Lovers turn to fighters before court appearance

By TAMARA LUSH

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 16, 2000

LAND O'LAKES -- Just last week, Christopher Gray drew a picture of Cupid on a handmade Valentine's Day card and sent it to his love.

But on the morning of the most romantic day of the year, authorities say, Gray jumped over a five-foot high concrete wall and punched the object of his affection, Rachelle Harris, repeatedly in the face -- while the two were standing in the booking room of the county jail.

The couple, who have been incarcerated since July, were waiting for a sheriff's van to take them to court. He was headed to a hearing on a robbery charge, she to a burglary hearing, when the fight broke out.

"I was like, stunned," Harris, 27, told the Times on Tuesday. "He likes to fight."

"I lost control," Gray told the Times in a separate interview at the New Port Richey jail, where he was moved after Monday's incident. "I could have used better judgment."

The pair are awaiting trial on armed robbery and other charges after police said they stole a cartload of goods from the Kmart in New Port Richey. When a store employee confronted the couple in the parking lot, Gray allegedly pulled out a small semi-automatic handgun and said he was "on the easy payment plan," and he and Harris drove away, according to police.

Authorities later arrested the pair on armed robbery charges and various outstanding felony warrants.

The pair were married in Alabama in 1998. Gray, 24, says he and Harris remain married and, since their incarceration, have written to each other often. Harris says that she got the union officially dissolved and that Gray is angry because she recently began a relationship with a new man.

"Chris is like real possessive," said Harris, who noted that before she was in jail, she paid the couple's bills as a professional stripper.

"He has no reason to be jealous," she said. "I take my clothes off for a living."

Gray said Tuesday that he "cares a lot" about Harris and became enraged Monday when she swore at him in the booking area.

"Instead of saying Happy Valentine's Day, the first words out of her mouth were profanity," Gray said.

It was the first time they had seen each other since their arrest, he said.

Gray and Harris said their relationship troubles stem from problems that happened long before they were incarcerated, including a dispute over their 1-year old daughter, LaTeria.

Gray was charged with domestic battery after the Valentine's Day incident, and he said that if the two got out of jail tomorrow, he would want to seek couples counseling to try to make things work.

"Me and her have been through a lot of stuff," Gray said. "When you take on a marriage, you take on responsibility."

-- Times staff writer Jim Thorner contributed to this report.

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