Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / EVIL STEPMOM LETECIA STAUCH MURDER CONVICTION OVERTURNED, STATE FILES APPEAL

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EVIL STEPMOM LETECIA STAUCH MURDER CONVICTION OVERTURNED, STATE FILES APPEAL · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This proves evil stepmothers are not just in fairytales. Evil
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: stepmother Letitia Stock murders her little step son Gannon just
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: eleven years old, and tonight she set to walk free.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Good evening, I Nancy Grace, this is crime Stories. I
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: want to thank you for being with us.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Gannon Stouch was an eleven year old boy who went
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: missing from Colorado. His disappearance sparked a nationwide search before
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: his body was later found in Florida.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: The blood so copious under this little boy's bed. It
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: seeped through the carpet to underneath. Blood soaked the scene.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Yet tonight Letitia Stark, the evil stepmother personified. He shoots
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: a bird at witnesses in court. She is set to
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: walk free. How can this happen? Joining us an all
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: star panel? Listen.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: I watched the video at least twenty thirty times, so
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: I took it to a thoutie.
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: They need make sure first.
• 1:23
  Speaker 5: I watched it on the tablet.
• 1:26
  Speaker 6: I zoom in, I can zoom in, I can look.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: I saw no feet I can and.
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: I turned it up and I said, okay, let me
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: get a bite.
• 1:33
  Speaker 5: She get out.
• 1:33
  Speaker 6: She go to the door garves to open, she.
• 1:37
  Speaker 7: Gets the alarm and a dark rodin.
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: Nobody get out.
• 1:39
  Speaker 8: So can I look at it on the on the
• 1:40
  Speaker 8: TV so I can get a better you.
• 1:42
  Speaker 6: And I put my phone to the TV, so I
• 1:44
  Speaker 6: can you know, getting on.
• 1:45
  Speaker 8: A better you? And I was like, no, he never
• 1:47
  Speaker 8: got out of the truck. That's when I went over
• 1:49
  Speaker 8: to it.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Doc.
• 1:49
  Speaker 9: He showed him.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: It just breaks my heart when I see that particular
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: photo of Gannon lying sideways looking at the camera. If
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: I could see that again, with that little snaggle two smile,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: he's got going on just eleven years old, completely defenseless.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: You were just hearing the neighbor Roderick Drayton, who spotted
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: on his own home surveillance video Gannon getting into the
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: car with the evil stepmother and never getting out. Straight
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: out to Anne Emerson joining us, senior investigative reporter for
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Criminally Obsessed. That's on YouTube, also host of the award
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: winning podcast Unsolved South Carolina, The Murdlock Mysteries, Money and
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: the Murdoch Murders, Money and Mystery, And thank you for
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: being with us tonight. How critical is the video we
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: just played.
• 2:47
  Speaker 7: Early on in the investigation. You see this video of
• 2:51
  Speaker 7: the mom, the stepmom, Leticia leaving with Gannon, and then
• 2:56
  Speaker 7: when the truck comes back, the child's nowhere to be seen.
• 3:01
  Speaker 7: And that's what really really concerned investigators at the very
• 3:05
  Speaker 7: get go of this. And you know when as soon
• 3:08
  Speaker 7: as they saw the surveillance sing needs something was not right.
• 3:11
  Speaker 7: But the questions and the mystery surrounding it just got
• 3:16
  Speaker 7: much worse after this.
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: I'm just ready for getting and to come home, most
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: importantly for him to see his family. But second, I
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: am going to be so ecstatic when I'm able to
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: say to people that I hope they have a really
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: sincere apology for all these theories that have came out online,
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: for all the things they said that I have done.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: I never of my friends at A and E. That
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: is step mother Leticia Stock, who was convicted by a jury,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: but in its wisdom, an appellate court has reversed the conviction.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: She is set to walk free. Out to Crime Stories,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: investigative reporter Dave mac dave, what is the state's theory
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: as to what happened to eleven year old Gannon Stalk.
• 4:03
  Speaker 5: The state believes that after being abused by Letitia Stalk
• 4:09
  Speaker 5: for a long time, she shot him to death, stabbed him,
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: and beat him. He suffered blunt force trauma. Then Letitia
• 4:21
  Speaker 5: stalk but Gannon's remains in a suitcase and drove to Florida,
• 4:28
  Speaker 5: where she tossed the suitcase with eleven year old Gannon
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: stock in the suitcase over a bridge thirteen hundred miles
• 4:36
  Speaker 5: away from home.
