Woman Jailed for Shooting a Warning Shot Near Her Abusive Husband is Released
BANFIELD: Marissa Alexander has most likely seen the last of a Florida prison where she spent years for firing a bullet into a wall -- not into a person, a wall. She says she was trying to stop her abusive husband from abusing her again. But the state said the controversial stand your ground law did not apply to her. And yet, and follow me here, Alexander has pleaded guilty to aggravated assault even though she doesn't believe for a moment that she's guilty of aggravated assault and this week a judge finally let her go home. I know it is confusing but CNN's Anderson Cooper sorts it all out.</s>ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: This was Marissa Alexander back in 2012, she just been found guilty of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and would soon be sentenced to 20 years behind bars.</s>MARISSA ALEXANDER, IMPRISONED FOR FIRING WARNING SHOT: This is my life I'm fighting for. This is my life and my life it is not entertainment. It is my life.</s>COOPER: Her legal trouble begins in 2010. She says her abusive husband, Rico Gray was in a jealous rage over text message on her cell phone. Gray had been arrested in the past for assaulting her. She'd locked herself in the bathroom.</s>ALEXANDER: He manage to get the door open and that's when he strangled me. He put his hands around my neck.</s>COOPER: Alexander got away and run into the garage but she says the garage door was stuck, she grabbed a gun she says she kept there. She explained what happened next to Gary Tuchman.</s>GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Were you thinking about to shot him?</s>ALEXANDER: Yeah, I did, if it came to that. He saw my weapon at my hand side and when he saw it he was even more upset and that's when he threatened to kill me.</s>COPPER: That's when she fired which she called a warning shot into the wall.</s>ALEXANDER: I believe when he threatened to kill me, that's what he was going to do and if I had not discharged my weapon at that point, I would not be here.</s>COOPER: Rico Gray fled the house with his two young children who were there at that time. Alexander was arrested but maintained she'd been standing her ground. During a court deposition Gray said this about the shooting incident, quote, "If my kids weren't there, I knew I probably would have tried to take the gun from her. I probably would have put my hand on her." When ask what he meant by putting his hand on her, he responded, "Probably hit her. I got five baby mamas and I put my hands on every last one of them, except for one." But later at a court hearing on her stand your ground defense, Gray changed his story, saying he lied repeatedly to protect his wife, claiming he did not threatened to kill her and testified, quote, "I begged and pleaded for my life when she had the gun." Alexander was offered a plead deal, three years in prison but she refused. She went on trial and was convicted and sentenced to 20 years for three charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.</s>ALEXANDER: You do everything they get on the right side of law and it is the law and it doesn't apply to you, then where do you go from there.</s>COOPER: A new legal team picked up Alexander's case after her conviction, and in 2013 fought and won her a new trial, but the victory was short-lived. Florida state attorney, Angela Corey said this time around, if Alexander was found guilty, they'd be seeking a sentence of 60 years instead of the 20 she was then serving. Corey's office then offered her another plead deal if she didn't go to trial. Three year behind bars and two years under house arrest.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ...and then with that, that concludes the hearing. All right.</s>COOPER: With time already served, Marissa Alexander was able to walk away but now begins her house arrest. Anderson Cooper, CNN.</s>BANFIELD: Well from one case to another case, we're going to be live in a moment right back into that Fall River Massachusetts court room where now we have the other side of the story that's about to play out. The defense attorney for Aaron Hernadez about to try to dissuade the jury from everything they just heard from the prosecution, all those accusations. Here's my guess, he's going to say something along the lines that none of that is true. Back after this.