Lawyer says ‘psychotic break’ explains stepson’s killing

By COLLEEN SLEVIN
Associated Press

DENVER (AP) — A lawyer for a Colorado woman who repeatedly stabbed and then shot her 11-year-old stepson before driving his body across the country says the brutality of the attack is the strongest evidence that the killing was the result of a “psychotic break.” The claim came during closing arguments in Letecia Stauch’s trial in the killing of Gannon Stauch. Her lawyer says a “psychotic break” is the only explanation that makes sense. But the district attorney said they had shown that Stauch killed the boy because she hated him and saw it as a way to hurt her husband, whom she planned to leave.