Former Warwick wrestler maimed by fire
WARWICK – Cody Healey, a 26-year-old veteran and former wrestler at Warwick Valley High School, has survived the fight of his life. Now his parents are fighting to afford their son's care and to bring to justice the man who allegedly maimed him.
On New Year's Eve, Healey attended a bonfire on the outskirts of Milton, Fla., a community located about 35 miles from Pensacola.
At the party, 24-year-old Devin Lee Bass, of Milton, Fla., attacked Healey and knocked him unconscious, according to a report from the Santa Rosa County Sheriff.
Limp and defenseless, Healey's body then came to rest on the smoldering bonfire while Bass warded off those attempting to come to his aid, police said.
“Heal(e)y was lying in the fire for a few seconds before he was pulled from the fire by other people present. Bass also punched another victim in the face while the other victim was trying to help Heal(e)y from the fire,” police said.
His mother, Debra Healey Lamberti, got a call at 2 a.m. New Year's Day from a relative, “She just said, 'It's really bad,'” she said.
Healey sustained second and third degree burns to his face, hands, arms, chest and back, she said.
Healey had moved to the Florida panhandle his senior year of high school, after attending Warwick Valley schools from grades 6 to 11.
“My son was doing nothing wrong,” Healey Lamberti said, holding a photo of her son from the day he enlisted in the Air Force.
"He thought 2013 was going to be his year," she added. “Now he is scarred for life.”
Doctor's at the USA Medical Center Burn Unit in Alabama stabilized Healey. He spent a week in the intensive care unit, as surgeons performed a series of operations grafting undamaged skin over areas badly burned.
“His face is very disfigured – hard to look at,” father Craig Healey said. “I went to Walmart with him yesterday. People were just staring at him.”
Doctors discharged Healey from his hospital room on Monday.
Bass, his attacker, left his jail cell much earlier, according to police records.
Facing charges of aggravated battery and resisting an officer for providing a false name, a judge released Bass on $6,000 bail.
The order outraged Craig Healey.
“I am trying to keep myself from getting into trouble,” he said. “Up by us, he would have never have made bail for something like this. I am livid that he is walking the streets free when my son was in there, fighting for every breath.”
Coach Carlos Barquero remembered Healey from his first year coaching wrestling at Warwick Valley.
“He was a competitor – driven, motivated. He mixed it up every match he had. He would go up against anyone we stuck him out against,” Barquero said. “If you've wrestled and you know the kid loves the sport, it is heartbreaking to see something happen like this.”
After moving to Florida his senior year, Healey led his new wrestling team and was the first student from his high school to place in the state tournament, he said.
Whitney Nelson, of Pensacola, said that Healey and other partygoers did not know Bass. The whole thing took them by surprise, she said.
"I went to high school with him and he was just very active, happy. He was always doing something," Nelson said. "He was never upset. He is a very good guy and a good father."
Nelson helped to set up an online fund raiser for Healey at
The Healey's face extensive financial challenges as they seek justice for their son and struggle to pay down his mounting medical bills.
Though he was an employee of The Home Depot before the accident, the young man does not have health insurance.
“I didn't go with his father because somebody had to stay here and I had to work,” Healey Lamberti said.
Cody's parents live in Warwick, where his mother works two jobs, one from home, and a second at Burger King. His father operates Monarch Chimneys, a chimney sweeping business.
They are doing their best to cope.
“I haven't gotten to the depth of my pain yet," Healey Lamberti said. "But as a mom, I have to brace, breathe and stay strong.”