Actually, I just read an earlier account, and it sounds as if they were both pretty rough guys. But I guess the jury figured that the older bad actor who shot the younger bad actor was defending his daughter.
http://www.kptm.com/Global/story.asp?S=14168140
It's not hard to see why she picked this guy, on looks alone. Without therapy, both men and women tend to pick someone resembling their opposite-sex parent, no matter how abusive. Also, from the original newspaper story:
Andersen [the father] apparently had similar domestic violence issues. In 2009, Andersen also had a protection order filed against him by his wife. She claimed he was abusive toward her on numerous occasions. In the court documents, she claimed he pushed her, choked her and shook her to the point where she "could not breathe."