• 4:38
  Speaker 9: Blood found underneath Gannon's bed, blood found on light sockets,
• 4:42
  Speaker 9: on the wall, on the carpet. More than fifty droplets
• 4:45
  Speaker 9: of blood. Police were able to identify and confirm that
• 4:48
  Speaker 9: it was Gannon's blood. They also were able to confirm
• 4:51
  Speaker 9: that cleaning products baking soda were used to try to
• 4:54
  Speaker 9: clean up the blood, but forensics were still able to
• 4:56
  Speaker 9: pick it up from that trail in Gannon's room and
• 5:00
  Speaker 9: actually goes through all throughout the house leading up to
• 5:03
  Speaker 9: the garage.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: We are showing you crime scene photos and that's our
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: friends from k RDO joining us on crime stories. More
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: than fifty areas of blood police could identify it was
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: all little Gannon's blood. They also confirmed cleaning products plus
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: baking soda were dumped on the carpet and good gravy
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: we're dumped on the carpet and beyond to try and
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: clean up the blood, but that was no match for
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: high tech forensics. They could pick up a blood trail
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: that went from the little boy's room all the way
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: through the house leading to the garage. Joining us is
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: a renowned medical examiner, former medical examiner in Clark County,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: the Office of the Coroner. That's Vegas Board certified forensic pathologists,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: founder of World Peace Forensic Consulting, Doctor Jan Gorniac. Doctor Garniac,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: thank you for being with us tonight, Doctor Gorniac. What
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: type of injury would cause that copious amount of blood?
• 6:16
  Speaker 10: Oh?
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  Speaker 11: Well, hearing that he not only had blunt force trauma,
• 6:20
  Speaker 11: he was stabbed, he was shot, So any all of
• 6:24
  Speaker 11: those could cause all that blood depending on the injuries
• 6:27
  Speaker 11: to his head.
• 6:28
  Speaker 6: Blunt force trauma.
• 6:29
  Speaker 11: Was he hit with an object where the skin is split,
• 6:33
  Speaker 11: meaning gets laceration and then the blood is spattering all
• 6:38
  Speaker 11: over the place. He could be stabbed once again, depending
• 6:41
  Speaker 11: where he stabbed. Could it have gotten an artery in
• 6:44
  Speaker 11: his neck? Was his you know stabbing You think like
• 6:47
  Speaker 11: stab stab right, but could it been in size wounds
• 6:50
  Speaker 11: of his neck and gets arteries the main arteries the
• 6:53
  Speaker 11: karates where it's going to be spurting out blood or
• 6:56
  Speaker 11: a gunshot wound of the head. I'm looking at that
• 6:59
  Speaker 11: crime scene photo where you see the tape, I appear
• 7:04
  Speaker 11: marking blood spatter, and it's low down, so he could
• 7:08
  Speaker 11: have been on the floor and got shot and that
• 7:11
  Speaker 11: blood is battering that way. But there's a lot of blood,
• 7:15
  Speaker 11: like you said, throughout the room and then leading out,
• 7:19
  Speaker 11: so one or all those mechanisms of injury could have
• 7:23
  Speaker 11: caused that blood. It'd be interesting to see if there's
• 7:26
  Speaker 11: anything on the ceiling, you know, and then you can
• 7:29
  Speaker 11: see if he was getting hit about his head more
• 7:31
  Speaker 11: than one time. But unfortunately, little Gannon, you know, obviously
• 7:36
  Speaker 11: he's deceased, but it wasn't a quick death he suffered.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: This little boy, just eleven year old. Gannon, according to
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: the autopsy report, died of a combination of a gunshot wound,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: blunt force head trauma, and multiple sharp force injuries. He
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: suffered eighteen sharp force injuries, four blunt force injury, lacerations,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: defensive wounds on both hands. The cod cause of death
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: gunshot to this little boy's chin and lower jaw. The
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: bullet lodged in his neck. There was a blunt force
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: trauma to the little boy's head. The sharp force injuries
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: stabs or cuts were on his chest, his hands, his arms,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: his shoulder, his back. Sharp force stabs or cuts on
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: his hands and fingers were defensive wounds. The blunt force
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: injuries included a fractured left six rib and skull damage.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Also toxicology reports hydra codone and a seed of metafin
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: in his system, very unusual for a child. According to
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: the medical examiner at the top his body was found,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: he was crammed into a suitcase decomposing. That is straight
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: from the medical examiner's autopsy report. Back to renowned pathologist
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: doctor Jan Gorniac, what do you make of the autopsy
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: report on this eleven year old little boy?
• 9:25
  Speaker 11: One not My heart goes out not only to Gavin
• 9:28
  Speaker 11: and his family, but also to the pathologists who had
• 9:30
  Speaker 11: to perform this this autopsy. It's interesting how they can
• 9:36
  Speaker 11: determine that the gunshot wound came last, right, and so
• 9:40
  Speaker 11: when you're talking about defensive type wounds on his hands,
• 9:44
  Speaker 11: that happens when obviously someone is coming at you with
• 9:49
  Speaker 11: a sharp force insplement like a knife and people are.
• 9:53
  Speaker 6: Grabbing at it. Those are the worst.
