By: Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — An ex-convict, who told a Stillwater police officer that he is mentally ill, has been jailed on $30,000 bail pending a July 1 court appearance on a felony charge of stabbing a stranger with whom he reportedly had been fighting in a parking lot.
Gerry Gray, 59, of Stillwater, who was released from prison four and one-half years ago, could be given a prison term from 20 years to life if convicted if convicted of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, due to his criminal record.
Gray was arrested by Stillwater Police Officer Chris Houston at 3:53 p.m. on the Friday before Memorial Day after “spontaneously stating something to the effect of ‘I stabbed the man, I stabbed the man,"” an affidavit alleged.
“Gray continued muttering statements about people picking on him. At one point, Gray said something to the effect of ‘I put it in his ribs.’ He made statements about an individual striking him in the head and wrist with some sort of pole-like object,” but the officer could not see a head injury, only slightly torn skin on the top of his right wrist that was not bleeding, the affidavit alleged.
“As I was reading his rights per Miranda, I saw that he began crying. He continued to say he was tired of people picking on him,” the officer wrote in his affidavit.
“Gray said that he and the unknown individual got into a physical fight in the parking lot of Pop’s Detail Shop. He described the fight as ‘going for each other’s throats,"” the affidavit alleged.
“Gray said that the unknown individual began striking him in the head and his right wrist with the object,” described as some type of broom stick handle, the affidavit alleged.
“Gray said that after he was struck with the object, he ‘blacked out.’ The next thing he remembered is the unknown individual covered in blood. Later he said that he probably stabbed the individual,” who survived, the affidavit alleged.
“Gray had previously mentioned that he is schizophrenic and bi-polar and he tends to ‘black out’ when made angry. Gray made mention several times in the interview room that he would do his time for what he had done,” the affidavit alleged.
According to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, Gray had previously been convicted in Payne County of:
* possession of cocaine and marijuana in Stillwater in 2010 for which he was given a 10-year prison term of which he served about four years;
* possession of cocaine in Stillwater in 2008 for which he was given a concurrent nine-year prison term of which he served about four years;
* first-degree burglary in Stillwater in 2008 for which he was given a concurrent nine-year prison term of which he served about four years;
* possessing stolen property in Stillwater in 2009 for which he was given a concurrent four-year prison term of which he served about two years;
* drug possession in 1991 for which he was given a five-year probationary sentence.
Gray had been convicted in Kansas of drug possession and paroled in 2002, DOC records show.
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