Same Guys Dancing

[{"type":"text","text":"Marty Stuart And Travis Tritt -- Honky Tonkin's What I Do Best"}]

Mix Collage 08 Jun 2024 10 00 PM 7763

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Sunday Morning Dance Party: Marty Stuart And Travis Tritt -- Honky Tonkin's What I Do Best | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Marty Stuart And Travis Tritt -- Honky Tonkin's What I Do Best

Sunday Morning Dance Party: Marty Stuart And Travis Tritt -- Honky Tonkin's What I Do Best

 Marty Stuart And Travis Tritt -- Honky Tonkin's What I Do Best

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's managing editor, Greg Johnson.

Greg Johnson

Crime & Courts

Courts

CHEYENNE — An attorney for a Cheyenne teen 

 with first-degree murder for allegedly shooting his mother in the head wants his case moved to juvenile court, claiming the boy was emotionally abused, secluded, and had a “dysfunctional” relationship with her.

In an 11-page motion filed with the Laramie County District Court on Tuesday, Emily Williams, a public defender representing Havoc Leone, asks the court for a hearing to argue that his case be transferred to juvenile court.

“It is undisputed that the charge is a violent felony against another person, specifically his mother,” she wrote in the motion. “However, the community’s safety is not protected by continuing to prosecute Defendant as an adult rather than transferring his case to juvenile court.”

Williams argues that Leone, who was 14 on March 6 when his 41-year-old mother Theresa McIntosh was shot and killed in his bedroom of their home, would benefit more from the extra attention and treatment he would receive from the juvenile system.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Alleged Abuse"}]

She also said he needs that help because of an abusive and challenging upbringing that has left him less mature than other teens his age.

Leone “is not sophisticated or mature, even for his tender age,” the motion says. “He is an only child that had been homeschooled for nearly six years prior to the alleged incident.

“Defendant did not have many friends, if any, due to the decedent’s seclusion of Defendant from other kids and family members. As an example, she would not allow him to attend school or see his maternal aunt.”

Since Leone’s arrest, the aunt has been visiting him in the Laramie County Detention Center weekly and he has been interacting with other youths, “which is (a) new experience” for him, the motion says.

Williams also references other ways his mother allegedly alienated and emotionally abused Leone.

As a result, he “had a dysfunctional, but too close, relationship with the decedent,” Williams wrote. “He was introduced to pornography when very young within his household and has struggled with pornography addiction for a few years.”

His mother also reportedly “had severe mental health struggles” and problems with substance abuse. With his father away for stretches of time as a truck driver, Leone was left home alone with an abusive and addicted mother.

McIntosh “verbally and physically abused Defendant, and the full extent of this abuse will be explored in depth by a professional,” the motion says.

A message left for Williams wasn’t returned by publication; however, that abuse was brought up during Leon’s 

She had reportedly called him “retarded” and a “thief” when they argued before the shooting, said defense attorney Jonathan Foreman.

“If I called you ‘retarded,’ would you believe it?” Foreman asked Laramie County Sheriff’s Office Detective Miles DePrimo, who testified about the details of the case, which included Leone admitting to hating his mother and shooting her.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"DePrimo answered, “No.”"}]

“Would a child who had been hearing that his whole childhood start to question that?” Foreman followed up.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"“Maybe,” the detective answered."}]

“Ms. McIntosh, who was mentally ill … regularly called him ‘retarded,’ pulled his hair” and slapped him, said Foreman.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"DA: Adult Charge ‘Appropriate’"}]

Despite the arguments of abuse and his age — 14 is the cutoff in Wyoming to be charged as an adult — Laramie County District Attorney Sylvia Hackl said her office believes the adult charge is appropriate and will oppose Williams’ motion.

“Yes, we knew about the motion and yes, we will oppose his transfer to juvenile court,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “But, we have to wait and see what the defense produces (at a hearing on the motion).”

Hackl said she thought it appropriate to charge Leone as an adult when the crime happened in early March, and still does.

“He shot his mother in the head with a gun he stole from her car,” she said. “We thought the charges as an adult were appropriate. This motion to transfer is not a surprise.

“We consider every case on its own merits, and to say that this one is tragic and unusual, it is. It’s both tragic and unusual.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Rehabilitate"}]

If the goal of the justice system is to rehabilitate alleged offenders, then juvenile court is by far the best place for Leone, Williams argues in her motion.

