Letecia Stauch is asking a Colorado appeals court to toss her murder conviction, arguing that one juror’s family connection to the local prosecutor’s office tainted the entire trial. Her lawyers say that the juror started as an alternate, later took a seat on the panel, and should have been disqualified under state law once the relationship came to light.
A three-judge Colorado Court of Appeals panel heard brief oral arguments Tuesday and took the case under advisement, with no immediate ruling from the bench.
Defense attorney Eric Samler told the panel that the juror’s son-in-law worked as a deputy district attorney in the El Paso County District Attorney’s Office and that the trial judge should have removed the juror once that tie was disclosed. Failing to do so, he argued, is “a structural error requiring reversal of the convictions,” according to the Colorado Springs Gazette. Samler said the issue was preserved in a May 2024 brief and that the trial court’s application of the law justifies vacating the verdict…