'My sole intent ... was to go get my little girl out of this (allegedly abusive) environment that she shouldn't be in. The whole reason that I'm here and why you're here, ladies and gentlemen, is that I loved that little girl more than life itself,' he said.
But on May 13, 2000, Bender gunned down his estranged wife's boyfriend, Marvin Knieriem, in the man's own bedroom - in front of Bender's daughter.
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Bender said he had no choice.
'I told (Knieriem) that I'm just here for my daughter, and he came at me. Deadly force ... I was stuck. I had no choice.
'In order for me to protect my daughter, I had to protect myself,' he said.
The family of the victim cried as Bender described the killing.
Fayette County District Attorney Nancy Vernon asked Bender whether he was lying in the jurors' faces.
'Isn't it true you went in there intending to kill Marvin, Bev (Pletcher, his wife) and yourself?' asked Vernon.
'No,' said Bender.
Bender, 35, of South Connellsville, is accused of entering Knieriem's Connellsville home in the early morning of May 13, 2000, and shooting him down in front of Bender's daughter, Allison; his estranged wife, who was seeing Knieriem; and another girl, who was Knieriem's goddaughter.
Prosecutors said he meant to kill Knieriem, but especially wanted to kill his wife, Wanda Pletcher. They pointed to escalating threats and conversations that Bender had with co-workers as proof.
They are asking for a first-degree murder conviction and a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
But Bender said he believed his daughter had to be rescued because she was being sexually molested by Knieriem.
After handing over custody of his toddler daughter on May 12, Bender said he went to a bar, then went home and became more and more troubled.
'I was laying there (thinking) I should have never gave her to her (Beverly Pletcher). So I grabbed the shotgun under the couch,' he said.
Steven Bender's attorney, Caroline Roberto, asked why Bender took the shotgun.
'I wanted to take a bigger gun for him to comply with orders to hand over my daughter,' he said.
'Why did you load the gun?' asked Roberto.
'Self-defense,' said Steven Bender.
Bender said he shot Knieriem once, then again out of instinct from his training as a U.S. Marine.
But Bender said as he was moving to take Allison Bender from her mother, he saw sexual paraphernalia that he took as proof that his daughter was being abused.
Bender choked up as he testified. 'I fell apart. I went over and I started kicking (Knieriem) in the face. I didn't understand how they could do that to (Allison). That's when I shot him again,' said Bender.
Bender said he was about to commit suicide.
'I took the gun and put it into my mouth. I was going to blow my own brains out. I had my finger on the trigger. I heard Bev saying 'No, no.' I saw Allie, and she was looking at me.
'I took the gun out of my mouth and left,' he said.
Bender said he didn't take Allison because he was going to commit suicide elsewhere, out of his daughter's view.
On cross-examination, Vernon asked Bender why he never took his daughter to the hospital if he suspected abuse.
'That's why I went to the police,' said Bender.
Vernon asked Bender what sort of deadly force he was being threatened with that justified self-defense.
'Deadly force - in that situation applied. ... I didn't want him to take the gun from me,' he said.
Bender's cross-examination will continue this morning.
The jury is expected to begin deliberations later today in the courtroom of Judge John F. Wagner Jr.
