Woman kills boyfriend with help from a horse | Mom convicted in car crash homicide - TCN Sidebar

Joshua Ritter (0:10)

Hello and welcome to The Sidebar, presented by True Crime News, taking you inside the courtrooms of high-profile and notorious cases from across the country. I'm your host, Joshua Ritter. I'm a criminal defense lawyer based in Los Angeles and previously an LA County prosecutor for over a decade. We're recording this on Wednesday, October 14th, 2026 In this week's episode, a former police officer accused of murdering his pregnant mistress when she threatened to reveal their affair. Plus, the woman behind the wheel of a deadly crash claims the incident wasn't her fault. But first, a mother on trial for killing an ex she claimed was abusing her daughter.

Today we are joined by Imran Ansari, an attorney, legal analyst and dear friend of the show. Imran, how are you, my friend? Good to see you again.

Imran Ansari (0:57)

Josh, great to see you and thanks for having me.

Joshua Ritter (1:00)

Absolutely. I'm glad that we were able to discuss these because they've got some interesting legal issues that I think require your expertise to help us walk through some of them.

So let's just jump right in. First of all, out of Palatka, I hope I'm saying that right, Palatka, Florida, a woman accused of killing her ex with the help of a friend and a horse is facing trial.

Caylen Deller has been charged with the murder in the death of her ex-boyfriend, Chad Mullen, who was found in a shallow grave on a farm neighboring Deller's. Deller allegedly confessed the crime to another ex-boyfriend, reportedly saying she shot the man twice after she was convinced Mullen touched or abused her daughter. Prosecutors say that after the cold-blooded killing, Deller enlisted the help of her friend, Tina Marie Ellis, to dispose of Mullen's body. The woman allegedly used a horse to drag Mullen's corpse to a pond and weighed him down with cinderblocks. When that didn't work, authorities say Mullen was dragged to another location and buried where cadaver dogs eventually found the victim. While prosecutors laid out their case in opening statements, Deller's defense withheld, opting to wait until the prosecution finishes presenting their case. Deller's trial is ongoing with the alleged accomplice set to face a separate trial on accessory charges, and we will keep you updated. A lot of moving parts in this one, a lot of people in this one, Imran, but some interesting developments that you've learned about. You want to share that with us?

Imran Ansari (2:35)

Sure. She has taken the stand as Deller, the defendant, in her own defense. And we talked about, Josh, you mentioned that the defense decided to defer their opening statement after the prosecution had rested. And I'm learning reading the news reports coming from the local news agencies down near Jacksonville there, that they delivered an opening statement and she's going justification. She's going self-defense. So she's taken the stand, she's testifying, she's saying that the ex-boyfriend put his hands on her, was strangling her, and then she ultimately took the gun and shot him in self-defense. So we're seeing right now that development of the justification defense going on in that courtroom as this trial has played out here. So it's going to be interesting to see how that develops over the next day or so.

Joshua Ritter (3:27)

I'm curious, do you think that's why they may have deferred opening? If they were going to, I mean, this is one of those defenses that comes from the mouth of the defendant. So there's no real evidence to turn over here that the prosecution would have been aware of that, not that I see, that this was on the horizon.

Is there a little bit of a, I hate to use the word, but almost sandbagging in not putting that into opening statements, waiting till the prosecution does their case and then kind of surprise, surprise, she was attacked first?

Imran Ansari (3:59)

Yeah, strategy wise, I think it may be a good decision for the defense, right? It's unorthodox, right? We as trial attorneys, I'm a former prosecutor now, do self, do defense work just like yourself, Josh. You want to get there at opening statements. You feel the urge as a trial attorney to get your client's message before that jury at the start of the trial. So it takes some patience and take a step back and say, listen, we're going to wait until the prosecution rests and presents their case and then we're going to go with our opening statement.

I think here, it could have been a wise decision. We'll wait and see because the jury may have been totally focused on the defendant's testimony, meaning the upcoming defendant's testimony. They're hearing the prosecution evidence, they're listening to the state to put on their witnesses, present their evidence, but in their head, in the back of their heads, they're thinking, all right, we're going to hear from the defendant herself.