A Casper, Wyoming man who killed his granddaughter’s alleged molester four years ago has withdrawn his lawsuit against the health care provider he blamed for his toe being amputated in prison.
Olinza Headd, 56, sued Corizon Health Care, also called YesCare, in October, and several staffers who have worked for it. He accused the doctors of putting the wrong salve on a wound and sometimes not re-dressing his wound against another doctor’s orders, causing his toe to be amputated.
U.S. District Court Judge Scott Skavdahl ruled last month that Headd’s self-filed lawsuit complaint didn’t tie the right legal mechanisms to the people he’s trying to accuse. For example, he didn’t detail alleged constitutional violations or harms by some of the people he was suing.
He also didn’t give the minimum amount of information to sue the doctors for cruel and unusual punishment, the judge’s order says.
Skavdahl ordered Headd to re-file his case with a more “plausible,” or legally coherent complaint by Dec. 9.
In response, Headd chose to withdraw the lawsuit rather than re-file it.
Skavdahl granted that request Nov. 19 and dismissed the case “without prejudice,” a designation that usually means the person can re-file his complaint.
It is unclear if Headd will try to resurrect the case.
Three Years Ago
Headd was charged in 2021 with second-degree murder, and later pleaded guilty to manslaughter, for killing 30-year-old Eugene Hogan III on Jan. 13, 2022.
He was a mental health counselor and a church deacon in Casper at the time.
Headd’s family members told him before the killing that Hogan, a live-in boyfriend to Headd’s daughter, had been molesting his granddaughter, according to court documents.
Headd snapped.
He grabbed a gun, drove through a snowstorm to his daughter’s Casper apartment, confronted Hogan — who was lying in bed unarmed — and when Hogan allegedly gave a “nonchalant” answer about how he had only touched the girl, Headd shot him once.
Headd later told a judge that when Hogan was fumbling for a weapon, he shot him two more times with a 9 mm firearm.
Headd’s daughter, with whom he seemed to have a troubled relationship, called police later that evening. She told police that Headd took her cellphones before the killing.
Headd would dispute this in court, saying his daughter wasn’t listening, and that he’d actually demanded to see his granddaughter’s cellphone.
The girl was given a cellphone in the first place because Headd and his wife were concerned that Hogan was physically abusing her, Headd told the court.
The judge sentenced Headd on April 21, 2022, to between 17 and 20 years in prison, nearing the maximum of 20 years for manslaughter.
That’s Why We Have Trials
At Headd’s sentencing hearing, Natrona County District Attorney Dan Itzen said the girl told a child forensic interviewer that she wasn’t touched sexually. She later told Itzen’s office that she was.
The girl’s reported waffling is exactly why Americans can’t go out and kill suspected criminals, but have to wait for legal processes to unfold, Itzen told the court, according to a transcript of the sentencing hearing.
“Judge, that’s why we have trials,” said Itzen. “That’s why we have 12 people sit right over here, and they deliver verdicts this side may not agree with, that side may not agree with. But as a society, that’s what we do. Right, wrong or indifferent, he took that away from an individual, that (right) we all agree belongs to all of us.”
Itzen also questioned whether Headd merely “lost it,” and described some of his actions as suggestive of premeditation.
Headd wasn’t found until much later the night or the morning after the killing walking down a Casper street. The murder weapon was never found.
“He shot an unarmed man for mere allegations, nothing more. And he did it in front of children,” added Itzen.
'Just Want Him Gone'
Marty Scott, Headd’s defense attorney at sentencing, said he disagreed with what Headd did, but he urged the court to consider probation. Headd was considered a good candidate for probation, Scott added.
“I’m not excusing what he did, but I’ve gotten to know this man over these — over more than a year now, and I know he regrets what he did,” said Scott. “But I also understand he is absolutely sincere when he tells us why he did what he did.”
When it was his turn to speak to the judge, Headd said he felt ashamed for letting harm come to his granddaughter.
He said his granddaughter said, “Grandpa, I just hate him. I just want him gone. He comes and he stands in my doorway and just stares at me. And, and he acts different when my mother is in the room than when she’s not.”
It hurt him “so deep,” Headd added. He was haunted by the prospect of “what she’s living under,” and he was ashamed for not picking up on the cues earlier and intervening with an “appropriate action.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
