Deller said she met Mullen at Stormy Stables on Sept. 9, 2024, after his truck broke down. She testified that she asked him whether he had inappropriately touched her daughter. According to Deller, Mullen pinned her against the truck and grabbed her throat. She said she took a gun from beneath the driver’s seat, and that after Mullen backed away and picked up a hammer, she fired twice.

“I was extremely afraid,” Deller told the jury. She denied luring Mullen to the stable or planning to kill him.

Prosecutors questioned why Deller did not call 911 or report her concerns about her daughter to authorities. They also challenged her account of the shooting and asked why she continued contacting Mullen. Deller acknowledged calling him 28 times between Sept. 2 and Sept. 9, according to testimony presented in court.

Deller testified that after the shooting she went to the home of Tina Marie Lee-Ellis, who is charged with accessory to first-degree murder after the fact and is out on bond. Deller said she initially suggested calling 911, but Lee-Ellis persuaded her not to. Deller acknowledged helping dispose of Mullen’s body: She testified that they first put it in a pond, then later removed it and transported it to a farm, where Lee-Ellis dug a grave with a skid steer. Deller also said she burned Mullen’s phone the next day and did not tell his family what happened because she feared they would not believe her self-defense claim.

The prosecution’s account, presented in opening statements, was that Deller confessed to killing Mullen and enlisted Lee-Ellis to help move and bury his body. Prosecutors said the women tried to sink the body in water before moving it to a St. Johns County property. Mullen’s body was found buried there in October 2024, about a mile from the Putnam County line, after his family reported him missing the previous month.

The state also highlighted that police interviews with Deller’s 5-year-old daughter did not reveal an indication that the child had been abused. Deller’s lawyer, Brian Smith, told jurors the central question is whether she reasonably believed she needed to shoot Mullen to protect herself. He acknowledged that her actions after the shooting were wrong, but his remarks were an opening statement, not evidence.

A medical examiner testified that Mullen died from two gunshot wounds to the chest and ruled the death a homicide. The examiner said the wounds would have been fatal without immediate treatment, but could not establish the precise time of death. A Florida Department of Law Enforcement analyst testified that DNA profiles from a rib bone and a toothbrush matched.

Mullen’s daughter, Holli Mullen, testified that her father was close to his family and had been looking forward to a planned trip to New Mexico. His former partner reported him missing around Sept. 15, 2024, after relatives could not reach him. Deller had told the former partner by text that she had not heard from Mullen.

Closing arguments were expected Thursday. Jurors had not reached a verdict as of the expected arguments.