• 9:55
  Speaker 11: Those those type of injuries give me the willies, because
• 9:58
  Speaker 11: you know someone's grabbing the knife and it being pulled out,
• 10:01
  Speaker 11: and just the injuries to their their hands or to
• 10:04
  Speaker 11: their forearms, they're bringing their arms up to to fend
• 10:07
  Speaker 11: off something. So with defensive type wounds, obviously not only
• 10:11
  Speaker 11: was he alive, he was alert enough so the gunshot
• 10:17
  Speaker 11: wound didn't didn't happen. It's the gunshot wound to it says,
• 10:20
  Speaker 11: to his chin. That's an unusual spot. Usually when you
• 10:25
  Speaker 11: see that, you see in a suicide, so that it
• 10:29
  Speaker 11: seemed like it had to be a close range wound
• 10:32
  Speaker 11: to get up right up into his his face.
• 10:36
  Speaker 6: The blunt force injuries he had four separate.
• 10:38
  Speaker 11: To his his his head, and then the hydro code
• 10:42
  Speaker 11: o and thea minifen and I think that is commonly
• 10:46
  Speaker 11: that so minifit is tylnol, and you can that comes in.
• 10:51
  Speaker 11: I think it's called darvast, so that's a combination. So
• 10:54
  Speaker 11: in order for him to have that in his system,
• 10:56
  Speaker 11: I don't believe he took it himself unless he hit
• 10:59
  Speaker 11: the he was prescribed he had paid for some other reason,
• 11:02
  Speaker 11: but they don't think they usually prescribed percocetta darbis said
• 11:05
  Speaker 11: to children. So he was given that to ingest some
• 11:10
  Speaker 11: sort of way, either you know, he had to take
• 11:14
  Speaker 11: it himself forcefully, or it was mixed in with some
• 11:17
  Speaker 11: food or drink. But I'm just not understanding the severity
• 11:22
  Speaker 11: and the amount of injuries to little Gavin. What I
• 11:29
  Speaker 11: can't comprehend, you know, abuse in the beginning, but what
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  Speaker 11: and he doesn't deserve this, But what was going through
• 11:38
  Speaker 11: this lady's mind or what could he have possibly done
• 11:42
  Speaker 11: to anger her so much? I'm just I might set
• 11:47
  Speaker 11: a loss of words.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, it's interesting, doctor Jane Gorniac. It seems
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: as if Gannon was murdered many times over. He was
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: dabbed brutally, fourteen stab wounds, he was beaten horribly, including
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: to the head, blunt force trauma to the head, a
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: broken rib, skull fracture, and he was shot. This eleven
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: year old, little little boy, little frame, murdered three times over.
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  Speaker 11: Explain he's tortured. I mean, that's the only word that
• 12:32
  Speaker 11: it's coming to my mind right now. It wasn't a
• 12:37
  Speaker 11: lack of better term of straight shooting.
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  Speaker 6: That was the end.
• 12:42
  Speaker 11: But what he had to endure before I would just
• 12:45
  Speaker 11: say the little boy was tortured.
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  Speaker 1: Joining US tonight an All Star panel as Letitia Stalk
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: is set to walk free after an appellate court reverses
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: her conviction. You know, straight out to special guests, joining us.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Doctor Leslie Dobson, clinical forensic psychologist, host of a hit podcast,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: intentionally disturbing. Doctor Dobson, the idea of murdering an eleven
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: year old child multiple times over overkill in the literal
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: sense of the word, is extremely disturbing. And yet apparently
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: Letitious Stalk carried on as if nothing had happened and
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: actually attacked people online who were accusing her.
• 13:36
  Speaker 10: Definitely, I mean they wanted to do disassociative identity disorder,
• 13:41
  Speaker 10: borderline malingering. But this is straight up psychopathy. This woman
• 13:46
  Speaker 10: is a psychopath.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: Doctor Leslie Dobson, you mentioned malingering and some other sorts
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: of mental ailments. Are you saying the defense brought up
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: these ailments at trial?
• 14:01
  Speaker 10: Correct and the prosecution they both had forensic psychologists do
• 14:04
  Speaker 10: an abundance of testing that looked at ma lingering, feigning,
• 14:08
  Speaker 10: straight up lying, and what the prosecution found was that
• 14:12
  Speaker 10: she was lying, She was inconsistent, infrequent, her symptoms didn't
• 14:16
  Speaker 10: match up with what she described. How she was presented
• 14:19
  Speaker 10: before the murder after, how she presented even in jail
• 14:23
  Speaker 10: was different than what she described, and throughout all of
• 14:26
  Speaker 10: this testing it showed that she was lying. She wanted
• 14:30
  Speaker 10: to look like she had disassociative identity disorder. Nothing like
• 14:34
  Speaker 10: that was in her history. And more so, she's likely
• 14:37
  Speaker 10: borderline and a psychopath and was overwhelmed with this kid.
• 14:42
  Speaker 10: They had a history of fighting. She decided to kill
• 14:45
  Speaker 10: him try to cover her tracks.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: No remorse, what exactly is the psychological definition of a psychopath.
• 14:55
  Speaker 10: Psychopath is a narcissistic individual who was also antisocial antisocial
• 15:00
  Speaker 10: personality disorder. So somebody who has no remorse doesn't care.
