A 33-year-old Port Charlotte woman is facing a stack of felony charges after deputies say she stole a neighbor's Hyundai, grabbed a knife from inside a stranger's vehicle, and squared off against a sheriff's deputy in a fighting stance before being shocked with a Taser. Olesya Alekseyevna Trukhan, who lives on Reston Avenue, remained in the Charlotte County jail without bond as of Tuesday, according to court records.
The confrontation began around 5:30 p.m. last Monday in the 400 block of Kostner Street, as reported by the Charlotte Sun. Deputies had received a report of a woman dressed in gray walking from Ladner Avenue toward Atwater Street, and a man had called 911 after a woman matching that description allegedly tried to steal his neighbor's Hyundai. Deputy D. Morozyuk was the first to spot Trukhan and approached her in a patrol car.
According to the outlet's account, Trukhan had already backed the Hyundai down a driveway and halfway into the road before deputies arrived. When Morozyuk activated his patrol car's lights and siren, Trukhan stopped the vehicle, got out, and ran between houses. The deputy ordered her to stop, but she kept running, according to the report.
A Stolen Knife and a Standoff
During the chase, Trukhan entered a vehicle that was not hers and took a knife from inside, the report states. She then turned to face Morozyuk in a fighting stance, brandishing the weapon. The deputy ordered her multiple times to drop the knife before deploying his department-issued Taser, which caused her to fall to the ground. Supporting deputies then moved in and placed her in handcuffs.
Florida law treats the moment someone becomes armed during a vehicle break-in as a serious escalation. Under Florida Statute § 810.02, burglary of a conveyance becomes a first-degree felony punishable by up to life in prison if the person becomes armed with a dangerous weapon at any point during the offense, according to Law Firm Ocala. Separately, turning that weapon on a law enforcement officer carries its own consequences: Florida Statute §§ 784.07(2)(c) and 784.021 reclassify aggravated assault on a deputy from a third-degree felony to a second-degree felony, carrying a statutory maximum of 15 years and a mandatory minimum of three years in prison, per the Sobel Law Firm.
What Trukhan Told Deputies
Once in custody, Trukhan was taken to Fawcett Hospital, where staff checked her for injuries. When deputies questioned her about where she got the knife, she said she had entered the car and taken it to get away from people she believed were following her. She also told deputies she had taken the knife to arm herself for protection, and said she dropped it once ordered to by a deputy — an account reflected in the Charlotte Sun's reporting.
Trukhan now faces charges including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, vehicle burglary while armed, two counts of vehicle burglary, grand theft of a vehicle, petty theft, and resisting an officer without violence, per court records. Florida's use of the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System since 2021 means every distinct charge from a single incident gets logged individually rather than folded into one top offense, according to the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office, which explains why a single arrest can produce so many separate counts.
Statutory Weight of the Charges
The grand theft charge alone carries potential penalties of up to five years in state prison, five years of probation, and a $5,000 fine under Florida Statute § 812.014(2)(c)(6), regardless of the vehicle's market value, according to the Ansara Law Firm. The resisting-without-violence count is comparatively minor — a first-degree misdemeanor under Florida Statute § 843.02, punishable by up to a year in county jail and a $1,000 fine, per the Law Offices of David J. Sobel, P.A. Deputy Morozyuk's use of a Taser during the arrest falls under Florida Statute § 943.1717, which permits officers to deploy a dart-firing stun gun once a subject escalates from passive to active resistance and shows an apparent ability to threaten an officer or flee, according to the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation.
Social media commentary reported by Gulf Coast News suggested Trukhan had resigned from her job the day before her arrest, with former coworkers voicing concern that an unaddressed mental health episode may have driven her actions. That context lines up with her own statements to deputies that she believed unidentified people were following her, though no formal mental health evaluation or diagnosis has been reported.
A Rare Case for Charlotte County
Armed confrontations with deputies are uncommon in Charlotte County, where the violent crime rate sits at roughly 1.73 offenses per 1,000 residents — well below regional and state averages, according to safety data compiled by Cleared4Takeoff. Demographic data from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement also shows that about two-thirds of arrests in the county involve men, making Trukhan's case demographically unusual even as her age fits the most common bracket for local arrests, arrests.org reports.
The Charlotte County Sheriff's Office runs its District 2 patrol command out of a hurricane-hardened complex on Loveland Boulevard in Port Charlotte, the agency's own materials note. Open questions remain about whether Trukhan has entered a plea, retained defense counsel, or undergone any formal mental health evaluation since her arrest — details that were not addressed in the available reporting.
