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Bullet pierced Wessels’ heart and lungs

Medical examiner says wound would have left victim dead within minutes

-Messenger photo by Peter Kaspari Levi Gibbs III looks on as his attorney, Peter Berger, of Des Moines, goes over some files. Gibbs is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Shane Wessels.

The bullet that killed Shane Wessels pierced his heart, went through his lungs and shattered a bone, the state medical examiner testified in the first-degree murder trial of Levi Gibbs III Thursday.

Gibbs, 28, of Fort Dodge, is accused of shooting and killing Wessels, 32, also of Fort Dodge, in the early morning hours of Sept. 3, 2017, at the intersection of 10th Avenue Southwest and 10th Street Southwest.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The trial is being held in Webster County District Court in Fort Dodge.

Dr. Dennis Klein, the state medical examiner, testified Thursday that he performed Wessels’ autopsy on Sept. 5, 2017, two days after the shooting.

-Messenger photo by Peter Kaspari State Medical Examiner Dr. Dennis Klein discusses the results of Shane Wessels’ autopsy during the first-degree murder trial of Levi Gibbs III.

Klein testified that the bullet struck Wessels in his right arm, in the part of the body where he said a vaccination mark might be found on some people.

It then went through Wessels’ arm bone, which Klein identified as the humerus, and then through a series of nerve control muscles in the arm known as the brachial plexus.

The bullet went into Wessels’ chest, through the right lung, through his heart and the upper front portion of the left lung, before ending up in his chest.

The bullet was removed during the autopsy.

Klein testified that the injury would have left Wessels dead within minutes.

-Messenger photo by Peter Kaspari Coleman McAllister, left, assistant state attorney general, defense attorney Peter Berger, center, and First Assistant Webster County Attorney Ryan Baldridge confer with each other during a break in the first-degree murder trial of Levi Gibbs III.

He went on to say that Wessels also suffered from “blunt force injuries.”

Wessels had “contusions and abrasions on various parts of the scalp, forehead, around the nose and cheeks,” he said.

He also had marks on his chest, hands and forearms.

“Are those consistent with being struck with a hard object?” Coleman McAllister, assistant Iowa attorney general, asked Klein.

“Some of them could be, yes,” Klein replied.

Witnesses had previously testified that Wessels was struck in the head with a glass bottle of alcohol, a Billy club, and was hit in the back with a stun gun or a Taser.

Klein also found blood on Wessels’ knuckles.

Peter Berger, Gibbs’ attorney, said later that he had that blood tested and it was identified as that of Latricia Roby. Roby is Gibbs’ sister. In his opening arguments Wednesday, Berger said that Wessels had assaulted Roby prior to the shooting and Gibbs was trying to defend her.

Witnesses had said that Wessels punched Roby during the fight that led to Wessels’ death.

Klein ran a toxicology test on Wessels. It determined that Wessels had an alcohol concentration of .184 percent and that he also had cocaine in his system, as well as marijuana.

Berger asked Klein if Wessels would have been “very impaired” at the time of the shooting, and Klein said he would have been.

He also asked Klein what Wessels would have been going through emotionally.

“So you would agree the effects of, certainly, this type of cocaine could be euphoria, excitement, restlessness, risk-taking, sleep disturbance and aggression?” Berger asked.

“Yes,” Klein said.

Special Agent Matt Schalk, of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, testified about his involvement in the case. He had been assigned as the case agent, which meant he was in charge of supervising the investigation into the shooting.

Schalk said the investigation included looking up surveillance video from a local convenience store as well as the Crossroads Mall to determine what Gibbs had been wearing in the hours before the shooting and comparing it to a surveillance video on a pole in Pleasant Valley, which captured the shooting.

He also said, after a warrant was issued for Gibbs’ arrest, he could not be found in Fort Dodge. It wasn’t until Sept. 18, seven days after Gibbs had been charged with murder, that he was arrested by the United States Marshals Service in Des Moines.

Schalk interviewed Gibbs at the Webster County Law Enforcement Center the day after his arrest.

He described Gibbs as “quiet” during the interview and that the defendant said he would be truthful.

“He had said multiple times something to the effect of, ‘I didn’t shoot Shane,'” Schalk testified. “‘I’m not the shooter you’re looking for.’ He basically denied shooting anybody.”

Schalk also said Gibbs denied ever having a gun, and never once said he was trying to defend his sister.

Under cross-examination, Berger asked Schalk about a possible deal that was given to Preston Mosley in exchange for his testimony.

Witnesses have testified that Mosley fired a single shot from a handgun at Gibbs after Wessels had been shot.

That gun was recovered during Schalk’s investigation, and he said Mosley led him to the gun.

Schalk said he did not decide if there was a deal or not, but he said one was discussed.

Mosley is not scheduled to be a witness for the prosecution, but Berger indicated he’s intending to call him to testify.

Berger also asked Schalk about Gibbs and allegations that he threatened witnesses.

“You monitor his phone calls,” Berger said. “You monitor his mail. You would know if he threatened anybody. As far as you know he didn’t threaten anybody?”

“As far as we know, he didn’t directly threaten anybody,” Schalk said.

However, earlier he did say it was difficult to find witnesses willing to come forward to talk about the shooting.

Aleah Degen, who called the Webster County Communications Center and identified Gibbs as the shooter, testified that she did so “because it was the right thing to do,” but was hesitant to give her name.

“Did you give your name?” McAllister asked.

“No,” Degen said.

“Why not?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “They found out that it was me eventually.”

Previous testimony indicated that the number that came into the dispatch center was associated with Degen.

“Were you scared to give your name?” McAllister asked.

“Yes,” Degen said.

“Why?”

“Because I just didn’t want people coming after me, I guess.”

Another prosecution witness, Daquyla Altman, admitted that she did not want to be testifying in court when she was being questioned by McAllister.

“I didn’t want to come because there’s so many threats and so much going on outside of this case pertaining to it,” Altman said, but told McAllister that she was being truthful during her testimony.

However, under questioning from Berger, Altman said she lied during her deposition, which was taken back in January. In that interview, she had claimed that she was high on cocaine during the morning of the shooting.

She repeatedly denied that claim during her testimony Thursday.

When Berger asked her about her being on drugs, she said she lied about it because she wanted nothing to do with the case.

“At the moment, I was just trying to get out of the case,” she said, “because I felt nobody was protecting me.”

Testimony is expected to continue today at 9 a.m.

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