Sitting in front of her concrete-block house Thursday afternoon, a pregnant Shardae D. Wells looked away and, for a moment, hid her black eye.
On Wednesday, Gainesville Police arrested Jeremy P. Delapierre, 25, the father of her two children. He was charged with aggravated battery and domestic battery by strangulation.
Delapierre's mother, Clara M. Young, and cousins, Jimmie L. Hart and Nathail G. Harrington, were also booked on aggravated battery charges. All four remained at Alachua County Jail on Thursday night.
The problems started when Wells visited her mother at the Carver Gardens Apartments, where Delapierre and his family also live. The couple stood at the entrance of the complex on Southeast 15th Street, and Delapierre accused Wells, 26, of infidelity. They argued. He grabbed her throat, breaking her necklace.
When GPD officers chased Delapierre into an apartment, his family members attacked Wells, according to an arrest report. After Young swung and missed, Wells pulled the 48-year-old woman to the ground and sat on her.
Harrington then hit Wells in the left eye. As Wells lay on the ground, Hart repeatedly kicked her, according to police. Wells remained curled into a ball, using her head and limbs to protect her stomach.
Thursday afternoon, Wells said she is seven weeks pregnant, and Delapierre is the father.
"I'm really hurt because we've been together for nine years," Wells said. "I would never let my family jump him. I know I said I would, but I won't. I won't. I won't. But there ain't no love. He ain't never gonna see his kids no more. No, sir."
Wells' aunt, Arnethen S. Johnson, was also at the apartment complex Wednesday. She received a call and learned that the police were outside with Wells and Delapierre. When she arrived, Wells' neck was bleeding.
After officers found Delapierre hiding in a bathroom, they came back outside, saw the beating and arrested the three family members, according to police. Paramedics then drove Wells to Shands at UF.
"She couldn't even stand up or nothing," Johnson said. "She was dizzy. She was coughing up blood."
Wells' left eye was swollen shut Thursday, marked by a dark purple circle about three inches in diameter.
Her neck and right arm were also cut, and she said the left side of her nose is fractured. It hurts to sneeze.
Wells was arrested for simple battery in 2004, and she said the Florida Department of Children and Families won't allow her and Delapierre to be around their kids at the same time.
"I will never forget this," she said. "I respect my baby daddy, but now I see: There is nothing between us. We got nothing in common. I just can't do it no more."
