“I Pulled the Trigger and Shot Him Twice”: Florida Horse Farm Owner Admits Killing Ex — Then Hides Body in Pond and Shallow Grave While Claiming Self-Defense

In a gripping courtroom confession that has stunned a Florida jury, Caylen Deller, the 32-year-old owner of a horse farm, took the stand and calmly admitted she shot her ex-boyfriend twice at point-blank range — yet insisted the killing was pure self-defense. The shocking testimony came as prosecutors painted a far darker picture: that Deller lured Chad Mullen to her property, executed him, and then spent days concealing his body with the help of a friend, first dumping it in a pond and later burying it under a dirt pile on a neighboring farm.

The case, unfolding in Palatka in Putnam County, centers on the September 9, 2024, death of Mullen. Deller testified Wednesday that she had agreed to loan him her truck. He arrived at Stormy Stables that evening, fixed a headlight, and then, according to her, everything turned violent after she confronted him about whether he had ever se.xually abused her five-year-old daughter.

“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,” Deller told the jury. She said she spotted her gun, grabbed it, and forced him to back up. Moments later, she claimed, Mullen seized a hammer, raised it overhead, and swung it toward her while threatening her. “He was swinging it, coming towards me,” she testified. “I pulled the trigger of the gun and shot him twice. I pulled the trigger; the gun went off twice.”

Chad Mullen, the man Caylen Deller admits shooting twice at her Florida horse farm in September 2024. (Real photo)

What happened next, by her own account, was pure panic. Instead of calling 911, Deller fled in the truck to the home of her friend Tina Marie Lee-Ellis, who has since been charged as an accessory after the fact. Deller said Lee-Ellis talked her out of contacting police. The two women returned to the property, confirmed Mullen was dead, and — according to Deller — followed Lee-Ellis’s suggestion to dispose of the body in a pond. The plan failed when the body floated to the surface two days later. They then drove it to a farm where Lee-Ellis worked and buried it in a shallow grave covered by a dirt pile. Mullen’s remains were not discovered until more than a month later.

Prosecutors have rejected the self-defense narrative outright. They told jurors Deller lured Mullen to the stables, shot him, and then methodically tried to hide the crime. Phone records showed she had called him 28 times in the week leading up to his death. They also highlighted that she purchased the handgun only a month earlier, after Mullen allegedly broke into her home. When pressed on the stand about why she never immediately reported the shooting, Deller said she believed law enforcement would not listen to her and that, by then, the body had already been hidden.

Caylen Deller testifying in court on October 14, 2026, where she admitted shooting Chad Mullen twice but claimed self-defense. (Real Court TV image)

Defense attorney Brian Smith argued that his client never planned the killing. “Caylen Deller did not wake up that day planning to kill Chad Mullen,” he told the jury. “She did not lure him to Stormy Stables. She was not looking for a confrontation.” Deller herself described being “extremely afraid” and said she only wanted to protect herself and her daughter.

Prosecutors attacked that claim on cross-examination, noting she had not shared the self-defense story with other friends in the hours after the shooting, even while admitting the killing. One exchange focused on a statement she allegedly made: that she had killed Mullen’s body but not his soul. When asked why she never mentioned self-defense at the time, Deller replied that she “wasn’t thinking very clearly.”

The case has drawn intense local attention because of the gruesome details of the cover-up and the personal allegations involving a young child. Mullen’s family has described the pain of weeks spent searching for him while Deller, according to prosecutors, repeatedly lied about his whereabouts. A friend of Deller’s, the father of her daughter, testified that she confessed to the shooting days later, describing how the gun jammed after the first shot and how Mullen stared at her while she cleared it before firing again — a version Deller denied on the stand.

By the time the jury heard closing arguments, the central question was whether Deller’s actions after the shooting destroyed any claim of self-defense. Hiding a body, enlisting a friend, moving it between locations, and lying to the victim’s family for weeks are rarely consistent with a terrified woman who had just survived an attack. The state argued those steps showed consciousness of guilt and a calculated effort to avoid responsibility.

The trial concluded with a swift verdict. After roughly an hour of deliberation, the jury found Deller guilty of first-degree murder, tampering with evidence, and failing to report a death. She was sentenced to life in prison. State Attorney R.J. Larizza later said the jury “wasn’t fooled by her lies.”

For the family of Chad Mullen, the conviction brings a measure of closure after more than a year of uncertainty and grief. For observers of the case, it underscores how quickly a claim of self-defense can unravel when the evidence shows not only the shooting itself but the deliberate, multi-day effort to erase any trace of the victim. Deller’s own words from the witness stand — “I pulled the trigger of the gun and shot him twice” — will likely remain the most haunting line from the trial, even as the legal system has now decided those shots were not justified.