“Defendant’s likelihood of reasonable rehabilitation through services available in juvenile court is very high,” the motion says. “Juveniles are more capable of change than are adults, and their actions less likely to be evidence of ‘irretrievably depraved character’ than are the actions of adults.”

Williams also argues that Leon’s pornography addiction could be better addressed in the juvenile system than in an adult facility.

“By the time Defendant is parole eligible, he will be long past his teenage years when his brain is most malleable,” the motion says. “In fact, Defendant would (be) approaching middle age at the likely time of his release.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What Happened"}]

In contrast to the picture painted in Williams’ motion, Assistant District Attorney Kelly Strickland has argued that Leone was far from a victim at the time he allegedly shot his mother.

Leone had expressed a long-simmering hatred for his mother, had thoughts about killing her, and then followed through when presented with an opportunity, Strickland argued at the teen’s preliminary hearing.

Along with stealing his mother’s gun from her car a week earlier and admitting he thought about killing her then, Leone’s interviews with detectives show he had “prior thoughts” of shooting his mother but hadn’t found the right opportunity until March 6, when the argument culminated in her being shot, Strickland said.

“Right before pulling the trigger on the gun, Theresa yelled at him again if he was ‘retarded,’” Strickland said, recounting an interview Leone had with an investigator. “He said, ‘Yes mom,’ and pulled the trigger.”

The fatal confrontation was the culmination of an argument Leone had with his parents over an electronic tablet that had been stolen from a cleaning client of McIntosh’s.

After the initial argument, they all went their separate ways in their three-level home just south of Cheyenne city limits, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in his case.

The father went into the basement, McIntosh was upstairs in Leone’s room doing a puzzle on the floor, while Leone was at the kitchen table doing homework.

At some point, Leone went up to his room where McIntosh was, and they began arguing again, the affidavit says.

A gun the teen stole from his mother’s car the week prior, a Taurus 9mm pistol, had been stashed in a boot in Leone’s closet, the detective wrote. 

At one point during their argument, Leone went to the closet to retrieve a notebook that supposedly had a password to access the stolen tablet, DePrimo

Leone pulled the gun out of the boot and held it by his side to hide it from McIntosh.

With McIntosh sitting back on her knees on the floor, Leone told detectives that he tossed the notebook at her, which forced the woman to lean forward away from him, exposing the back of her head, DePrimo testified.

“As she knelt forward, he revealed the gun and shot her,” he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Will Be Evaluated"}]

An Aug. 10 date for Leon’s trial to start has been vacated and pushed back to Sept. 8, court records show.

In the meantime, Leone’s defense has retained a psychologist to evaluate him throughout July, who will then “need time to write a report with her findings,” the motion says. “The report will likely be completed before or during the month of September.”

That report may bolster Williams’ argument that treatment as a juvenile benefits society more than his incarceration as an adult.

“Defendant, whether convicted as an adult or having his case resolved in juvenile court, will be released into the community with many years to live and build his life,” the motion says. “Prioritizing his treatment and development will protect the community more than any other consideration.”

Leone remains at the Laramie County Detention Center on a $500,000 bond.

If convicted of first-degree murder, Leone could face life in prison without parole or life with the possibility for parole.

Because he’s younger than 18, Leone is not eligible for the death penalty in Wyoming.

Theresa Mc Intosh 7 9 26

<title>Attorney For Cheyenne Teen Accused Of Killing Mom Wants Him Out Of Adult Court | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Cheyenne boy who was 14 when he allegedly shot his mom in the head and charged as an adult with first-degree murder should be in juvenile court, his attorney argues in a Tuesday court motion. It claims his mother “verbally and physically abused” him.

Attorney For Cheyenne Teen Accused Of Killing Mom Wants Him Out Of Adult Court

Coy Knobel

Don Day Weather

 Chance of afternoon rain in parts of Wyoming on Thursday. Severe storms possible in the southeast. Mostly clear skies overnight. Highs from the upper 70s to low 90s. Lows from the mid 40s to low 60s.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":" "}]

Chance of rain mainly after 1 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 85 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 59.

Slight chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 86 and gradually becoming clear overnight with a low near 58.

 Slight chance of rain after 3 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 89 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 61.

 Slight chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 84 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 46.

  Mostly sunny today with a high near 86 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 52.