• 15:04
  Speaker 10: They need extra layers of stimulation. They're very charismatic, but
• 15:08
  Speaker 10: also they're reckless, destructive liars.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: So would that explain how after Gannon is murdered at
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: least three times over, he's stabbed, he's baiten, he's shot. Oh,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: and he was administered codone, a type of codonne that
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: children normally don't get. So I guess that's four times
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: over that she carried on as if nothing had happened.
• 15:35
  Speaker 6: Innocent.
• 15:36
  Speaker 10: You could say she was getting her rocks off. She
• 15:38
  Speaker 10: was stimulated. She enjoyed harming this child, and then she
• 15:43
  Speaker 10: planned a way to get rid of this child and
• 15:46
  Speaker 10: live her life. And then she was stimulated by the
• 15:48
  Speaker 10: arguments online and people coming at her.
• 15:51
  Speaker 12: She was stimulated in the courtroom. What do you mean
• 15:54
  Speaker 12: in the courtroom, she was mouthy, she was inappropriate, She
• 15:59
  Speaker 12: was overall acting up, not like somebody who was disassociating.
• 16:03
  Speaker 12: It was somebody who was pissed off that she.
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: Got caught, Vinstouk. What you need to understand is that
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: I can control the conduct of an awful lot of
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: people in the courtroom, including yours.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: And.
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: Don't do that, don't show that kind of don't be
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: making disrespectful gestures to witnesses, to people, to family members,
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: anything like that. You need to understand that if that continues,
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: I can have you removed and the trial will continue
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: without you.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: Well, doctor Dobson, you could not have been more correct.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: That was the judge reprimanding the defendant letitious stout in
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: court for the inappropriate behavior that you describe as her
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: getting her rocks off in court. And this is what
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: the judge was upset about. That is the defendant shooting
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: a bird from our friends at law and crime in
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: court straight out to Anne Emerson joining us senior investigative reporter,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: criminally obsessed and what happened.
• 17:08
  Speaker 7: Well, she was she was flipping the bird at the
• 17:11
  Speaker 7: the witnesses and people that were part of the family
• 17:14
  Speaker 7: of the Stock family. It was so disrespectful and it
• 17:18
  Speaker 7: really feeds into the narrative possibly that she was trying
• 17:22
  Speaker 7: to get across that you know, she was she had
• 17:26
  Speaker 7: an insanity plea going with her defense. This was possibly
• 17:30
  Speaker 7: part of her sort of acting the part even more,
• 17:33
  Speaker 7: but it really just came across as is so horrific
• 17:36
  Speaker 7: and and and so disturbing for these family members. I
• 17:40
  Speaker 7: mean it is this is the ultimate betrayal of a stepmother,
• 17:46
  Speaker 7: a care gover, who could possibly do something like this
• 17:50
  Speaker 7: to a small child under her care while the while
• 17:54
  Speaker 7: the dad is gone on on military service. I mean,
• 17:58
  Speaker 7: it's just the whole thing was It's so horrific I
• 18:01
  Speaker 7: think for the family to see in court that the
• 18:04
  Speaker 7: judge had to try and control her if this was
• 18:07
  Speaker 7: part of the defense on any level of her own defense,
• 18:11
  Speaker 7: trying to show that she was indeed insane. Yes, it
• 18:15
  Speaker 7: was insane behavior, but it doesn't mean that she is insane,
• 18:19
  Speaker 7: means that she was manipulative.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: To Franz Borghart, joining US criminal defense attorney, founder of
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: the Borghart Law firm, former prosecutor, Borghart, not a good
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: look for your client, right when your client shoots birds
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: at the witnesses and at the little boy victim's family.
• 18:40
  Speaker 8: I know there's been conjecture that she's malingering, but that
• 18:44
  Speaker 8: certainly seems like the behavior of someone with a serious
• 18:46
  Speaker 8: mental health issue. And maybe she's not malingering, Nancy, And
• 18:50
  Speaker 8: that's the defense, is her disruptive behavior is consistent with
• 18:54
  Speaker 8: her mental health issues. And that's what you run with.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: She shot a bird, borg Arts, She shot a bird.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: That is not a mental illness. And just think about it.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: You know what, I would have a field day with that,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: because if she will do that in a court of
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: law at witnesses under oath, with a judge sitting right there,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: if she will do that in open court, what would
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: she do to this child behind closed doors? A child
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: she hated, A child she resented because he belonged to
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: another woman, reminding her that her husband had sex with
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: another woman once loved a woman, not her. And this
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: was the physical manifestation of that love. She hated him.
• 19:43
  Speaker 8: So, look, if you're with a client like that who
• 19:47
  Speaker 8: is not going to control themselves. As a defense attorney,
• 19:50
  Speaker 8: I don't want her in the courtroom either. Yes, the
• 19:52
  Speaker 8: jury is not going to like it, but it's better
• 19:54
  Speaker 8: for my defense that she's not in the courtroom behaving
• 19:57
  Speaker 8: by flipping off the bird so candidly for a defense attorney.
