The 66-year-old grandmother who is under arrest after allegedly shooting her son-in-law at point-blank range outside her home in a Florida retirement community sought a restraining order against him the very next morning, according to court documents.
During a pre-scheduled pick up of her grandson, Cheryl Hepner, waited outside her home Dec. 7 with the child's sleepover gear. When the 3-year-old's father, Sal Miglino, arrived she pulled a .22 caliber Beretta handgun from behind the bundle firing three shots, hitting him twice, according to the Broward County Sheriff's Office.
Expecting "something stupid to happen," as Miglino later told a 911 dispatcher, he'd switched his iPhone video camera to record – and captured the entire incident on tape.
Hundreds of pages of court records obtained by ABC News outline the two years of bitter divorce proceedings between Miglino and Hepner's daughter, and include details of a previous restraining order filed against Miglino by Hepner and his estranged wife, as well as the order the mother-in-law sought the next day.
After he was shot, Miglino pounced and wrestled the gun away from Hepner, then drove away while calling for help, according to police. Hepner, too, had called police, but with a different version of events.
Broward County Sheriff's Office/AP Photo
Cheryl Hepner is shown in this photo provided... View Full Size
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The bullets hit Miglino in the shoulder and rib cage. He was treated for his wounds at a local hospital and released.
When she was asked by the 911 dispatcher about whether she or Miglino pulled the gun, Hepner replied: "No, he pulled it on me and he's got it. He drove away," according to an audio recording of the call. Nearly hysterical, Hepner also mentions to the dispatcher that he and her daughter were in "the middle of a horrible divorce."
Investigators later recovered the gun, and found it had jammed. They say that they believe Hepner would have continued firing had the handgun not failed.
"There's no doubt in my mind I mean if she fired three rounds, she clearly would have fired more," Broward County Sheriff Al Lamberti told ABC News. "It's a .22 -- luckily he survived those shots, but you have to ask yourself, if it was a higher powered weapon, the outcome might not have been so favorable."
The incident was caught on Miglino's iPhone video camera, and the audio has been key to the investigation of the Wednesday shooting. Fifty-eight seconds into the recording, three gunshots are heard. Then Miglino can be heard saying: "I can't believe you did that. I can't believe you did that … I can't believe you f***ing shot me."
Miglino told the 911 operator that he had his phone recording his visit because "I knew something stupid was going to happen, but we're going through a divorce and trying to settle."
"Mrs. Hepner told authorities that [Miglino] pulled a gun on her so it was in fact the exact opposite of what had happened," Moschella said. "As evidence goes, that was a gem. That absolutely corroborated everything that Mr. Miglino had told detectives."
Hepner was arrested for attempted murder and denied bail following the incident, but her attorney claims that she is innocent and a victim of domestic violence rather than a perpetrator.
Investigators tell ABC News that police now believe Hepner tried to lure her son-in-law inside her home, allegedly to murder him with fewer witnesses present.
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