Exhibit 40

← Back to Day 3

This is an audio exhibit. The recorded phone call is between Al and Letecia Stauch.

Loose Transcription

There is something about a peanut butter sandwich and "I ate mine too" but it’s unclear who it was.
"Are you still alive" Letecia says to Al.
Al says this is her chance to say what she's gotta say.
"What's that noise?" She asks. It's his water bottle.
Letecia: "Do you love me? Al: "yes".
Letecia: "If you know it's an accident will you stand by me?" Al: "yes".
Letecia: "I'm sorry for all the stories, I didn't know what to do".
She is crying.
She's saying she did pick up a bike and it was too big but she let Gannon ride it "and he got hurt bad".
"When he fell he got hurt 'cause there were hills and stuff. The guy was helping him ride the bike".
"I don't know how bad it was, he was bleeding from his arms, his knees, his head".
"He promised he was gonna go back to his house and get bandages and call 911 because we accidentally left our phone at PetCo. I swear to god Quincy's real".
"What happened, baby?" Al says.

Transcriber’s note: (he says this super softly and earning himself an Oscar imo. I would not have been able to do this)

"I was scared he didn't come back with him".
"I thought I would go back and keep searching".
"I spent the whole night" (unintelligible)
"I didn’t want you to hate me".
Al: "why would I hate you?"
He says it's hard to hear but needs her to tell him again. She's yelling and crying, he says "I believe you now. Thank you for telling me the truth. This means the world to me".
She says it might be Exit 163, it was on her phone.
Al: "can you think of a landmark? Help me find him, babe, just help me".
She says this is the only reason she asked for immunity, she was trying to figure out why he took him. He needed help because the bike was too big.
She's been driving trying to find the guy and that's why the GPS and car show what they do. She told police and they said "yeah ‘cause he's wanted, if you know where he is let us know". They didn't try to help her.
"Before I let him do anything I made him show me his ID cause I was trying to make sure..."
She is crying.

Letecia: "Listen to me please please!"
She got nervous because he had a tour bike and was trying to sell it, she realized she left her phone at PetCo. Gannon talked with him and high-fived him so she assumed he was a nice guy and he helped him get on the bike to ride it, asked him if he thought his daddy would like the bike. He slid with Gannon and the bike and Gannon slid down and hit his head and she ran over and was trying to help she didn't have her phone.
He said he lived right there and would take him to his house and call. "I'm so sick of crying and crying it".
“That's why I've been adamant about you finding this dude".

He asks again the location and how Gannon was hurt and mentioned his burns.
"There were no bad burns Albert. They were just bubbles from the fire. She repeats all the same about him not being in pain and she would've taken him in.
She says he was bleeding pretty bad, blood was dripping down his face.

Al Stauch, Testimony About Exhibit 40

Al thinks she was really crying during that call, but he was just trying to get her to keep talking.
She had one personality, her normal personality, during that call.
This was the first time she said Gannon had any head injury.
Letecia said she used her clothes to stop the bleeding on Gannon's head but none of her clothes were bloody when he got home from Oklahoma.