A week-old act of taking a gun from a vehicle is a key part of the murder case, say investigators.
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Long before prosecutors described a single shot to the back of Theresa McIntosh’s head, they pointed to another moment they say mattered just as much: the day her 14-year-old son allegedly took her Taurus 9 mm pistol from her vehicle and hid it in a boot in his bedroom.
That detail now anchors the first-degree murder case against Havoc Leone. Prosecutors say it helps show planning, not impulse, in the March 7 killing near Cheyenne. Defense lawyers answer that the state is reading adult intent into a teenager’s chaotic life and an explosive argument inside a troubled household. As the case moves forward in district court, the hidden pistol has become the piece of evidence that ties together motive, opportunity and the state’s claim of premeditation.
According to investigators, the gun disappeared during an earlier fight over Leone’s school performance after he got a D in math. Authorities said Leone later admitted that at the time he stole the pistol, he also thought about killing his mother, though he did not act then. That allegation became central at the preliminary hearing because it allowed prosecutors to place the fatal shooting inside a longer timeline rather than treating it as a sudden eruption. By the time of the March 7 dispute, detectives said, the weapon was already waiting in Leone’s closet, hidden in one of his boots and available the moment an argument moved into his room.
The new confrontation grew out of a separate accusation. Investigators said McIntosh and Leone’s father believed the teen had taken a tablet from one of McIntosh’s cleaning clients. McIntosh demanded the password, which authorities said was written in a notebook in Leone’s room. Detective Miles DePrimo testified that Leone went to retrieve the notebook and also pulled the hidden gun from the boot, keeping it at his side so McIntosh would not see it. McIntosh was on the floor doing a puzzle. Investigators said Leone tossed the notebook toward her, causing her to lean forward, and then fired a single round behind her left ear. In the state’s telling, the notebook and the puzzle were not stray details but the mechanics of how the shot became possible.
After the shooting, the story turned again. Deputies were called to the 2300 block of Pine Avenue at 12:47 p.m. and found McIntosh unconscious but still breathing. She was taken to Cheyenne Regional Medical Center and then flown to a Colorado hospital, where she died March 8. Leone initially told deputies that his mother had killed herself, investigators said, before later changing his account. His father, who was in the basement playing video games with noise-canceling headphones, told investigators he heard a popping sound, came upstairs and found the aftermath. He later said he had not wanted to believe his son had done it.
Those post-shooting statements matter because they shape how the state may present consciousness of guilt. A false first account can help prosecutors argue the defendant knew exactly what had happened and tried to redirect suspicion. The defense, however, has already signaled that it will focus less on the shifting account than on Leone’s age, immaturity and home life. Attorney Jonathan Foreman argued in court that McIntosh, who he described as mentally ill, regularly insulted and struck her son. He pressed investigators on whether repeated name-calling could affect how a child saw himself. That argument does not erase the physical evidence described by investigators, but it reframes the case around a teenager’s emotional development rather than only the sequence of actions around the gun.
Judge Sean Chambers ultimately left Leone’s $500,000 cash-only bond in place and found enough evidence to support the adult first-degree murder charge. That decision did not resolve the deeper clash between the two sides. Prosecutors are expected to keep building the case around the hidden pistol, the earlier theft, the claimed prior thoughts of killing and the deliberate use of a moment when McIntosh was turned away. Defense lawyers are likely to counter that a 14-year-old under pressure in a volatile home cannot be judged by the same assumptions the state is trying to apply.
For now, the pistol taken from a vehicle a week earlier remains the detail that gives the case its shape. Without it, prosecutors have a deadly argument and a confession. With it, they have a narrative of preparation. Whether that narrative holds as the case advances will determine how this prosecution is remembered: as a straightforward murder case built on hidden evidence, or as a far messier fight over youth, intent and blame inside one family.
Author note: Last updated April 7, 2026.