A Fort Dodge man was sentenced Monday to up to five years in prison for possession of a firearm by a felon, a result of shooting himself in the leg.

The prison sentence is indeterminate, meaning Rees could serve less than five years.

Dennis Rees, 34, took the charge to trial in August, where he testified on the stand that he did not shoot himself, recanting admissions he made to Fort Dodge police detectives at Unity Point — Trinity Regional Medical Center.

After a brief trial on Aug. 27, the jury didn’t buy it.

Officers were called to the hospital in November 2018 to see Rees, who came in for treatment of a gunshot wound to the inner thigh, pictures of which were exhibited to the jury.

Fort Dodge police determined that the wound was self-inflicted through Rees’s own admission to officers in the emergency room. Police said that statement was consistent with the trajectory of the bullet in his leg, going from the top of the leg into the calf.

First Assistant County Attorney Ryan Baldridge said that Rees initially told investigators that the gun had a hair trigger, and did not protest the account of shooting himself until he was on the stand.

At trial though, Rees testified that someone else shot him and that he wasn’t of a clear mind when he made admissions to the officers, saying he lied to them to avoid snitching on the “real” shooter.

His prior convictions include forgery, second-degree theft, criminal mischief, willful injury and operating a vehicle without owner’s consent.