Jesse Harris asks for 'stand your ground' hearing

TAMPA (FOX 13) - Prosecutors say Jesse Harris' relationship with a woman was crowded, so he got rid of his competition.

Gas station customer Valerie Daniels witnessed the whole thing. She testified during a bond hearing last year.

"He was choking him and the man said, 'Let me go,' but he didn't let him go," explained Daniels.

The love triangle turned deadly during a chance encounter outside this Sunoco gas station last November. Prosecutors say Jesse Harris was filled with rage and jealousy, and went after the current boyfriend, Gregory Walker.

Some of the deadly confrontation was caught on surveillance video. But Harris' attorney, Jonathan Comnes says the prosecution got it all wrong.

"The state had the love triangle backwards," explained Comnes.

He says Walker was the aggressor, not the victim. He says Walker stalked and bullied Harris for months, even pointing a gun at him several times and threatening to kill him.

"He just terrorized Jesse because he was the odd man out of the love triangle," explained Comnes. 

Comnes just filed a stand your ground motion and will present his case to a judge. But he may have trouble explaining why his client approached the victim in the first place and threw the first punch.

"When you see Mr. Harris do that he's responding to three months of stalking and abuse," said Comnes.

Comnes also says Walker died of complications from a heart condition and not from blows delivered by his client, which he believes will bolster his case. He's confident a jury will see it his way.

"I pray that justice gets done because I believe he's innocent," said Comnes.

A stand your ground hearing, Comnes believes, could happen in early 2018.