CHEYENNE — A 14-year-old charged as an adult with first-degree murder, accused of shooting his mother in the head after she called him derogatory names, pleaded not guilty Monday.
Then Havoc Leone’s attorney, Emily Williams, made a plea to the court to reduce his bond from $500,000 to $50,000, saying his family has agreed to watch over him if they choose to post bond for him.
“I spent some time speaking with Mr. Leone and speaking with his father,” she told Laramie County District Court Judge Robin Cooley. “His dad is willing to take him.”
She said the teen’s father and other family members have discussed the potential for taking Leone in and watching over him if they were able to post a cash or surety bond, Williams said. But at $500,000, that would be impossible.
Even at $50,000, “that is a significant amount” for the family to come up with.
Cooley ultimately agreed with Assistant District Attorney Kelly Strickland, who argued that given the nature of the allegations against the 14-year-old, $500,000 remains appropriate.
Also, the proposal from the family about how they propose to handle his bond wasn’t detailed, she added.
“If we had some details, we may consider that,” Strickland said. “As of right now, the community is safer” with Leone in jail.
The judge also agreed, saying that if there were a coordinated plan for bond, “it would be something the court would consider.”
‘Not Guilty’
Leone’s Monday arraignment was quick, happening in front of a handful of spectators in Courtroom A on the third floor of the Laramie County Governmental Complex.
Leone was led into the courtroom by a pair of Laramie County Sheriff’s Office deputies wearing the tan jumpsuit of a juvenile offender.
His short-cropped hair framed a youthful face behind a large pair of eyeglasses.
Leone appeared interested and engaged, talking quietly with his attorney and leaning forward with his elbows on the table in the courtroom prior to the hearing.
Once the hearing started, it went quickly.
The only words Leone said to the court were “all right” in response to a series of questions about how he felt about his ability to participate in his own defense.
He said “yes” when asked if he was entering a not guilty plea, then repeated “not guilty.”
The judge then scheduled a jury trial on the first-degree murder charge to begin Aug. 10.
If convicted, he could get life in prison. Because he’s younger than 18, Leone is not eligible for the death penalty in Wyoming.
Emotionally Vulnerable?
Leone had expressed a long-simmering hatred for his mother, 41-year-old Theresa McIntosh, had thoughts about killing her, and then followed through when presented with an opportunity, Strickland argued at the teen’s March 18 preliminary hearing.
She had reportedly called him “retarded” and a “thief” when they argued before the shooting March 6, according to court documents.
Conversely, Leone is an emotionally vulnerable child who had been subjected to a pattern of degrading treatment by a mentally ill mother, argued defense attorney Jonathan Foreman during the preliminary hearing.
“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.
DePrimo answered, “No.”
“Would a child who had been hearing that his whole childhood start to question that?” Foreman followed up.
“Maybe,” the detective answered.
“Ms. McIntosh, who was mentally ill … regularly called him ‘retarded,’ pulled his hair” and slapped him, said Foreman.
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 Gun In The Boot
McIntosh was still alive when sheriff’s deputies arrived at their house, summoned by a 911 call from his father, who heard the shot while he was playing video games in the basement of their home.
After Leone, his mother and father argued about an electronic tablet he allegedly stole from a client of his mother’s cleaning business, they all went their separate ways in their three-level home just south of Cheyenne city limits, according to an affidavit of probable cause written by DePrimo.
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, DePrimo wrote.
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, the affidavit says. Leone also 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 at the preliminary hearing.
“As she knelt forward, he revealed the gun and shot her,” he said.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
