Sergeant Chris Ganstine

He is employed with the El Paso County Sheriff's Office; he is a patrol supervisor sergeant. In January 2020 he was a detective sergeant in the Colorado Springs metro vice narcotics unit.

Direct Examination

• One of his tasks was to begin covert surveillance on Letecia.
• On January 30th 2020 they began early in the morning in the Lorson Ranch neighborhood.
• They were able to spot her. He points out Letecia, the defendant, as the person they were watching.
• A white Jetta was in the driveway.
• Harley and Letecia came out of the house and Harley got in the driver's seat, Letecia went into the right rear passenger seat.
• They began "rolling surveillance" in covert vehicles.
• She was crouched down in the car most of the drive; a behavior commonly encountered when officers are following fugitives or people trying to avoid detection.
• At the Marshalls clothing store, Harley parked and they both went in. Shortly after, Ganstine was notified that they had obtained a warrant for the Jetta they were driving and a cell phone that was in the possession of either Letecia or Harley. Covert surveillance was ended in order to secure the vehicle and phone.
• At 1:24 PM, they made contact with Letecia. He says they were at Michaels, not Marshalls, now. They were going to have units pull up with lights on when they came out and do a soft contact.
• Their main concern was the destruction of evidence or her getting into the car and fleeing.
• They were wearing black raid vests, his had his firearm and his badge on it. He was wearing jeans and a hoodie underneath.
• When he tried to make contact with Letecia, she came out by herself and Harley was still inside. Letecia was holding the keys to the car which concerned them.
• Sgt Ganstine was parked directly next to her vehicle so he radioed that he would contact Letecia and the others should stay on Harley inside.
• She was surprised when she saw Sergeant Ganstine. He introduced himself and notified her of the search warrant and told her he would need the keys; she didn't acknowledge him, she moved closer to her drivers door and started walking slowly backwards.
• She was stuttering "key", "warrant", and repeating what he was saying as she walked backward; he told her to relax and he just needed the keys.
• She couldn't go left or right. She was just looking behind her as she walked backwards. She turned and ran away from the officer, a "full sprint" with the keys in her hand.
• He radioed it in and ran after her; she threw the keys across the parking lot and continued running.
• Another officer drew his firearm and gave Letecia a verbal command to stop; she was handcuffed and detained. She was not being arrested but officers were unsure what was going on because she ran.
• Harley was walking out of the Michael's within a minute of that happening; she was reluctant to give up the phone but she had it in her hand and a detective yanked it out of her hand.
• Letecia was hysterical and screaming obscenities, she screamed at Harley not to talk and to tell them she wanted an attorney; they tried to explain they just wanted the phone.
• Harley started crying and was "fairly hysterical" as well.
• Ganstine is asked if Letecia was suffering from a severe mental health crisis at the time; he explains when people are surprised by law enforcement they have to decide whether to comply with a request and their second decision is whether to run or fight. They usually "target glance" which mean to look where they are going to run or look at a weapon they were going to use. It was evident she was going to run but those were conscious decisions that were made. He did not observe any severe mental disease or defect.

Cross Examination

• This encounter took place on January 30th, 2020. He had only seen photos of her and this is how he recognized her when she came out of the house. He can't recall if he saw photos of Harley.
• It seemed like Letecia was acting suspiciously, ducking down in the back seat and avoiding detection.
• They were not trying to stop officers from following them, there were no evasive maneuvers.
• She was potentially a person of interest in Gannon's disappearance at the time of the surveillance.
• They believed the driver was Harley based on it being her vehicle and from photos of her.
• He worked undercover and did not have a body cam.
• Harley was not a person of interest at the time.
• Ganstine has never been qualified in an expert in diagnosing mental health diseases in the DSM 4 or 5 and has never received any mental health degrees.

Redirect

• It's not feasible to wear body cams while doing undercover work.
• It is too obvious to have a camera in the center of their chest and footage is also discoverable which can put detectives lives at risk.
• During undercover work they even get new names.