Slight chance of rain after noon, otherwise sunny today with a high near 86 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 50.

Mostly sunny today with a high near 80 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 47.

 Sunny today with a high near 84 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 50.

  Sunny today with a high near 81 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 48.

 Chance of rain mainly after 1 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 78 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 49.

  Sunny today with a high near 86 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 50.

Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park

:  Sunny today with a high near 78 and mostly clear overnight a low near 45.

Slight chance of rain after 2 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 89 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 62.

:  Slight chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 86 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 62.

  Mostly sunny today with a high near 93 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 62.

  Chance of rain, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 82 and partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m. and a low near 63.

  Slight chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny and hot today with a high near 90 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 56.

:  Chance of rain, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 84 and partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m. and a low near 56.

Chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 88 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m., a low near 58 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph.

  Chance of rain after noon, otherwise partly sunny today with a high near 85 and wind gusts as high as 18 mph. Mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before 9 p.m., a low near 58 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph.

:  Chance of rain after noon, otherwise partly sunny today with a high near 82 and gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a chance of rain before 9 p.m. and a low near 56.

  Rain likely mainly after noon (some storms could be severe) today with a high near 90 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 59.

  Chance of rain (some storms could be severe), increasing clouds today with a high near 83 and partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m. and a low near 53.

  Chance of rain after noon, increasing clouds today with a high near 88 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 59.

  Rain likely after noon, becoming mostly cloudy today with a high near 83 and partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m. and a low near 54.

  Chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 79 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 49.

  Slight chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 84 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 48.

  Slight chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 83 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 52.

  Chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 81 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 48.

  Slight chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 82 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 49.

Daycap 7 9 26

<title>Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Thursday, July 9, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Thursday, July 9, 2026

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Native American Tribes

A “Yellowstone” series TV actor posted a clip Tuesday of a Christian pastor preaching on the Wind River Indian Reservation and discouraging some of the Arapaho tribal religious ceremonies, saying “Jesus is everything...A pipe cannot hear your prayers.”

, garnering 31,000 views as of Wednesday afternoon and provoking outrage, particularly around the reservation.

Christian Wassana, an enrolled Cheyenne Arapaho of Oklahoma who played Martin Kills Many on “Yellowstone," described Foundations for Nations pastor Sarah Lucas’ message as, “A pastor speaking at a church on the Rez in Wyoming condemning Sundance, one of our oldest and most sacred ceremonies.”

Wassana said, “it feels like history repeating itself, with attempts to erase and discredit our traditional way of life.”

He said everyone has the right to practice his or her own faith, “but claiming that one path is the only path while belittling and condemning ours is deeply disheartening.”

In the Northern Arapaho tribe, the flat pipe is associated with the Creator, and some sun dance rituals center on the pipe and treat it as a sacred object.

[{"type":"text","text":"‘We Know That Jesus Is Enough’"}]

The full sermon was unavailable at least as of Wednesday. The one-minute, 38-second clip depicts Lucas paraphrasing from the Bible: “tear down the altars, tear down the idols.”

She spoke of “this nation” gathering in recent days, praying. The tribal members had just conducted their sun dance ceremony. 

Lucas’ church sits on private, not tribal, land within the reservation, on the east side near Riverton. Two tribes share that reservation: the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone.

“They prayed to pipes and they prayed to the ancestors, believing this is the way for their freedom. To get free from addiction, for people to be healed… This is what this culture did this week,” said Lucas.

[{"type":"text","text":"She urged the congregation to pray."}]

“Because we know that Jesus is enough. He’s enough. It’s not Jesus-plus. It’s Jesus everything. He’s everything,” said Lucas.

She referenced people she described as tribal members who have become Christians.

“And they understand the price… when they say that publicly. The persecution that can come with them publicly,” Lucas said. “But they know that this is it. Jesus is the chain breaker. He’s the only one that we should be praying to. A pipe cannot hear your prayers.”

[{"type":"text","text":"‘This Is Religious Warfare’"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The backlash is immense."}]

Tribal members gathered Tuesday to protest in front of Riverton’s City Hall.

[{"type":"text","text":"Chris Friday, a protest leader, took to Facebook to call it a victory."}]

“SARAH LUAS (sic) openly spoke down on OUR sacred Grandpa pipe,” Friday wrote in a lengthy post featuring photographs from the protest. “She don’t know what we as Arapaho have been through, and still go through…. She should educate herself on tribal spirituality before talking on shit she doesn’t know. Because this is religious warfare.”

