Jackson County Circuit Judge Jenifer Holt said that 32-year-old Brittany Smith failed to show how she should be granted immunity for the killing of Todd Smith

A woman who claimed she shot dead her rapist in self defense now faces a murder trial and possible life imprisonment after an Alabama judge declined to dismiss the charges under the state's Stand Your Ground law.

Jackson County Circuit Judge Jenifer Holt said in a Monday ruling order that 32-year-old Brittany Smith failed to show how she should be granted immunity for the killing of Todd Smith (no relation).

Brittany Smith claims she was brutally raped and beaten by Todd at her home in Stevenson, Alabama, in January 2018.

She says she shot Todd dead as he choked her brother, Chris McCallie - but her claim of self defense was denied in court.

'Upon consideration of all the evidence, the court finds that the defendant has given inconsistent accounts of the events surrounding Todd's death, beginning with the 911 call … and has attempted to alter or destroy evidence,' the judge wrote, according to AL.com.

'The court further finds that the defendant's testimony about material facts was significantly at odds with the physical evidence, exhibits and other witness testimony.'

Brittany sobbed when talking about the latest decision from Holt, adding that she doubts she'll get a fair trial in Jackson County.

'I wouldn't wish this on anyone,' she continued.

Judge Holt (pictured) said in her order. 'The defendant had many opportunities to seek protection from Todd if she was afraid he was going to kill or harm her'

Smith's lawyer, Ron Smith (no relation), asserts that the team plans to appeal the decision to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals.

Prosecutors argued in court that Brittany's brother McCallie was the one who initiated the confrontation with Todd Smith during the January 2018 killing.

They said that because he brought the gun to the scene, Brittany was not entitled to Stand Your Ground.

Prosecutors said Brittany lacked credibility, and argued that there were inconsistencies with her testimony given at the Stand Your Ground immunity hearing and with statements she gave to authorities after the shooting.

Brittany Smith's murder trial is scheduled for February 10.

'Todd was staying the night with the defendant with her consent,' Holt said in her order.

'The defendant had many opportunities to seek protection from Todd if she was afraid he was going to kill or harm her. She could have called the police. She could have called 911.'

Brittany claims she was brutally raped and beaten by Todd Smith, 38, at her home in Stevenson, Alabama, in January 2018.

She says Todd threatened to kill her if she told anyone what had happened - but she managed to covertly inform her brother who showed up at her home soon after and confronted Todd.

When Todd refused to leave, he and Chris got in a violent altercation which ended with Brittany fatally shooting her alleged attacker before calling police.

A rape kit showed severe injuries and indicated that Brittany had been raped, but she was still charged with Todd's murder two days later.

Prosecutors argued in court that Brittany's brother - Chris McCallie - was the one who initiated the confrontation with Todd Smith during the January 2018 killing. They said that because he brought the gun to the scene, Brittany was not entitled to Stand Your Ground

Smith, 32, claims she was brutally raped and beaten by Todd Smith (pictured) at her home in Stevenson, Alabama, in January 2018

Brittany recounted the horror ordeal in an interview with the New Yorker published last month, ahead of her court appearance.

If convicted, Brittany will join countless other women imprisoned for violent acts committed against men they've accused of sexual abuse and domestic violence.

On January 16, Brittany was on her way home from McDonald's with her brother Chris when Todd, an old acquaintance who bred pit bulls, called and asked her to pick him up from a park.

Brittany said she had visited Todd's home in Jasper, Tennessee, the day before and took home a puppy.

She initially hesitated to comply with Todd's request as she'd previously rejected his romantic advances.

Chris also advised her not to go. 'I just had a gut feeling that something was going to happen,' he told the New Yorker.

But Brittany ultimately agreed after Todd claimed he had been stranded in the heavy snow and had no one else to call. She would later learn that his father had kicked him out of the house after a violent altercation that resulted in Todd's arrest.

She told Todd that she and Chris would pick him up and that he could sleep on her couch that night.

Chris dropped Brittany and Todd off at her home and the pair gave her new puppy a bath while talking about their mutual struggles with drug addiction.

She told him about how she'd managed to get clean while urging him to 'get his priorities together' and do the same.

Brittany said her advice was not well received by Todd, who responded by asking if she thought she was better than him before calling her a bitch and head-butting her.

She fled into her bedroom and shut the door but Todd broke it down, threw her on the bed and then choked her until she passed out, she said.

When she regained consciousness, Brittany found herself naked in a puddle of her own urine with Todd's hands around her neck as he raped her.

'We're friends,' she squeaked before Todd repeated the words back to her in a mocking voice and said: 'Don't say a fucking word or I'll kill you.'

Brittany sobbed as she frantically tried to fight Todd off of her, digging her nails into him so hard that some of them ripped off.