• 20:01
  Speaker 8: Best thing in the world her getting booted out of
• 20:03
  Speaker 8: the corporate.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Straight out to veteran homicide detective Chris mcdonna, director of
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: the Cold Case Foundation and star of The Interview Room
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: on YouTube, Chris mcdonna, she's not mentally ill, she's just
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: hell on wheels.
• 20:21
  Speaker 13: Simple, Yeah, absolutely, Nancy. I mean, let's think about this, right,
• 20:27
  Speaker 13: She not only shot the bird, she shot a child.
• 20:29
  Speaker 13: And you know, if I can, I can help you
• 20:33
  Speaker 13: the audience with her identity. I mean, she's the devil.
• 20:36
  Speaker 13: And whenever you have an angel, a child sleeping in
• 20:40
  Speaker 13: their own bed, the most protected area of this child's world, okay,
• 20:48
  Speaker 13: and then you have the devil show up to not
• 20:51
  Speaker 13: only stab you, beat you, shoot you, and then we're
• 20:56
  Speaker 13: you know, we're ended up talking about her behavior in
• 20:59
  Speaker 13: the court doctor Dobson's right on target here. These people
• 21:04
  Speaker 13: are beyond recovery.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Put him up. Please, Why are you talking about Letitia
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Stalk's recovery. I don't care about her recovery. I just
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: want her to be under the jail instead of poised
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: to walk free. And a Pellic court just reversed her conviction.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: One more boo boo and she's walking free.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: No.
• 21:30
  Speaker 13: I totally agree. And this is the worst case scenario
• 21:33
  Speaker 13: for not only this child's family, but the investigators, the attorneys,
• 21:40
  Speaker 13: everybody that worked so hard to get her off the streets.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Speaking of the devil and his imp appears watch.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: He was always so helpful with the dogs around the
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: house and we have two littlekey dogs, and he was
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: always like a person. I could say again and can
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: you go do this?
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: And he would do it right away.
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: You know, sometimes with kids we have to remind it
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: and things like that, and that's okay.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: But he was so sweet. He was he was that
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: is evil stepmom Letitia Stalk while the search forgan and
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: was on going. That's for our friends at A and E.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Wait a minute, Franz Borgharte, veteran defense attorney, why is
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: she already talking about him in the past tense? Was
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: was was why is she saying that? What do you
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: do with that when that's played in front of the jury.
• 22:30
  Speaker 8: You have to say that she believed that he was
• 22:32
  Speaker 8: dead at that point, and that she wasn't the murderer,
• 22:35
  Speaker 8: but that that was her heart of hearts based on
• 22:37
  Speaker 8: the evidence that was found at the crime scene.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: You mean, based on the blood found under her bed.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: That statement that she just made to the reporter was
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: before the blood was found under the bed. So how
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: do you get around that she's already talking about her
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: stepson in the past tense? No, seriously, what do you
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: do with that in court? In front of a jury
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: who's eyeballing you?
• 23:04
  Speaker 8: So on that kind of a situation, I think you
• 23:08
  Speaker 8: have to just double down on the fact that she
• 23:10
  Speaker 8: didn't kill him, but that she believes he's dead and
• 23:13
  Speaker 8: that she is just trying to get justice.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Okay, put him up, please, I just hear you say that.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Letitious stalk is quote just trying to get justice. You
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: could say that to a jury. You could get that
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: out of your for the.
• 23:27
  Speaker 8: True murderer who committed the crime. I mean, Nancy, you're
• 23:31
  Speaker 8: asking me to paint the Sistine chapel with crayons. I'm
• 23:33
  Speaker 8: doing the best I can.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Ann Emerson joining us an investigative reporter, Senior investigative reporter
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: with criminally obsessed, And I'd like to go through a
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: few letitious stalks, Google searches, control room, becauld you please
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: put them up on the screen now, Bear in mind
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: her conviction has just been reversed. Find me a new husband, book,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: feel like I'm just a nanny, not a stepmom. Husband
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: uses me to babysit his kids? Or are there any
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: free money to move away from bad situation? My husband
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: never posts about me, but does everything else. My husband
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: only cleans up for the army, not me. I'm a
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: glorified babysitter. Find a new husband. Send my husband's sex messages.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: He ignores them. Gee, I wonder why, because you're evil
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: make my husband want me more? I can't. I'm sure
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: he wanted you as far away from him as possible.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: I feel like my husband uses me to babysit his kid.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Find a guy without kids, Find a guy without kids.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: She couldn't wait to get rid of Gannon? And what
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: about these searches? Did the jury hear these searches? Did
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: the appel at court not read the trial transcript.
• 25:03
  Speaker 7: There's no doubt that this evidence was just exactly what
• 25:07
  Speaker 7: needed to happen in order for her to to be
• 25:10
  Speaker 7: you know, put in put in prison, throw away the key.
• 25:13
  Speaker 7: I mean, there's there's nothing you can say about these
• 25:15
  Speaker 7: Google searches that that does not point to clear evidence
• 25:19
  Speaker 7: that she was the actually planning this. This was she
• 25:24
  Speaker 7: was trying to figure out ways to get rid of,
• 25:27
  Speaker 7: you know, Gannon. All of this points to it.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: How did eleven year old Gannon Stock go missing?