Friday said the protestors wanted an apology. He called Foundations for Nations leaders “not good people” and told Arapaho tribal members to boycott the church.

“Don’t go to their food bank. Don’t go to their events. Don’t let your children go,” he wrote. “We want them out of Arapaho land forever. They no longer are welcome here.”

Friday told Cowboy State Daily in a later interview that the "Grandpa pipe is our spiritual leader” and “our connection with the Creator.” 

Friday added, "They can leave, you know. They’re not welcome here anymore."

[{"type":"text","text":"Absolute Truth"}]

Desiree Henderson, a woman who described herself as a four-year member of the church’s ministry, posted a nearly 17-minute video in the church’s defense.

She said she’d never serve under a ministry that manipulates people or manipulates the gospel.

“But what most people don’t get to see when they’re not part of the inner workings of a ministry is the unbelievable sacrifices that are made. The unbelievable generosity and giving of their own time and resources that people give,” said Henderson. 

She said she knows the character of Sarah Lucas and her husband Jason, “and their heart to give” as well as the criticism and gossip they endure.

Henderson said she understands “the upset” and would align with it if she “didn’t know the Lord.”

[{"type":"text","text":"“But I do know the Lord,” said Henderson."}]

She described a dichotomy between the philosophy “of the world,” that truth is relative, and the belief that absolute truth exists.

“In the natural world, gravity is an absolute truth,” she said. “And if you defy gravity, you’re going to experience the consequences of it.”

Henderson said there are absolute, spiritual truths that exist “whether you believe it or not,” and that the Bible is the metric for finding that truth. She also encouraged people to question and study the Christian faith rather than adopt it blindly.

Numerous Facebook users posted negative comments 

[{"type":"text","text":"Didn’t Hide The Ball"}]

Foundations for Nations was overt about its beliefs and goals before the Sundance message went viral.

 a multi-cultural, multi-generational church seeking for people to “have a relationship with God, be ignited to reach people with the good news about Jesus, and work together to impact communities.”

Its statement of belief says that Jesus is “the only way to heaven and the only name that can be called upon to gain eternal life.”

The church incorporated in Wyoming and settled on the reservation in 2017.

[{"type":"text","text":"Lucas declined to comment Wednesday to Cowboy State Daily."}]

In a 2018 interview for a news feature, Lucas told local news outlet The Ranger that she and her family were building a massive play and recreation in the area of Arapahoe (town, not tribe). She said they would gear their ministry toward children who were having hardships at home.

“We inspire hope and change; we tell them their worth and their value” and teach them Biblical principles along the way, said Lucas at the time.

That summer the Lucases and visiting volunteers hosted a six-week summer program to offer kids what Lucas described as both fun and guidance.

Before launching the church, the Lucases planned it for six years. She said the goal was to help “families that are so broken that they don’t have any hope,” and to “share Jesus with them.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Figured It Would Blow Up"}]

Wassana told Cowboy State Daily in a Wednesday interview that he figured his post would blow up. He said he’s part Arapaho and though he descends from the southern, rather than the northern band based in Wyoming, he has family members in the north and considers the bands “one tribe.”

Wassana referenced tribal members’ darker history with past, Christian-affiliated missions, such as the boarding schools that forbade the children from speaking their native languages.

He said Lucas’ message equated to a tribal member walking into a Christian church and maligning the cross.

Lucas had, however, preached her message in a private Christian church, on private land. People attend the church voluntarily. 

Wassana acknowledged the distinction, but said the affront stems from the church opening its doors to children, in particular.

“Whenever you have somebody who’s a trusted adult, religious leader in the community saying these things, going against our ceremonies, saying they’re wrong, it can create a lot of confusion fear and shame for our children,” said Wassana. “We don’t want our young people growing up feeling like they have to choose between being accepted or embracing who they are because a leader they see is teaching those kinds of things.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Boarding Schools"}]

Indian boarding schools proliferated in the nation a century ago, many run by religious groups and funded with federal money.

Historical accounts tell of tribal leaders who wanted their kids to gain an education, a federal government that wanted to assimilate the kids and religious leaders who wanted to convert them.

