The record · The gun

The gun, and every sworn statement about it, in order

A court ordered his shotgun surrendered in March 2025. His own April 2025 receipt shows it never was. In August 2026 he swore it had been — on the paper used to take his son — and attached the receipt that proves otherwise. His lawyer then filed a second sworn firearm statement, and a sworn statement that the mother is lying about it. He is on probation. The gun is in the house where the child is kept.

0. December 2, 2024 — the shotgun arrives

A text message of December 2, 2024 records a Remington shotgun coming into the household at 9501 Laughlin Way.

The order — March 18, 2025

Mendocino restraining order against Vincent Hyler with firearm prohibitions; served March 20, 2025 by the Mendocino County Sheriff. It required surrender of all firearms within 24 hours and proof filed by March 23. It listed his firearms as “shot gun and other guns at mother’s house.” As of April 3, 2025, nothing had been surrendered.

1. April 15, 2025 — the receipt

He turned in two rifles — a Winchester and a Mauser — at a licensed dealer in Ukiah. No shotgun. At item 7 of the sworn form he answered “No” to owning or possessing any other firearm — while the court’s own order listed a shotgun at his mother’s house. Within the week, on April 22, 2025, the absence was noticed and written down: “I don’t see a Remington on this form.”

2. August 12, 2026 — the application that took the child

He swore under penalty of perjury that he had surrendered “the firearm referenced in the 2025 directive,” and attached as his own Exhibit F the April 15, 2025 receipt that contradicts him. The same form’s domestic-violence and firearm boxes were left blank.

3. October 27, 2026 — a second sworn firearm statement

Filed through counsel, repeating the surrender claim.

4. A sworn statement that the mother is lying about the gun

Filed in the same period.

Why it is more than a lie

A firearm in the possession of a person under a domestic-violence restraining order is a crime under California and federal law. He is on probation in Mendocino County (People v. Hyler, No. 25CR09666); probation may act on his own August 2026 oath beside his own April 2025 receipt. The shotgun was in the house where deputies found the child on March 20, 2025, and where the child has been kept since August 2026. The sworn surrender claim is in the application that took the child; the sworn claim that the mother lies about it is what the family court was told while her paper on it sat unread. By his own papers, filed in two states, the Remington has never been accounted for by anyone.

The documents on this page

• The December 2, 2024 message — the Remington comes into the house
• The March 18, 2025 restraining order, firearms listed
• The April 15, 2025 surrender receipt — two rifles, item 7 “No”
• The April 22, 2025 messages — the absence noticed within the week
• The August 12, 2026 application and its Exhibit F
• The October 27, 2026 statement
• The ATF referral (September 28, 2026; “file is complete,” October 13)

Every statement about a court proceeding on this page is drawn from a filed court record, cited by case number; where a paper or message is quoted, the quotation is verbatim. J.J. is referred to by his initials. No photograph of him appears on this site.