• 25:34
  Speaker 14: Gannon shouts. The eleven year old disappear from his father's home.
• 25:39
  Speaker 14: He lived there with his father and his stepmother, just
• 25:42
  Speaker 14: in a little supper outside of Colorado Springs. The step
• 25:45
  Speaker 14: mom says that he was not in We don't have
• 25:48
  Speaker 14: a clear answer why, she said. We've heard a couple
• 25:52
  Speaker 14: of things, one that he was sick and the one
• 25:53
  Speaker 14: that he had a doctor's appointment, so he had stayed
• 25:56
  Speaker 14: home that day. He was reported missing after he had
• 25:59
  Speaker 14: left that house.
• 26:00
  Speaker 7: He was wearing a blue.
• 26:01
  Speaker 14: Jacket and sneakers and jeans. He said he was going
• 26:04
  Speaker 14: to go see a friend. It was on the afternoon,
• 26:07
  Speaker 14: around three point thirty. They think that he told his
• 26:10
  Speaker 14: stepmom He's going to go out and see a friend,
• 26:13
  Speaker 14: and that was the last time we saw Gannon.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Stoush joining US Crime Stories investigative reporter Dave Macdave Muddy
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: Murky unclear to say the least, we've got the stepmother,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: Ltitious talks saying that he was ill, that he had
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: a doctor's appointment, he disappeared from his father's home, but
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: that he went to go see friends with a blue jacket,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: sneakers and jeans on. So what was her final story
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: she told about the last time Ganna was seen alive.
• 26:48
  Speaker 5: The last story that Latitia Stout told was that he
• 26:52
  Speaker 5: was going to a friend's house, that he was walking
• 26:55
  Speaker 5: through the neighborhood on his way to play.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: Dave Mac, that is in direct conflict with the video
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: that the neighbor saw and immediately knew something was horribly wrong.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: He sees the evil stepmother, Latitious talk getting into the
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: vehicle with eleven year old Gannon, and Gannon is never
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: seen getting out of the vehicle. That is not him
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: walking around the neighborhood to go play. That is him
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: getting into the vehicle with her. He also stated that
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: Gannon could hardly walk at the time that he seemed
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: to be dizzy and unsteady on his feet. What can
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: you tell me about that, Dave mac.
• 27:40
  Speaker 5: Well, yeah, Nancy's it actually goes back to earlier we
• 27:44
  Speaker 5: were talking about what was found in Gannon's bloodstream. The
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: hydro codone with the seed demnifin or Laura sat something
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: like that would have made Gannon lupia. It would have
• 27:55
  Speaker 5: made him very groggy. Actually, it would have made it
• 27:58
  Speaker 5: so that he could be I hate to say this
• 28:01
  Speaker 5: out loud, Nancy, but it makes it so that he'd
• 28:03
  Speaker 5: be a much easier child to kill if he was
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: that groggy. Now we're talking about the last time anyone
• 28:11
  Speaker 5: other than Latitia Stout actually saw Gannon, and the description
• 28:14
  Speaker 5: of an eleven year old boy walking like that is
• 28:17
  Speaker 5: shocking in and of itself, Nancy. But what we know
• 28:21
  Speaker 5: now is that Letitia Stout told stories that were able
• 28:28
  Speaker 5: to be proved lies with video. The neighbor actually really
• 28:33
  Speaker 5: did save the day. If you remember, it didn't happen
• 28:35
  Speaker 5: right away. It took a couple of days. He watched
• 28:38
  Speaker 5: it on his own and saw this and called FBI,
• 28:41
  Speaker 5: called everybody, said hey, come and take a look. So
• 28:44
  Speaker 5: we really have right here in the palm of our hand,
• 28:48
  Speaker 5: the murderer and the victim, and the victim is already
• 28:52
  Speaker 5: out of it as he gets in the vehicle, the
• 28:55
  Speaker 5: last time he has seen alive.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: And the location where his remains are found is mind boggling.
• 29:06
  Speaker 12: Search crews scouring all over Colorado for weeks and weeks
• 29:11
  Speaker 12: on it, and then we hear Florida.
• 29:14
  Speaker 13: You know, we did the bath.
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: We were calculating how.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Far away it was from Myrtle Beach where she was arrested.
• 29:21
  Speaker 9: It's just mind blowing.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: A road construction crew was working in the area, right
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: near a bridge is Scambia River Bridge.
• 29:28
  Speaker 12: And Highway ninety and that's where they found again in
• 29:32
  Speaker 12: the body.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: Too. Anne Emerson joining us and explain how his body
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: was found stuffed in a suitcase far far away from home.
• 29:47
  Speaker 7: The whole thing. The more that I read about it,
• 29:49
  Speaker 7: the more disturbing it is.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: Nancy.
• 29:52
  Speaker 7: I mean not only that, like she had to get
• 29:54
  Speaker 7: the suitcase out of her home. She from the reports
• 29:59
  Speaker 7: that we've read, her brother was with her when she
• 30:04
  Speaker 7: had said she no longer could be with the father.
