After DeVaughn Levy hung himself in his Garden City Community College dorm room in December, his mother tried to get every bit of information that could shed light on the tragedy that had stunned both her and his father, Darian Hagan, an assistant football coach at the University of Colorado.
“I had to know everything,” said Nyasha Levy, 39. “I wanted the autopsy reports, the pictures, even the phone. I needed all that to get closure.”
Police wouldn’t give her the photographs, but she did get her 19-year-old son’s cellphone and read all of his text messages.
“This was not a suicidal person,” she said. “Even looking at all the conversations he was having on text, they’re fine.”
Except for one. A message to his girlfriend, after a fight, saying that he was probably going to kill himself.
But she didn’t receive the message until the next day, when it was too late.
“This was probably his first serious attempt, and he completes it,” Levy said. “I shake my head, I get mad, I laugh, because in life, that’s how he was. When he was upset, everybody knew about it. But then give him a couple of minutes, hours — and he’s cool.”
At the mortuary, Levy spent a few final private moments with him.
“Seeing my baby on the gurney, stiff, I could clearly see the hurt on his face,” she said. “I knew there were a lot of things that bothered him, but I didn’t know the depth.”
His insecurities and worries were masked by his funny, bright personality.
DeVaughn was born when Nyasha was 19. She had her first child, Derrick, at age 15.
A single mother, she continued her education, getting a GED and then graduating from Metropolitan State College of Denver in 1998.
Her father, Arthur Levy — a track star at East High School in 1966, who later became a coach there — devoted his Sundays to going over football plays with the boys. Derrick became a highly successful receiver at Cherry Creek High School, and DeVaughn became a star running back.
When Arthur Levy died from heart problems two years ago, DeVaughn mourned deeply.
“He was the person I always went to for help and support when the worst was before me,” DeVaughn wrote in a 2009 essay that won first place in a Cherry Creek High School writing contest.
“When he passed, I thought about quitting in life and then I would lose more than just a grandpa. But the life lesson for me was to learn to face adversity to make me the man I always wanted to be.”
In that same essay, DeVaughn also heralded his father as a hero. At the time of his death, DeVaughn was planning to transfer to CU-Boulder from Garden City in Kansas and had his sights set on joining the NFL.
But now, instead of going to his football games in Boulder, his mother returns to the class of one of his favorite teachers at Cherry Creek, where she said she “continues his legacy” by speaking to students about life lessons.
She also is working on starting a foundation, “The One Counted Out,” that will help underprivileged students with sports fees and equipment.
“This Mother’s Day was so tough,” she said. “Not just because of Mother’s Day but because his class at Garden City was graduating.
“But I’m learning that if I’m feeling down, to allow myself to be there,” she said. “Today, I’m happy. Tomorrow, I don’t know. That’s how I deal with this.”
Colleen O’Connor: 303-954-1083 or coconnor@denverpost.com
