Wyoming
Wyoming teen fatally shoots mom in head after arguing over stolen tablet
A troubled 14-year-old boy was arrested after he allegedly shot and killed his mother in the back of the head after she found out he had nabbed a tablet from one of her clients.
Havoc Leone allegedly killed his 41-year-old mother, Theresa McIntosh, March 7 at their Cheyenne, Wyoming home — and was charged with felony first-degree murder, where he will be tried as an adult, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle reported.
McIntosh’s death was initially investigated as a suicide. But after suspicions were raised by cops and medical staff, Leone allegedly later admitted to cops that he shot his mom with her own gun after an argument over the stolen device, according to the outlet, citing court documents.
Leone also allegedly told police that he had thought about killing his mother on a number of occasions in the past when she had told him to do things he didn’t want to do, the documents said.
The teen — who had stolen other devices in the past — overheard his parents arguing about the latest theft.
McIntosh referred to him as “retarded” and a “thief,” which upset him.
At around 11:30 a.m. on the morning of the shooting, McIntosh told Leone to finish his homework while she did a puzzle in his room.
The mother-son duo began quarreling over the tablet and McIntosh demanded the password which was written on a notebook that the teen retrieved and threw into the room, the 14-year-old told law enforcement.
The teen tossed the notebook on the ground and went to grab the gun hidden in his bedroom.
When his mom bent down to pick up the notebook, he allegedly shot her in the back of the head, according to court documents.
Leone’s father was playing video games in the basement and said he had heard a “pop” noise about fifteen minutes later, but believed it was the sound of a balloon popping due to wearing noise-cancelling headphones.
About an hour later, Leone’s father went to the main level of the house, where he saw the teen outside his bedroom who said he didn’t know what happened that “it just went off,” referring to the gun, The US Sun reported, citing a Laramie County Sheriff affidavit.
According to court documents, Leone’s father administered first aid to McIntosh, but she was unresponsive and called 911.
A black Taurus 9mm handgun was found near McIntosh’s body which confused Leone’s father as it was usually kept in McIntosh’s vehicle where a loaded magazine is kept in the gun, but never has a round chambered, according to court docs.
The teen initially claimed that his mom had handed him the firearm — but later said he stole it from her car after getting into a ‘big fight’ over a math grade, Oil City News reported per the court docs.
Leone’s father told cops his son knew how to treat and handle firearms — adding that he “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 succumbed to her injuries later that day.
Staff at the hospital said that the gunshot wound — which was behind and above McIntosh’s right ear above her neck — did not appear to be a “contact wound,” consistent with suicide attempts involving firearms and no exit wound was observed, typical with a self-inflicted gunshot, the Tribune reported.
The grieving father told law enforcement, “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 the court documents.
A $500,000 bond was set for the teen, per Oil City News.
Heather Schmidt
TUNKHANNOCK — The Wyoming County Prison Board today (June 16) voted to ratify the termination of Heather Schmidt as the warden of the Wyoming County Correctional Facility (WCCF).
Schmidt, a 1996 graduate of Wyalusing Valley High School, had served as the warden since January 2025.
Previous to that, she had served as the facility’s training lieutenant and its deputy warden.
No reason was given as to why Schmidt was terminated. She has been on administrative leave since May 1.
Members of the prison board noted that the issue was a “personnel matter.”
The county is currently advertising for a new warden at the WCCF.
Further reporting on this matter will appear in this week’s edition of the Rocket-Courier.
There are many uses for old missile silos out in Wyoming. One such site, with several silos, is used to restore old trains, buses, and any other old history on wheels.
Let’s go visit and see what is happening in southeast Wyoming, where work is being done at a place that was once meant for destruction.
Wyoming’s Vintage Rail Restorations
Out in a corner of southeast Wyoming, working from old nuclear missile silos, old trains and train cars are being restored.
Gallery Credit: Glenn Woods
Wyoming jumped in nationwide child well-being rankings in a new report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
The 2026 Kids Count Data Book ranked Wyoming 12th based on family and community stability, economic support, health and education. That’s up 11 spots from 23rd in the 2025 report.
Even with the higher 2026 scores in most areas, the state has room for improvement, said Micah Richardson, associate director of policy at the Wyoming Women’s Foundation — the Casey Foundation’s Wyoming partner organization.
For example, despite its high marks in economic well-being, 10% of Wyoming children live in poverty, Richardson said. In the education realm, 70% of eighth graders are not proficient in math. And 9% of the state’s children don’t have health insurance.
“We know that there are improvements to be made,” Richardson said.
About the report
Kids Count, which is in its 37th year of publication, aims to shine a light on progress and deficiencies related to child well-being, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation. That way, state leaders and policy experts can track what strategies are making a difference. Most of the new report compares data between 2019 and 2024.
Along with the cumulative ranking, the report ranks states individually in the four categories. And for the first time this year, the report gave comprehensive scores to each state on a scale from 0 to 1,000. By that measurement, Wyoming scored 654, higher than the national average of 547.
Of the four categories, Wyoming performed best in economic well-being, nabbing the No. 3 spot. The state’s standing in this area improved since the last report, and its comparatively strong numbers put the state behind only Minnesota and New Hampshire.
That ranking is based on indicators that measure how financially secure or insecure children are — including the number of children who live in poverty. This data found that 21,000 Wyoming children, or 17%, have parents who lack secure employment, while 31,000 children, or 25%, live in housing with a high cost burden.
The state also ranked high in the family and community category, sitting in the No. 7 spot. That category measures indicators including the number of children in single-parent families (28% in Wyoming); children in families where the household head lacks a high school diploma (4% in Wyoming) and children living in high-poverty areas (less than .5%), according to the report.
Though Wyoming ranked relatively high at 17th place in education, its score fell since the last report. Education indicators found that 52% of Wyoming children ages 3-4 are not in school; 64% of the state’s fourth graders are not proficient in reading and 18% of high school students aren’t graduating on time.
Since 2019, there has been a 5% increase in fourth-graders who are not proficient in reading and a 7% increase in eighth-graders who are not proficient in math, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
The state performed worst in the health category, where it ranked 39th. Health indicators found that 10% of Wyoming babies were born with low birth weight, 12,000 children did not have health insurance and 29% of kids ages 10-17 are overweight or obese.
Wyoming’s rate of child and teen deaths has fallen, which is a crucial sign that recent state actions around mental and behavioral health are having benefits, Richardson said. But the state’s rate of 31 deaths per 100,000 is “still too high,” she said.
Wyoming needs to create policies that support young community members’ mental health needs, she said. ”As a frontier and rural state, solutions are needed that span our geography and ensure children and families can access the care and services they need.”
Takeaways
The report illustrates some areas of weakness that state leaders can focus on for improvements, resources or policy solutions, Richardson said. One of those is early childhood education, which research shows boosts school readiness and long-term academic success.
“I would love to see more at the state level being focused on child care and early childhood programming,” Richardson said. “I would like to see in the next few years the Legislature really adopting this as a family issue, a community issue and a workforce issue more than they have currently.”
After-school support is another area outside of the realm of traditional school that could give kids a boost in education, she said.
Good data collection is crucial for communities to track and understand issues and how policies affect them, Richardson. With federal cuts and other issues challenging data collection in recent years, she said, it’s important to prioritize the practice.
“I just can’t emphasize enough how important data collection continues to be,” she said.
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