She said he twisted her head sideways so far that she thought her neck would break before they both tumbled off the bed and he choked her again until she passed out.

When she woke back up, Todd was still raping her, but she 'let him finish what he was doing', Brittany said.

After the assault was over, Todd allegedly threatened to kill everyone she loved if she told anyone what had happened.

He then said he wanted to get some cigarettes, so Brittany offered to call someone to drive them to the store since she didn't have a car.

Todd held the phone as Brittany called her mother, Ramona McCallie, who lived nearby. She said she was subtly trying to convey that something was wrong without Todd realizing.

Ramona later said that she thought Brittany sounded like she'd been crying.

She sent Chris over to Brittany's home, and he arrived soon after to drive her and Todd to a local gas station.

Brittany and her brother, Chris McCallie (pictured together) recounted the horror ordeal in an interview with the New Yorker published Monday

Chris and Todd waited in the car as Brittany went into the store, where a cashier who knew her noticed her disheveled appearance and asked what had happened.

Brittany quietly asked for a piece of paper. She wrote a message that Todd Smith had raped her and said that if she was found dead in the morning, he was responsible.

She begged the cashier not to call police because she believed Todd would kill her if he found out.

Chris drove Brittany and Todd back to her home, at which point she told her brother to go back and talk to the cashier.

Chris said he went 'blank' when he heard what Todd had done and immediately drove back to Brittany's house.

Meanwhile, Brittany texted her mother: 'Mom Todd has tried to kill me literally. Don't act like anything is wrong . . . He will kill me if he knows.'

Chris entered Brittany's kitchen armed with a .22 caliber revolver he kept in his car and told Todd: 'You need to get your shit and leave.'

Todd refused, so Chris set down his gun and tried to wrestle him out of the house.

Todd, who was high on a cocktail of Xanax, amphetamines, alcohol and meth, quickly got Chris in a headlock and began choking him.

Brittany heard the commotion from the living room and ran into the kitchen. She picked up the gun and hysterically begged Todd to let her brother go.

Todd kept his grip on Chris' neck and said he would kill them both, prompting Brittany to fire a shot at him.

When Todd still didn't let go, she fired two more rounds.

After Todd collapsed Brittany called 911 and told a dispatcher: 'Someone just got shot at 211 Sharon Drive. He tried to kill me.

'Just have an ambulance come, please, because I don't want this man to die.'

The operator coached Brittany on how to perform CPR and she administered mouth-to-mouth on Todd while Chris did chest compressions.

It took about 30 minutes for officers to arrive at the scene, at which point Todd was dead.

Brittany described to investigators how Todd had attacked Chris after beating and raping her. A rape kit showed 33 injuries, including bruises all over her body, evidence of strangulation and bite marks on her neck and face.

She and Chris initially told police that he had been the one who killed Todd because they both believed that she wouldn't get a fair trial as a woman in Jackson County.

Chris told the New Yorker that if police had known Brittany fired the fatal shots they would not have taken her for a rape-kit examination until it was too late.

'I hate to say this, but, Jackson County, they're a little bit behind on the times,' Chris said.

'[Women] get the short end of the stick.'

Brittany and Chris initially told police that he had shot Todd because they both believed that she wouldn't get a fair trial as a woman in Jackson County. Chris is seen in his mugshot

Jackson County has a devastatingly high rate of aggravated assaults per capita, which was more than double the state average between 2015 and 2017.

The New Yorker's Elizabeth Flock spoke to several other women in the area and said that nearly every one had experienced domestic violence.

Flock also spoke to Jackson County Sheriff Chuck Phillips about what she'd learned from the women she talked to.

She said the sheriff insisted that domestic violence and sexual abuse weren't especially common in the county and told her: 'I don't know who you talked to, but I don't much believe that.'

'I mean, our statistics are not outrageous,' Phillips allegedly said, adding: 'People get high, they get stupid.'

A grand jury indicted Brittany for murder in March 2018 and her bail was set at $100,000, which she and her family couldn't pay.

Within days of being booked into the Jackson County jail, Brittany suffered a nervous breakdown which she believes was caused by withdrawal from the Xanax medication she was prescribed but not provided to her in lock-up.

An investigator for the sheriff's office testified at a pretrial hearing that he didn't believe Todd had tried to kill Brittany because she didn't have enough injuries to suggest that.

The prosecution's case was largely based on their claim that Todd and Brittany were in a relationship - which she denies.

Brittany and her family felt the community turn against her in the wake of the attack as rumors swirled that she had rough sex with Todd willingly.

'All these people out here saying: 'Oh, they were dating, and it was just rough sex,'' Chris recalled. 'No. I'm pretty sure we all know what rough sex is. I wouldn't wish being raped on my worst enemy.'

