JACKSON, MI - Charges have been dismissed against a woman accused of attempting to kill her boyfriend when she shot him in the chest in May 2017.

Desiree Strother, 29, contended she wounded Michael Bell in self-defense, as he forced open a locked screen door. Jackson County prosecutors' obligation to disprove this was difficult because Bell, uncooperative and elusive, never testified.

Attempts to subpoena him for various hearings were not successful. "It is the (prosecution's) belief that the victim is avoiding service and has moved to the Detroit area," reads a motion filed by Assistant Prosecutor Katie Hawkins.

Circuit Judge Susan Jordan signed a document June 6, dropping the case without prejudice, which means it could be re-filed, court records show. Strother was charged with assault with intent to murder and a firearm crime.

Strother told police Bell began yelling and swearing at her after a party May 17, 2017, at her home on Francis Street near Franklin Street. She said he hit her with a chair and spit on her as she backed into a kitchen corner, states a motion to dismiss filed by her lawyer, Michael Dungan.

Bell continued to strike her and threaten her, he went outside onto the front porch and she locked the door and called her father, according to her account. Her dad told her to defend herself, she said, and she retrieved her .40-caliber handgun from her bedroom.

Bell was screaming and cussing at her to let him back inside the home, broke the lock on the screen door and yanked it open. Strother told him to leave and shut the door. He again yanked open the door and she shot one time "to try and scare him away," according to Dungan's motion, dated May 24.

"Mrs. Strother honestly and reasonably believed that the use of deadly force was necessary to prevent her imminent death or great bodily harm," the motion states.

It was Strother, with injuries to her head, shoulders and leg, who called 911.

"She did not do anything wrong," Dungan said on Monday. He had argued months ago, at a preliminary examination, that the case should go no further.

He noted Strother had a "wonderful background," with no convictions of any kind -- not even a speeding ticket. She was a criminal justice student at Washtenaw Community College and had legally purchased the firearm, which was properly registered, Dungan said.

This case has stopped her life in its tracks, he said. It rendered her unemployable, he said.

The prosecution has pointed to differing statements and stories Strother gave police, and Dungan conceded in his motion she was she was initially untruthful. She said there had been a drive-by shooting, but it appeared Bell was shot at close range with the wound facing away from the street, police reported.

Her father denied having talked to her on the night of the shooting or in the three weeks preceding it, Hawkin's response states, and police found no proof of this in an examination of phone records, according to testimony.

To demonstrate Strother's actions were unjustified, the prosecution would have needed Bell to share his account, Prosecutor Jerry Jarzynka said Monday. "The only witness that could counter that was the victim."

Dungan acknowledged the witness issue.

The prosecution knew too, he said, the same facts he did. "About how Bell had treated her in the five years leading up to that day, and how he had treated her in the few days before that day and what he had done to her that night."

Officers had been called to previous domestic incidents between the two, including one four days before the shooting, records show.

The prosecution did not disagree there were previous concerns, including a recent 911 call made by Strother, who asked for help before an abrupt disconnection. The dispatcher noted Bell was believed to have taken the phone from her, Hawkins wrote in her motion.

Bell said he and Strother were often in physical fights and both were aggressive, according to a police report. She had stabbed him twice but he did not seek medical treatment and did not report the incidents because he did not want her to get into trouble, the document states.

At the hospital, Bell told police he didn't think Strother meant to hurt him and he did not think she belonged in jail, police reported. In her motion, Hawkins said Bell did not recall a physical dispute the night of the shooting, but said they had assaulted each other a few nights prior.

He said they were constantly arguing and he did not remember hitting her with a chair, but he doubted Strother was lying about the incident, police reported.