A man charged with molesting five boys at a church camp was shot to death during a court hearing on Friday by the mother of one boy, the authorities said.

The woman, Ellie Nesler, 40, was being led to the witness stand after a recess in a preliminary hearing for Daniel Driver, 35, when she pulled out a small handgun. She then shot him in the back of the head, said Mike Costa, an assistant sheriff here in Tuolumne County.

Mrs. Nesler surrendered immediately, he said. Witnesses said she appeared calm as she was led from the courtroom in handcuffs.

"You might think that somebody who did something like that would be shriveled up, but she was proud," said Rick Shackley, a shop owner in this town in the Sierra Nevada about 120 miles southeast of San Francisco. Convicted in Earlier Case