Todd had an extensive criminal record, having been arrested by local police about 80 times and accused of domestic violence by his ex-wife and another women years before the incident with Brittany.

Todd (pictured) had an extensive criminal record, having been arrested by local police about 80 times and accused of domestic violence by his ex-wife and another women years before the incident with Brittany

A local criminal-defense and personal-injury attorney named James Mick, a former police officer, was appointed by the court to defend Brittany because she couldn't afford to hire her own lawyer.

Mick - who typically represented people in low-level drug cases, burglaries, custody suits, divorces and evictions - advised Brittany to plead guilty to manslaughter, which would carry a sentence of between two and 20 years.

Brittany refused and asked Mick to enter a Stand Your Ground defense, invoking a statue that makes it legal to use lethal force to defend against threats or perceived threats.

Mick initially requested a Stand Your Ground hearing but later changed course and pursued a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity in October 2018.

Brittany said Mick had not informed her of his plan to pursue that plea - which required her to undergo psychiatric evaluation.

A state psychologist who met with Brittany described her as upset and anxious - noting that she cried excessively and had eaten 10 mini Snickers bar during their meeting - which he branded unusual. Brittany explained that she simply hadn't eaten that day because she was strapped financially.

The psychologist concluded that Brittany showed symptoms of a psychotic disorder.

Brittany also saw another psychiatrist from rape-victim advocacy group Healing Bridge on multiple occasions.

That psychiatrist determined that Brittany did not suffer from any mental illness aside from post-traumatic stress disorder.

However, the court apparently didn't hear the Healing Bridge psychiatrist's analysis and instead relied on that of the state psychologist.

At a pre-trial hearing, Jackson County District Attorney Jason Pierce asked the judge to send Brittany to Bryce Hospital, an inpatient facility for the seriously mentally ill. The judge agreed.

Brittany was held at Bryce for several months, despite the state psychologist's estimation that she would regain competency within 90 days.

Six months into her stay, Brittany's mother called the hospital and asked why her daughter hadn't been released. She was apparently told that there was a backlog of patients to evaluate for release.

Brittany was finally released from Bryce last September. She returned home and tried to put her life back together for the sake of her children as she waited for the trial to begin.

The following month prosecutors offered Brittany a deal which would see her serve 25 years in prison if she pleaded guilty.

Brittany turned down the deal as she remained determined to claim self-defense.

She was appointed another attorney, Ron Smith, after Mick filed a motion requesting legal assistance. She said she considered firing Mick in December but later decided that it was too close to the Stand Your Ground hearing scheduled for this month.

If the judge denies her Stand Your Ground defense at the hearing, Brittany's case will go to trial. She faces 20 years to life in prison if convicted.

Flock visited Brittany and Ramona's apartment before her final pretrial hearing of 2019 last month and asked them about what they expected to happen.

'What kills us is that they think we're little nobodies,' Ramona said. 'I know they consider me a little nobody in Stevenson because they don't respect females. They don't respect you.'

Brittany responded: 'I don't know what you're talking about. I'm somebody,' before walking out the front door and heading to court.

If the judge denies her Stand Your Ground defense, Brittany's case will go to trial. The mother-of-four (above with one of her children) faces 20 years to life in prison if convicted

The New Yorker piece calls attention to the treatment of women like Brittany who have been accused of violent crimes which they say were committed in self-defense.

There is no national data on how many women imprisoned for violent crimes claim they acted in self-defense, but the New Yorker cited a 2004 study by the Department of Justice which found that nearly half of female inmates at a maximum security prison in the Southeast said the had acted in self-defense or retaliation after being abused.

Another review published by researchers at the University of South Carolina and Yale University in 2008 found that women who used violence against male partners general did so after violence was inflicted on them.

That review - which was based on several earlier studies - emphasized that women's use of violence is more likely to be motivated by self-defense or fear, while men are more likely to be motivated by control.

Evidence of abuse is often left out or overlooked in court proceedings.

Prosecutors can also argue that a self-defense claim is invalid because the female defendant didn't end a relationship with an abuser or report abuse to authorities.

The New Yorker brought in an expert from the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, John Roman, to analyze FBI homicide data for differences in how men and women are treated in cases where the perpetrator claims self-defense.

Roman found that the likelihood of a case being ruled a justifiable homicide — carried out without malicious or criminal intent — was 10 percent greater when a man killed a man versus a man killing a woman between 1976 and 2018.

That gender disparity was even higher in Alabama, where women lost their cases 25 percent more often than men.

Roman also found a gender disparity in how many defendants successfully used Stand Your Ground laws.

In Alabama, no women received justifiable-homicide rulings between 2006, the year the state's Stand Your Ground law went into effect, and 2010, the year it stopped reporting homicide data to the FBI.