder.
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