Deputies take woman back into custody at scene of Sunday’s shooting

May 07--Marina Kolesnikova stood smoking in the driveway Tuesday afternoon, afraid to approach the street corner and see whether investigators had arrived at her parents' neighborhood for the second time in three days.

A block away, four deputies again reasoned with Deborah Moulton, who said she had returned to her home to retrieve clothing and check on her dogs. Marina Kolesnikova said Moulton shouted at her and her mother from the backyard, just days after her husband admitted to shooting and killing her father Sergey Chepchugov. His widow Olga Kolesnikova hurried to call 911 shortly before 1 p.m.

"She was cursing and nonsense," Marina Kolesnikova said from her parents' Dorando Drive home, where they've placed new "no trespassing" signs around the yard. "I thought it was somebody else. I just couldn't believe she was here again."

Just two days before, Olga Kolesnikova knelt over her husband's body as he lay face down on their wooden deck, applying pressure to a bleeding wound, reports show.

Moulton was out on bond Monday following her arrest on charges of obstruction. She and her husband Robert Moulton had barricaded themselves inside the Hilltop Drive home Sunday night after deputies say Robert Moulton shot and killed their neighbor Chepchugov nearly 10 years to the day after the Russian couple moved in.

"I'm not a danger to myself or others," Moulton could be heard shouting at deputies Tuesday as they handcuffed her.

Moulton was taken into custody under the Baker Act, a Florida law that allows for mentally unstable people to be involuntarily committed for treatment.

She insisted during more than 15 minutes of conversation with deputies that she was not causing any problems and that she simply wanted to check on her pets. She said tear gas still filled the home after a SWAT team used it to force her from the house Sunday, and she was worried it was harming her dogs. "Are you guys filming this for the paper?" Moulton shouted at three journalists who watched her being placed into a deputy's cruiser.

"How about some air conditioning," Moulton shouted. She could later be heard complaining of the heat again when a deputy opened the door to retrieve something from the vehicle.

Reports from Moulton's Monday arrest show she stayed barricaded in her home early Monday morning even after her husband surrendered. After using tear gas to force her out, deputies took Moulton to the NCH North Collier Hospital where she was treated after saying she had taken several prescribed Xanax pills during the altercation. Her obstruction charge stems from resisting an officer without violence.

Domestic Animal Services officers responded to the home shortly after to tend to Moulton's pets.

Moulton's sister Darla Delsasso said Tuesday, before she was Baker Acted, that her sister was being unfairly portrayed as crazy. In reality, Delsasso said, the neighborhood had banded together against her unjustly.

Delsasso said Moulton was attacked by Chepchugov before the shooting, but declined to specify the extent of any injuries Moulton sustained in the attack. Robert Moulton fired, she said, because he had to.

"It has shattered our family, however I understand that Sergey's family is shattered also," Delsasso said. "And if he would not have jumped over the fence and came over to my sister's property and attacked her, none of this would have ever happened."

Robert Moulton's arrest report shows he told deputies he shot Chepchugov for threatening his wife.

It remains unclear on whose property Chepchugov was shot, where on his body he was wounded, or what prompted the altercation, but Delsasso said her sister was arguing with Chepchugov over her dog.

Until the details of the incident are known, criminal defense attorneys say it's too soon to say whether Stand Your Ground will be an applicable defense. Robert Moulton would have to prove he was in fear for his life or his wife's life when he used deadly force.

"People have instigated situations then claimed Stand Your Ground," said Lee Hollander, a criminal defense lawyer in Naples. "I'm sure it's coming out, the history of these people, because that would probably be relevant to whether they were reasonably in fear."

Hollander said Moulton can be held up to 72 hours under the Baker Act until she is evaluated by a doctor. Collier County sends those under the Baker Act to the David Lawrence Center.

Hollander said shouting obscenities or making threats on your own property isn't grounds for taking someone into custody under the Baker Act, but given the circumstances of the recent homicide, deputies could have decided Moulton posed an imminent threat.

"It sounds like the cops just weren't taking any chances," Hollander said.

Kristi Lester, a spokeswoman for the Collier County Sheriff's Office, said any incident reports pertaining to Moulton's encounter with deputies Tuesday will be protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Additionally, the 911 audio from Sunday's shooting will not be released because it is considered evidence in an ongoing criminal investigation. Robert Moulton's arrest report shows both he and Olga Kolesnikova called 911 after Sunday's shooting.

On Tuesday, Marina Kolesnikova said she was still trying to comfort her mother, who was still reeling from the grief of losing her husband when she had to deal with Moulton's reappearance.

"All we got left is just me and my mom," Marina Kolesnikova said. "It's hard."

Marina Kolesnikova said her parents, who moved to the United States from Russia 15 years ago, had been dealing with the Moultons since 2004.

"All the yelling all the harassment, throwing stuffing, passing by with a finger in the window," Kolesnikova said. "It was basically bullying.

My dad was very peaceful, he never wanted to deal with this."

Reporter Jessica Lipscomb contributed to this report.

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Related stories:

-- Naples neighbors had been feuding for years before Sunday's fatal shooting

-- Deputies: Naples man fatally shoots neighbor

-- Chainsaw mystery: Queen palms dethroned in Moultons' Naples front yard. Whodunit?

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