Closing arguments expected Thursday after Putnam County woman claims self-defense in boyfriend’s 2024 deadly shooting

Jurors in the murder trial of Caylen Deller could hear closing arguments from both sides on Thursday, a day after the Putnam County woman accused of fatally shooting her boyfriend in 2024 delivered shocking testimony in her own defense.Deller admitted on the stand that she killed Chad Mullen but said that she did it in self-defense after he choked her and came at her with a hammer.Prosecutors pushed back, however, questioning why Deller never called police and why she repeatedly lied to Mullen’s family about his whereabouts.Deller was arrested in October 2024 after deputies found Mullen’s body in a rural area of St. Johns County, about a mile from the Putnam County line. A second woman, Tina Marie Lee-Ellis, was charged with accessory to first-degree murder after the fact and is out on bond.Deller says Lee-Ellis took charge after she shot Mullen, but she also admitted she helped move his body instead of calling police. When attorneys questioned her, she described exactly how they did i