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SOUTH OGDEN, Utah (AP) -- The children of an Idaho woman shot to death by police after she had wounded her ex-husband are back in Utah following a judge giving temporary custody to the father.
The children were at the heart of a bitter custody battle that exploded Aug. 8, when Natalie Turner, a former South Ogden resident who was the executive director of the Hailey Chamber of Commerce in Idaho, shot John Pochynok with a .357 handgun at his home in Kamas, Utah. He is recovering from wounds to his liver and chest.
Turner was killed later that evening when police stopped the speeding car and she pointed a gun at officers. David Gayler, her boyfriend, the car's driver, later hanged himself in the Wasatch County Jail.
Just days before the shootings, a judge had ordered Turner to move closer to Pochynok, threatening to jail her and to give Pochynok custody of the two children.
The children, ages 7 and 4, had been in Hailey with their maternal grandmother, Shauna Turner, since their mother's death.
Dave Turner, Natalie's father, said he was served Saturday in Hailey with a protective order signed by 4th District Judge Donald J. Eyre in Utah. A custody hearing will be held Friday. The Turners plan to fight for custody.
The children were taken Saturday to the Blaine County, Idaho, sheriff's office, where members of the Pochynok family were waiting to take them back to Utah.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
