An Eau Claire man told a Butler County jury Wednesday, Feb. 14, that he was afraid in March when he shot and killed his mother’s boyfriend, who he claimed was abusive.

Dakota B. Hughes, 23, is charged with homicide and aggravated assault in the March 2 shooting death of Seth G. Smith, 27, of Venango County.

“I was scared,” Hughes said. “I didn't know what was going to happen. I was scared of Seth.”

Hughes and his mother, Carri McKinney, testified during the final day of the trial in Butler County Common Pleas Court. The jury will begin deliberations Thursday.

McKinney testified Smith had an arrest warrant in Venango County, was addicted to drugs and had become “unhinged” with growing paranoia.

“It was like he was falling apart,” the 42-year-old said about Smith’s behavior leading up to the shooting in the home where Hughes and McKinney lived.

McKinney, who also had testified Tuesday for the prosecution, recounted incidents about the man she told the jury she loved.

McKinney said she was riding with Smith in February 2023 when they got into an argument when she told him to take her home after calling him a woman beater. He responded by punching her while he was driving, she said.

She said he pulled off the road to allow her to relieve herself, but her coat got stuck on something on the vehicle and he drove away, dragging her down the road, she said. Her hands were black and her knees were bleeding, she said.

McKinney said she and Smith then spent the next several days in a shed on the property of an abandoned house. He went somewhere and took her phone and locked her wrist to a cable before he left, she said.

She went on to recount other instances, including one where she said Smith threatened to nail the doors of her home shut with her family inside, set the house on fire and kill her.

McKinney said Smith never harmed her children and that her children never saw him abuse her.

However, one of McKinney’s daughters, Liberty McKinney, 17, said she overheard Smith threatening her mother and her family in the basement from her second floor bedroom. She said she heard Smith insult her mother and the children and threaten to burn down the house with them locked inside.

Hughes said Smith never threatened him, but he heard Smith and his mother arguing in the basement, where she and Smith occasionally stayed.

He said he put the gun in his waistband on March 2 when he got home from work and a trip to the bank, and left it there for more than an hour while he was washing dishes and Smith and his mother arrived. Hughes said he kept the gun in his waistband when he was home and kept a loaded rifle next to his bed.

He said he didn't know his mother and Smith were still seeing each other after a mid-February incident in which Smith ran her off the road in Venango County and left her there.

Hughes said he was surprised to see Smith with his mother when she came to their home to pick up a debit card which had recently arrived in the mail.

He said he was washing dishes in the kitchen when he heard someone enter the house and then saw Smith and his mother standing in the dining room.

Hughes said he was afraid and told Smith that he did not want him in the house and to leave. Smith began yelling, approached Hughes, put his hands against the doorway between the two rooms and stepped into the kitchen.

He said Smith put his hands in his coat pockets as he approached him. Hughes said he drew his handgun from his waistband and fired as Smith was an “arms reach” away.

“I reached for my gun and fired as I drew it,” Hughes said.

He said he pointed the gun toward Smith, but didn’t aim it. Smith stumbled backward, and Hughes went outside to call 911, he said.

Hughes’ mother testified Smith stayed with her in the home “pretty routinely” beginning in fall 2022, but he left and stayed only sporadically after a parole officer came to the house looking for him.

McKinney said she had seen Smith use cocaine, crack cocaine, methamphetamine and pain pills. He became aggressive when he drank alcohol, she also said.

Smith was controlling, she said. He kept her money and phone, sometimes wouldn’t let her go upstairs in her home if her children were there, and wouldn’t let her contact her friends, McKinney said.

McKinney said Smith isolated her from her family by not allowing her to talk to her oldest daughter. When Smith let her talk to her daughter, he made her use the speaker so he could hear the conversation.

She said Smith overdosed on drugs in summer 2022 outside a laundromat in West Sunbury, and she was told Smith was telling people she gave him the drugs. She said she quit her job as a nurse due to the rumors, and she didn’t see Smith for a month afterward.

When Smith would come to her house, he would enter through the garage to reduce the risk of being seen and reported to authorities, McKinney said. She said Smith became paranoid of her or someone else turning him in.

McKinney recounted other incidents involving Smith, including one in fall 2022 when he locked himself in her garage and fell asleep in a car, and then attacked her after she removed hinges from a door to enter and wake him up. She said he hit her head on a work bench, hit her in the face with the butt of a shotgun and then dry fired the gun while pointing at her. She said she did not know the gun was unloaded.

A month later he strangled her, picked her up off the ground and then pushed her to the floor after she came home, found the doors locked again, broke in and woke him up, McKinney said. She said Smith told her to lie to Hughes about how she sustained the resulting injuries to her knee, ankle and hand.

While driving to her home on March 2, so she could pick up her debit card, she said Smith was mad at her for losing the last two of his cigarettes, told her she had only three minutes to retrieve the card from the house and was hitting himself in the head.

When they arrived at her home, he hurried to the door and told her that he wasn’t going to hurt Hughes, but he needed to learn respect, McKinney said.

She said she heard Hughes and Smith talking before hearing gunshots.

The Butler County District Attorney’s office rested its case Tuesday, and Hughes’ attorney Al Lindsay wrapped up the defense’s case Wednesday afternoon.