Horse farm owner gets life in prison for boyfriend’s murder after claiming self-defense
Caylen Deller, 32, was sentenced to life in prison after a jury found her guilty of murdering her boyfriend, Chad Mullen, at her Florida horse farm in September 2024. The verdict rejects her claim that she shot Mullen in self-defence and also found her guilty of tampering with evidence and failing to report a death.
Deller testified that Mullen choked her and raised a hammer during an argument, and that she shot him twice because she feared for her safety. Prosecutors said she did not contact police, and questioned her continued contact with Mullen, citing 28 calls between 2 and 9 September. His body was found in a shallow grave more than a month after he went missing.
- Caylen Deller received a life sentence for murdering Chad Mullen.
- She said she shot him in self-defence.
- The jury also convicted her of two related offences.
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In Florida, self-defence law allows a person to use force if they reasonably believe it is needed to protect themselves from immediate harm. Whether that applies in a particular case is decided by a jury after hearing evidence from both sides.
Caylen Deller and Chad Mullen were a couple, and Mullen went missing from Deller’s horse farm in September 2024. The case centred on what happened during an argument at the farm and on the events that followed his disappearance.
The trial also examined how evidence was handled and why Mullen’s death was not reported to police. The case matters because it involved competing accounts of a fatal encounter and the legal duties that can follow a death.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Deller’s account offers a possible self-defence case: she testified that Mullen choked her and raised a hammer, and said she believed she faced immediate danger when she shot him. If the jury had accepted that she reasonably feared serious harm, her actions could be understood as an attempt to protect herself rather than murder.
The case against
The prosecution’s case, which the jury accepted, was that the shooting was not justified as self-defence. Deller did not report Mullen’s death, his body was found buried more than a month after he went missing, and prosecutors pointed to her continued calls to him; they could argue this conduct undermines her account of an immediate, defensive response.