In Cheyenne, Wyoming, what began as a typical morning inside a family home ended in a tragedy that investigators say started with a stolen tablet and spiraled into violence.
Police say 14 year old Havoc Leone allegedly shot and killed his mother, 41 year old Theresa McIntosh, on March 7 inside their home. According to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, the teen has been charged with felony first degree murder and will be tried as an adult.
At first, McIntosh’s death was investigated as a possible suicide. But as police and medical staff took a closer look, that explanation quickly raised questions. Investigators say Leone later admitted to shooting his mother with her own gun after an argument about a tablet he had allegedly stolen from one of her clients.
According to court documents cited by the outlet, the teen told police he had thought about killing his mother before during times when she told him to do things he did not want to do.
The dispute that day reportedly centered on the tablet. Leone had allegedly stolen devices in the past and overheard his parents arguing about the latest incident. During the confrontation, McIntosh referred to him as “retarded” and a “thief,” which investigators say upset him.
Around 11:30 a.m. that morning, McIntosh told her son to finish his homework while she worked on a puzzle in his room. The two began arguing again about the tablet. McIntosh demanded the password, which was written in a notebook.
Leone later told law enforcement he retrieved the notebook and tossed it into the room. After throwing it on the ground, he went to his bedroom and grabbed a gun hidden there.
When McIntosh bent down to pick up the notebook, investigators say the teen shot her in the back of the head.
Leone’s father was downstairs playing video games and wearing noise cancelling headphones. He later said he heard a “pop” about fifteen minutes later but assumed it was a balloon popping.
Roughly an hour later he came upstairs and saw his son outside his bedroom. The teen told him he did not know what happened and that “it just went off,” referring to the gun, The US Sun reported, citing a Laramie County Sheriff affidavit.
The father tried to provide first aid and called 911, but McIntosh was unresponsive.
A black Taurus 9mm handgun was found near her body. According to court documents, the weapon was normally kept in McIntosh’s vehicle and typically stored with a loaded magazine but without a round chambered.
The teen initially claimed his mother handed him the firearm. Investigators say he later told police he had taken it from her car after a “big fight” over a math grade, according to Oil City News.
His father told investigators the boy knew how to safely handle firearms and understood the rules around them. He said his son “knows not to point a firearm at someone unless he plans to shoot and kill them,” according to the Tribune.
McIntosh was taken to a regional medical center before being airlifted to UC Health in Fort Collins, Colorado, where she died later that day.
Hospital staff noted the gunshot wound behind and above her right ear did not appear consistent with a suicide attempt and no exit wound was observed, the Tribune reported.
As investigators worked through what happened, the father struggled with the possibility.
“I don’t want to think what I think happened…I don’t even want to put it into words…and I don’t want to think that because it’s really f—ked up thing for a parent to think…”
“It’d be a lot easier to accept that she killed herself than my son tried to kill her,” he said, according to court documents.
A judge set Leone’s bond at $500,000, according to Oil City News.