• 30:07
  Speaker 7: After Gannon had disappeared, she no longer wanted to be
• 30:11
  Speaker 7: with her husband, Alstock, So she decides she's going to
• 30:14
  Speaker 7: take off in the car. She even gets her brother
• 30:16
  Speaker 7: to come with her to help get her out of
• 30:19
  Speaker 7: the house. They get this suitcase out of the house.
• 30:22
  Speaker 7: He has no idea what's in this suitcase. He has
• 30:26
  Speaker 7: no idea what could possibly be in this suitcase. And
• 30:29
  Speaker 7: then we get a report that this suitcase is found
• 30:33
  Speaker 7: underneath a bridge in Florida where she has gone to
• 30:38
  Speaker 7: dump the body of Gannon, which is so disturbing, and
• 30:42
  Speaker 7: it's a I think it was a Florida Department of
• 30:45
  Speaker 7: Transportation construction worker. This suitcase must have been dumped over
• 30:50
  Speaker 7: a bridge, and they open it up and it's the
• 30:54
  Speaker 7: remains of this dear child. And the idea that she
• 30:58
  Speaker 7: actually traveled in a car for thousands of miles to
• 31:02
  Speaker 7: get to this place and then takes off to Myrtle
• 31:06
  Speaker 7: Beach is It's really one of the most disturbing things
• 31:11
  Speaker 7: I've ever heard, you know, and also really speaks to
• 31:14
  Speaker 7: her determination to keep on running with this story, that
• 31:22
  Speaker 7: her true determination to take this body this far. It's
• 31:27
  Speaker 7: one of the most incredible cases I've ever heard. Seriously, Nancy,
• 31:31
  Speaker 7: I've never heard anything.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: That it was a large green suitcase that came from
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: her home. Like the big ones you have to check
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: at the airport. A construction crew locates this little boy's
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: decomposing remains in a suitcase under a bridge in Pace, Florida.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: The bridge runs over Escambia River there in Pace. The
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: little boy's body was disposed of in that area shortly,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: very shortly after he's reporting reported missing. Now we know
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: that the evil stepmother, Latitious Stalk, drove from Colorado to
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: Florida over thirteen hundred miles to hide the body, and
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: in fact, shortly after his body is disposed of under
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: that bridge, she is arrested not too far away in
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: Myrtle Beach. That's a long way to travel with a
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: dead body in your car, all the way down to
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: the Florida Panhandle, straight back out to renowned medical examiner
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: doctor Jan Gorniac. Doctor Gorniac, the body was already decomposed
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: in that suitcase. How do you believe it was identified
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: as being again.
• 33:02
  Speaker 11: Well, there's different stages of decomposition, and so yes, he's
• 33:05
  Speaker 11: in a suitcase. He has all these injuries. So it
• 33:10
  Speaker 11: takes about thirty six hours ish for you to really
• 33:14
  Speaker 11: start to see some real decomposition. And not to sound silly,
• 33:20
  Speaker 11: but one of the things that probably preserved his body
• 33:23
  Speaker 11: that so he could be identified easily was because he
• 33:27
  Speaker 11: was in that suitcase.
• 33:29
  Speaker 6: Had he been thrown.
• 33:30
  Speaker 11: Over that bridge, exposed to water, exposed to animals scavenging,
• 33:36
  Speaker 11: then that would have been a lot worse.
• 33:38
  Speaker 6: But then also remember if he was.
• 33:40
  Speaker 11: Decomposed enough where he couldn't be identified, they knew enough
• 33:47
  Speaker 11: to arrest her, try to put it together with this
• 33:50
  Speaker 11: missing child, and they had blood samples from back in
• 33:53
  Speaker 11: the house which they knew was his, so it possibly
• 33:56
  Speaker 11: could have been DNA, it could have been dental records.
• 34:00
  Speaker 11: Since they had a tentative ID on who he was,
• 34:03
  Speaker 11: then he could have been positively ID through DNA or dental.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: Dave Mac joining US Crime Stories investigative reporter, she entered
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, which
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: essentially means I did it, but I was insane at
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: the time. Isn't it true, Dave Mac that a recording
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: of her admitting to murdering Gannon was played in front
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: of the jury.
• 34:34
  Speaker 5: It was Nancy. It was played in the final days
• 34:37
  Speaker 5: of the trial. This recording that the jury was able
• 34:41
  Speaker 5: to hear Letitia confessing to fatally shooting Gannon while the
• 34:45
  Speaker 5: forensic psychologist was examining her as part of that insanity defense.
• 34:50
  Speaker 5: So the jury heard the whole thing and they saw,
• 34:54
  Speaker 5: you know, they could tell what was going on in
• 34:56
  Speaker 5: the room, how questions were answered, and then when they
• 34:59
  Speaker 5: went into deliberate Nancy, they made a firm decision that
• 35:05
  Speaker 5: she's not insane. This is not insanity, this is not
• 35:09
  Speaker 5: you're not getting away with this, and they convicted her
• 35:12
  Speaker 5: right after that.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: Straight out to doctor Leslie Dobson, joining US clinical forensic psychologist,
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: what rises to legal insanity?
