BY RACHEL DOVE
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

LOVELY — An incident Tuesday evening at a residence on Riverfront Road landed one man in jail and another in the hospital with a gunshot wound.

Lovely resident Kenneth Mollette, 30, allegedly fired multiple shots at his wife’s ex-husband, 37-year-old Jason Fields of Lovely, striking him once in the leg while Fields’ son stood just a few feet away.

Martin County 911 received a call at approximately 6 p.m. about the shooting on KY-292 near Long Branch. When a Kentucky State trooper arrived at the scene, Fields was already on his way to an area hospital via private vehicle.

Mollette was arrested and charged with first-degree assault.

Mollette’s wife, Alisha Moore Mollette, who recently wed Kenneth Mollette and shares two children with Fields, said the shooting “made no sense.”

“My daughter had experienced a painful loss, and we were doing our best to console her,” Alisha said. “She had asked if I would let her dad come to be with her for a while. We agreed to that since she needed the support.”

Alisha, Kenneth Mollette and the two children drove to a location on Route 3 where Fields was staying and picked him up Tuesday afternoon. They stopped at the Warfield IGA for groceries on the way home.

“My home is on property that I own beside my parents’ house on 292,” said Alisha. “Kenneth moved in with me recently after we married.”

Alisha claims everyone got out of the vehicle, and Kenneth grabbed the bags of groceries and said he was taking them inside and would “be right back out.” The next thing she knew, the door banged open, and her husband stepped out with a 9 mm handgun, pointed it at Fields and fired a shot.

“He never spoke a word,” said Alisha. “There was no arguing, no words exchanged. I mean nothing. Kenny was saying he was taking the groceries in one minute; the next minute, he was armed and firing shots.”

According to Alisha, her 15-year-old son was standing just a couple of feet from his father, and her daughter was standing nearby. Mollette continued firing shots as Alisha tried wrestling the gun from him.

“My first thought was to protect my kids,” she explained. “To the best of my recollection, I counted eight shots before I managed to stop Kenny. I was in total shock. I heard Jason screaming, ‘Help me, I’ve been shot!’ He ran up the road to escape from Kenny, and my son took off running after him. I turned around and saw my daughter collapsing to the ground as she fainted.”

Alisha said her stepfather arrived at that time, and she yelled and told him what had happened before he could turn into the driveway.

He immediately drove in the direction that Fields and the 15-year-old had fled. After locating them, he transported Fields to the hospital in South Williamson.

“The craziest part of all is right after I managed to get the gun from Kenny, he didn’t mutter a word, just turned, walked up on the porch, and sat down in a chair like nothing was going on,” said Alisha. “He was calm as could be and just sat there. I was yelling, asking him why he shot Jason … especially right in front of the kids. He finally replied — claimed Jason was going to pick up a pipe and strike him with it. I know for a fact that’s not true…There was no pipe anywhere.”

Alisha says her children are upset, but she can’t explain why this happened.

“I don’t understand either,” she said.

Mollette remains incarcerated in the Big Sandy Regional Detention Center in Paintsville.

Fields was transferred to the Pikeville Medical Center and has since been released.

The shooting remains under investigation by Pikeville Post 9 of the Kentucky State Police.