Mar. 9—Issues with the sanity report for Letecia Stauch, who is accused of killing her 11-year-old stepson Gannon in January 2020, put the start of her jury trial in jeopardy on Thursday.

The report has still not been filed with the court, 4th Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen said at the start of Stauch's pre-trial readiness hearing.

Allen indicated he and the other attorneys prosecuting the case were ready for trial, but not having the second sanity report was a serious complication.

Allen said that if the report was not received before trial, the prosecution could move to exclude the expert conducting the sanity evaluation, who was referred to as "Dr. Lewis" throughout Thursday's hearing, from testifying at trial.

Allen said not having the report borders on "bad faith" from the defense's expert.

"This is a disrespect to court deadlines," Allen said. "I've never seen anything like this."

The frustration from Allen was shared by Judge Gregory Werner, who openly questioned how 13 months after Stauch pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to all charges — and seven months since Stauch's first sanity report was filed with the court — that the defense's report had yet to be filed.

Delays in the case have occurred, in part, because of the sanity evaluation. Initially, Stauch, 39, pleaded not guilty to the charges, but in February 2022 Werner granted her permission to change her plea to not guilty by reason of insanity.

The first mental health evaluation conducted by the psychiatric hospital in Pueblo found Stauch to be sane, Werner said at a hearing in August.

Stauch's attorney Josh Tolini told the court that he expected the report to be filed next week, but that Dr. Lewis wanted to conduct an MRI on Stauch before filing the report.

Werner gave a hard deadline of Thursday for the second sanity report to be filed, regardless of if the requested MRI is completed.

"Convey to your expert that it's not a suggestion, it's not a guideline ... it's a deadline," Werner said. "If she (Dr. Lewis) wants to testify here in this case, it has to be done (by the deadline)."

Jury selection is set to begin March 20, and opening statements are scheduled for April 3.

At the end of the hearing, Stauch told Werner that she would not dress up for the trial and will instead wear her El Paso County jail jumpsuit.

"It won't matter," Stauch said when Werner told her that wearing a jumpsuit may impact the way the jury views her, and that she has a right to dress in civilian clothes for the trial.

Allen has said in previous hearings that he anticipates Stauch's trial will last six weeks.

Stauch faces 13 charges including first-degree murder, child abuse and tampering with evidence.

In addition to the first-degree murder case, Stauch also faces a second case in which she is accused of attempting to escape from the El Paso County jail in May 2020.

Stauch was arrested in South Carolina in March 2020 and has been in jail since then. She faces life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder.