PALATKA, Fla. (Court TV) — A woman charged with murder took the witness stand on Wednesday, where she admitted to shooting the victim twice — but insisted she was acting in self-defense.
Caylen Deller, 32, testified to pulling the trigger and ultimately killing her ex-boyfriend, Chad Mullen. Deller said that she “panicked” after the shooting and decided not to call police, which is how the victim’s body was ultimately found buried in a shallow grave on a neighboring farm.
Caylen Deller testifies in court on Oct. 14, 2026. (Court TV)
Prosecutors have laid out their case against Deller, telling the Florida jury that the defendant lured Mullen to her property, shot him twice and first left his body in a pond before moving it to the farm where it was found. On Wednesday, the defense began to present its case. “Caylen Deller did not wake up that day planning to kill Chad Mullen,” Deller’s attorney, Brian Smith, told the jury. “She did not lure him to Stormy Stables. She was not looking for a confrontation.”
Deller, the first witness called by the defense, said she agreed to loan Mullen her truck on Sept. 9, 2024. She said Mullen came to her horse farm that evening and repaired the truck’s front headlight. After he did that, Deller said she confronted her ex — asking him whether he had ever sexually abused her 5-year-old daughter. Deller said Mullen didn’t answer, but became extremely angry and pinned her against the truck.
“I tried to push him away and get past him, but when I did that he grabbed me by my throat and was choking me,” she said. Deller said she saw her gun and grabbed it, forcing Mullen to back up. But she said Mullen then grabbed a hammer and raised it above his head while threatening her. “He was swinging it, coming towards me,” she said. “I pulled the trigger of the gun and shot him twice. I pulled the trigger; the gun went off twice.”
The defendant said she immediately jumped into the truck and drove to her friend’s house. Her friend, Tina Marie Lee-Ellis, has been charged as an accessory after the fact.
Deller said that she was going to call 911, but “Tina convinced me not to.” Deller said Lee-Ellis drove back with her to the property, where they found the victim had died. Deller said that disposing of the victim’s body in a pond was Lee-Ellis’ idea — and that it worked, until she saw the body floating in the water two days later. At that point, Deller called Lee-Ellis again, and the two drove the body to a farm where Lee-Ellis worked, where they buried Mullen in a shallow grave covered by a dirt pile.
Responding to another of Deller’s ex-boyfriends, who testified that she told him that the gun had jammed while she shot the victim, Deller said that simply wasn’t true. “I don’t know how to unclear a jam,” she said.
Smith pressed his client about why she never called the police to report the incident. “I believed [Lee-Ellis] about law enforcement not listening to me, and at that point, we’d hidden the body.”
Deller told the jury that she purchased the gun just one month before the shooting. She said she bought it for protection after Mullen broke into her home.
Smith: If Chad scared you to the point where you needed to get a gun, why are you even talking to him?
Deller: It’s not so much that he scared me to the point of getting a gun as much as just him breaking in made me feel vulnerable.
Prosecutors pushed back at Deller’s claims that she had been afraid of the victim, pointing out that she had called him 28 times in the week before his death. They also questioned Deller’s allegations of self-defense, arguing that she hadn’t told any other friends the story — including other friends to whom she had admitted the killing before her arrest.
Prosecutor: You didn’t tell anyone right there when you were so upset for five hours talking about what was going on, that Chad was like a demon to you. I think you even said to them you killed his body, but not his soul, right? Or is that another lie they’re making up?
Deller: No, sir.
Prosecutor: You did say that, right?
Deller: Yes, sir.
Prosecutor: So when you just admitted that you killed his body, not his soul, basically murdering someone, you didn’t think it was important to say, ‘It was self-defense’?
Deller: I wasn’t thinking very clearly.
After Deller testified, prosecutors called a friend to rebut her statements. The friend told the jury that Deller told her that Mullen was dead and, “I judged his body; I didn’t f— judge his soul. He’s dead.”
The jury will return to hear closing arguments on Thursday morning. Deller has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, tampering with physical evidence and failure to report a death.
Lee-Ellis has also pleaded not guilty and is due to return to court in November.
