JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – In a pretrial hearing Monday, Marissa Alexander faced her ex-husband, Rico Gray, who was in the house the night she fired a shot in his direction while he had his two young sons with him, according to prosecutors.
Alexander's defense team is trying to get Gray's domestic history brought up in the case.
Defense lawyers want to show Alexander acted in self-defense, and they hope to do that by showing Gray (pictured below) was a serial abuser.
Alexander was initially convicted of three counts of armed aggravated assault. Those convictions were thrown out on appeal, and the retrial is scheduled for early December.
Defense lawyers are trying to get Gray's ex-wives and ex-girlfriends to testify in the retrial.
Throughout the afternoon, defense attorneys peppered Gray with questions about various domestic violence incidents between Gray and multiple relatives.
"The person that you had violence against the first time was your brother. Is that correct, sir?" an attorney asked.
"I was protecting myself, yes sir," Gray said.
"Judge, could you tell him to answer the question asked of him?" the attorney said.
"Mr. Gray, answer the question that was asked of you, not what you think the answer should be," the judge said.
Prosecutors tried to argue much of this has nothing to do with what happened between Gray and Alexander, and the women Gray previously had relationships with should not take the stand. Prosecutors don't want Gray seen in a bad light by a jury, because he's their star witness.
The defense is also trying to show Gray was trying to intimidate the witnesses to keep them from testifying. They brought up text messages they claimed Gray sent to his exes to scare them out of testifying by reminding them that anything said on the witness stand would be heard by the public and media.
"Isn't it correct that the reason you sent the text messages to Chartrecia is because you did not want her to testify?" a defense attorney asked Gray.
"No, sir," Gray said.
"Isn't it true you did this to put fear in her mind that things of her past would be exposed at this hearing?" the attorney asked.
"No, sir," Gray said.
The judge has not made a decision on whether Gray's exes will be allowed to testify during the trial. The hearing will reconvene on Nov. 12.