Attorney: Putnam County woman on trial for boyfriend’s murder has ‘worst self-defense claim’ he’s ever seen

A veteran defense attorney with nearly 50 years in law says he has never seen a weaker self-defense claim than the one a Putnam County murder suspect made from the witness stand Wednesday.“I’ve never seen a worse self-defense claim in my career,” said Curtis Fallgatter, a former federal chief prosecutor, after Caylen Deller testified she shot and killed her then-boyfriend Chad Mullen in 2024 — but insisted she did it to protect herself.Fallgatter laid out a series of reasons the claim falls apart.“Here’s how she’s not going to win it,” he said. “She had a chance to report it to police when she shot the man — she didn’t. She had a chance to report the alleged abuse to her daughter — she didn’t. She had a chance to report him breaking into her apartment, which may be a fantasy — she never reported that.”According to Fallgatter, what Deller did after the shooting further weakens her case. She told the court that she shot Mullen twice, left him to die, and fled with Tina Marie Lee-Ellis. S