• 35:24
  Speaker 10: She knew that she was wrong. She we have proof
• 35:28
  Speaker 10: that she planned this action, that she knew what was
• 35:30
  Speaker 10: going on, and that she tried to cover the action
• 35:33
  Speaker 10: after she murdered this child. So we have certainty now
• 35:39
  Speaker 10: that she is not insane at the time of the crime.
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: Legal insanity is judged by what we call the old
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: McNaughton test. It is a litmus test brought over from
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: English common law to our country. There you see her
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: at the El Paso Sheriff's office. Do you think she
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: looks like she's insane? Yes, I know. We are all
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: lay people and not psychologists or psychiatrists. But look at
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: her actions, look how she is behaving. Legal insanity is
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: that you did not know right from wrong at the
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: time of the incident. That is what legal insanity is
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: the fact that she covered up the crime, put the
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: body in a suitcase, drove over one thousand miles to
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: dispose of it under a bridge, let it decompose near
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: a river bank. That indicates knowledge of guilt, which means
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: she did know what she did was wrong at the
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: time of the incident. That was the argument to the
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: jury to Dave Mack. The jury also heard one of
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: her last conversations with her husband where she was adamantly
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: denying anything to do with Gannon's disappear So we know
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: she has the ability to lie the cunning the wherewithal,
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: But didn't she also come up with some crazy rape story.
• 37:09
  Speaker 5: Oh my gosh, Yes, Nancy. She actually claimed that she
• 37:14
  Speaker 5: was raped by a Hispanic man and after she was raped,
• 37:20
  Speaker 5: the Hispanic mail took off with Gannon kidnapped him. That
• 37:24
  Speaker 5: was her story, well, one of them two.
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: Franz at Borghart joining us criminal defense attorney joining us
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: out of Baton Rouge Franz it is a bitter pill
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: to swallow that this case, this conviction is reversed. Explain why.
• 37:45
  Speaker 8: During the jury selection process one of the potential jurors
• 37:49
  Speaker 8: disclosed a relationship to the DA's office. The defense attorney
• 37:54
  Speaker 8: did what we call a motion for a challenge for
• 37:57
  Speaker 8: cause Nancy, which was denied by the job judge. That
• 38:00
  Speaker 8: basically he was arguing that there was a legal defect
• 38:03
  Speaker 8: in letting that juror on or that individual on. Ultimately,
• 38:07
  Speaker 8: the judge said, you can use what we call one
• 38:09
  Speaker 8: of your premptory exceptions or challenges, and the and the
• 38:14
  Speaker 8: higher court said, you know what, you have a right
• 38:16
  Speaker 8: to a to a constitutionally unbiased jury. And the judge
• 38:21
  Speaker 8: violated that right by by requiring the defense team to
• 38:26
  Speaker 8: utilize a challenge where he's whereas he should have just
• 38:30
  Speaker 8: granted the cause challenge. Uh, and so it's reversed for neutral.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: You know what, Franz Borghart, I blame them all, I
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: blame the judge, I blame the prosecutor. And that is,
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: as I said, a bitter pill for me, as a
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: former prosecutor, you absolutely cannot see a gr R that
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: is related to a prosecutor in the office that is
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: prosecuting this case. It doesn't matter if it's by blood
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: or by marriage. It doesn't matter. That is a peremptory strike.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: What is That's a strike for cause? Okay, a strike
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: for cause means that, for instance, you are related to
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: the defendant. The defense doesn't have to use one of
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: their strikes to strike you. If you're related to the defendant,
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: under the law, you are not fit to sit on
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: the jury. If you are related to a prosecutor, you
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: are not fit under the law to sit on the jury.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: There's dreams of precedent on that. The prosecutor should not
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: have allowed it, the judge should not have allowed it.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: And here we are tonight wondering will Letitia start walk free?
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: Was it worth it? It's never worth it to get
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: a trial advantage that's going to result in a reversal,
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: horrible decision. The devil is set to walk free because
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: of one trial error. And when I say error, that's
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: really putting perfume on the pig. This was a intentional
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: decision by the prosecutor to disallow a strike for cause.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: They should have joined the defense in that motion to
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: save hold the conviction. The last thing I want to
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: do is go through all the effort, the blood, the sweat,
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: and the tears to try a murder case, knowing there
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: is reversible error. I can't believe this has happened, But
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: here we are and we wait as justice unfolds, and
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: now we remember an American hero. Detective Valerie Jacobs NYCPD,
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: died in the line of duty, leaving behind her grieving son, Anthony.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: American hero Detective Valerie Jacobs. Thank you to our guests
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: for being with us, but especially to you for joining
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: us tonight as we seek justice for gannon Stalk. Nancy
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: Gray signing off for tonight, but I'll see you tomorrow night,
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: and until then, good night friend,