Gibbs, according to those witnesses, was one of the assailants who eventually fired about four gunshots.

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. He is on trial in Webster County District Court.

Brandon Mapes, of Fort Dodge, testified Wednesday that he had known both Gibbs and Wessels for a number of years.

He said he was “friendly” with Gibbs and that he and Wessels originally didn’t get along, but “developed a mutual respect and became friends.”

-Messenger photo by Peter Kaspari
Brandon Mapes testifies about witnessing Shane Wessels get shot in the first-degree murder trial of Levi Gibbs III. Mapes said he held Wessels’ body in his arms and held his head up until police arrived.

A few hours before the fatal shooting, Mapes testified that he went to two bars in Fort Dodge where he drank about four or five drinks before heading to Pleasant Valley around 1:30 a.m.

Though he had been drinking, Mapes said he didn’t believe he was intoxicated. He said he was still coherent and wasn’t stumbling around.

After arriving in Pleasant Valley, Mapes headed to what had been previously been known as the Mini Park where he met up with Wessels.

Mapes said he and Wessels were joking around with each other and catching up when he testified Gibbs approached Wessels and shoved him.

“Shane actually got shoved,” Mapes said. “I was standing there talking to him and Levi shoved him and said something. I can’t recall what he said.”

-Messenger photo by Peter Kaspari
Ryan Baldridge, first assistant Webster County attorney, speaks to a witness as he points to an overhead map of the shooting scene in Webster County District Court Wednesday.

He said that Gibbs “was in a stance like he was ready to fight.”

Mapes said he got ahold of Gibbs and tried to calm him down and break up the fight.

While this was happening, Mapes testified that he turned around to see Wessels getting “attacked from behind by a few people.”

There were three to four people assaulting Wessels, he said, including someone with a TASER who used it on Wessels.

Mapes said Gibbs then ran towards Wessels “to jump him.”

-Messenger photo by Peter Kaspari
Attorney Peter Berger, of Des Moines, shows a still from a surveillance video to Dominick Altman during the first-degree murder trial of Levi Gibbs III in Webster County District Court.

Wessels, according to Mapes, was trying to defend himself.

“At that point he hadn’t thrown any punches yet,” Mapes said. “He was just being attacked and he was trying to break loose from them.”

Gibbs walked away from the fight, but came back seconds later, according to Mapes.

It was then that Mapes said he heard gunshots.

Mapes said he ran toward Wessels as the fight broke apart.

“I sat down by Shane and I kept rubbing his chest and tilt his head to the side and tell him I wasn’t going to leave him,” he said. “I just stayed there until the officers arrived.”

He said Wessels tried talking to him, but “that’s when his eyes rolled in the back of his head.”

Under cross-examination from Gibbs’ attorney, Peter Berger, of Des Moines, Mapes said Wessels had a reputation as a fighter, but he stopped short of calling him violent.

“He can hold his own,” Mapes said. “He’s well-known as a fighter, I guess.”

He also told Berger that he didn’t know what had precipitated Gibbs coming up to Wessels and shoving him.

Berger then asked Mapes if he had offered $1,000 to beat up a defense witness.

Mapes said he did.

“Nobody took you up on that,” Berger said.

“It was more of a joke,” Mapes said, then went on to say that he’s friendly with the defense witness.

At one point before Wessels got shot, his shirt ended up coming off. Berger asked Mapes if he knew how that happened. Mapes said he didn’t know.

Mapes also said he didn’t actually see Gibbs with a gun.

“I never seen Levi with a gun the whole time,” Mapes said. “To be honest, I never seen the gun. Never once seen the gun.”

Jurors also heard testimony from Dominick Altman, of Fort Dodge, who said she had been driving around Pleasant Valley and Fort Dodge most of that morning.

She said she knew Gibbs from “just around the neighborhood” and called Wessels “a friend of the family’s.”

Altman talked to Wessels earlier in the evening before leaving the valley and returning a short time later, as a friend was driving her around town.

As they approached 10th Street Southwest, Altman said she saw the fight happening. She saw Wessels running and told the driver that she was getting out, and jumped out of the car before it had even stopped.

She testified that she saw Wessels being assaulted and yelled, “Get the (expletive) off of him.”

Among the people chasing and assaulting Wessels, she said, was Latricia Roby, Gibbs’ sister.

Altman said Roby hit Wessels in the head with a glass bottle, and another woman involved in the fight hit Wessels with what Altman called a “Billy club.”

She did say she witnessed Wessels punch Roby, but testified that it was because she’d hit him in the head first.

“He just kept taking hits,” Altman said of Wessels. “He’s not the type of guy to hit women.”

Altman tearfully said she saw Gibbs go back to a car and come back with a gun.

She then testified that Gibbs pointed the gun at her and threatened to shoot her before firing towards a crowd of people who had gathered.

“Were you scared?” Coleman McAllister, assistant Iowa attorney general, asked.

“Yes, I was,” Altman said.

“Are you still scared?”

“Yes.”

Gibbs’ cousin, Mia Mosley, of Fort Dodge, said she also witnessed the fight.

She testified that she saw Gibbs hit Wessels in the head with the gun after she believed the gun had jammed.

Mosley also said somebody kicked Wessels after he fell to the ground, but she didn’t know who.

Jurors also saw a surveillance video from a camera located on a nearby telephone pole. A muzzle flash from a gun controlled by a man identified as Gibbs can be seen, and Wessels can be seen on the video as well.

Officer Neal Cooley, of the Fort Dodge Police Department, testified that as he responded to the shooting he had dispatchers log a license plate on a black Cadillac that was driving in the opposite direction of him.

That Cadillac was later identified as being owned by Tasha Crouse, who prosecutors said in their opening statement had a romantic relationship with Gibbs.

Cooley said it appeared two people were in the car, but he couldn’t tell who they were.

Berger will start his cross-examination of Mosley when court resumes this morning.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)

• Daily Newsletter
• Breaking News
• Obituaries

Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

• Yes
• No