Northern Arapaho sub-chief Sharp Nose sent his son, Little Chief, to the Carlisle boarding school in Pennsylvania in the late 1800s, hoping the boy could learn skills from the white man for surviving in the new culture.

Little Chief died in the school’s infirmary in 1883 and was buried on school grounds – a common occurrence for tribal children.

Jesuits came to the Wind River Indian Reservation and built St. Stephen’s Indian School in 1884.

Henderson countered claims and fears of modern-day assimilation in her video. She spoke with admiration of an East Indian (not American Indian) convert named Sundar Singh, who embraced the culture, clothing, and customs of India while preaching about Jesus, even dressing as a Hindu spiritual leader. 

[{"type":"text","text":"The Christian and Arapaho faith traditions differ from one another."}]

John G. Carter, researcher for the Smithsonian Institution, penned a Nov. 23, 1936, letter to M.W. Stirling, Chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology, describing “the first eye witness description of the Flat Pipe by a white man, and the first eye witness account of a ceremony held in honor of this Pipe.”

In the Arapaho creation story, wrote Carter in the treatise that followed, a global flood covered the earth, and a man walked on the water clutching a pipe. He fasted and wept. He sent animals into the water to bring land from the sea bottom to make the earth, and the turtle succeeded in that task, the account says.

“And with this the man, or the grandfather makes the land” and eventually the Arapaho people, wrote Carter.

“The myth implies that either the world was made at the Flat Pipe’s request, or because of the Flat Pipe, and in order to provide a place on which the Flat Pipe could rest,” Carter added. He said the Arapaho view the flat pipe as an “exceedingly holy object” held in the highest possible veneration and respect.

[{"type":"text","text":"The Christian tradition also involves a global flood. "}]

But first, Genesis tells that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth – and ultimately a man and a woman.

The man and woman sinned by disobeying God, but God promised to send a savior. Thousands of years later, the savior came as Jesus, who is God incarnate and who, as the son counterpart to God the Father, was also involved in creation, according to the biblical book of John.

And Jesus allowed the bloodthirsty and jealous authority figures of his day to torture him to death. He then rose from the dead, redeeming those who believe in him with his own sacrifice, and he urged his followers to tell others about him, the New Testament says. 

Preacher and reservation 2 7 8 26

<title>Arapaho Members Furious At Christian Preacher Who Spoke Against Rituals | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Several Northern Arapaho Tribe members are outraged at a Christian pastor who spoke against their religious customs and encouraged worship of Jesus instead. One Arapaho member told Cowboy State Daily that the church is "not welcome here anymore."

Arapaho Members Furious At Christian Preacher Who Spoke Against Rituals

Jen Kocher - Headshot CSD

Jen Kocher

Public Safety

The Jane Doe found dead on Interstate 25 near Cheyenne in April has been identified as Brittany Smith, a 37-year-old Wyoming woman.

Smith was struck by a northbound Kia Sportage on the on-ramp from Missile Drive on April 20, according to Aaron Brown, senior public relations specialist with the Wyoming Highway Patrol. Her home town was unavailable at publication time.

Smith had been a pedestrian standing in the roadway, Brown said in an email. She succumbed to her injuries at the scene despite life-saving efforts by troopers.  

No charges or citations are pending, Brown said.

two unidentified people who two amateur genealogists in Cheyenne

 were attempting to track down by their distinctive tattoos.

Megan McWilliams and Ashley Kroner, Cheyenne sisters who run Genetics Uncovered, identified Smith and a second man— found deceased in Cheyenne in early June — through the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) database, the country’s only national clearinghouse for missing and unidentified persons.

Neither file contained much information, but both Does had distinct tattoos. The sisters posted them on their Facebook page, hoping someone would recognize them. 

Kroner said Smith’s mother saw the poster on their page and the appropriate contact information. Her mother commented on the post and then messaged the sisters, thanking them for their help.

This is just part of their efforts to help give the unidentified back their name.

"Too many souls are known only as 'Does' in this world, and we’re deeply grateful that she is no longer one of them — that she has found her way home,” Kroner said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Still Trying To ID John Doe"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The John Doe soon will be next."}]

The Jane Doe found dead on Interstate 25 near Cheyenne in April has been identified as Brittany Smith, a 37-year-old Wyoming woman. Smith was struck by a northbound Kia Sportage on the on-ramp from Missile Drive on April 20.

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