Stoney Rock Gifford, 33, was convicted of a slew of felony offenses related to the robbery, including:

• First-degree robbery, a Class B felony

• Intimidation with a dangerous weapon, a Class C felony

• Going armed with intent, a Class D felony

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Defense attorney Judd Parker lays out his points during his closing arguments in Stoney Gifford's first-degree robbery trial on Monday afternoon. Gifford was found guilty by the Webster County jury.

• Control of a firearm by a felon, a Class D felony

“This was a difficult case,” First Assistant Webster County Attorney Ryan Baldridge admitted to the jury in his closing arguments.

During the trial, the jury heard from an array of witnesses, as well as the victim, who admitted they had been consuming drugs and alcohol at the time of the offense.

In the early morning hours of Aug. 22, 2020, Gifford approached the victim, Wallace “Wally” Brady, who was sitting in the front seat of his car with the door open in the 100 block of Avenue M West. According to witness testimony, Gifford walked up from behind the vehicle, placed himself between the door and the car, held a gun to Brady’s head and said some variation of “What are you doing here?” and “Give me all of your stuff.”

When Brady refused to hand over the cash and drugs he admitted to having on him that night, Gifford angled the gun down toward Brady’s feet and fired one shot, hitting Brady on the left side of his left knee.

Brady was transported to UnityPoint Health — Trinity Regional Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries and was released a few hours later.

Throughout the first two days of the trial, last Wednesday and Thursday, the jury heard from Brady and Breanna Leners, a woman who admitted to using Brady for drugs and rides prior to the shooting. Both admitted to smoking methamphetamine and drinking vodka on the night of Aug. 21, 2020, going into the early morning of Aug. 22, when the shooting happened shortly before 3 a.m.

Despite being witnesses for the state, Brady and Leners’ testimonies didn’t completely line up.

Leners testified that she was sitting on the front steps of one of the Westridge Townhomes when she saw the defendant come up from behind Brady’s car and commit the offense. Brady testified that Leners was inside the apartment when the robbery and shooting happened.

The two also had different descriptions of the defendant.

Baldridge told the jury that it’s understandable that there’d be some inconsistencies in the eyewitness testimony — like one witness testifying that the shooter was wearing a white shirt and another testifying that he was wearing a red shirt — because “traumatic experience can affect memory.”

Leners has also been charged with first-degree robbery in relation to this case because during the course of the investigation, law enforcement found a series of Facebook messages between her and the defendant, some of which involved a life insurance policy Leners alleged Brady told her about.

Leners testified that she had only known Gifford for a few weeks and was exchanging “flirty” messages with him, but had nothing to do with the robbery.

Brady testified that he had met Gifford for the first time earlier that evening, inside the apartment the group was partying in.

Throughout the trial, defense attorney Judd Parker highlighted that Leners’ ex-boyfriend, Dylan Reiter, had just gotten out of jail and was also living in the Westridge Townhomes neighborhood. Reiter had previously pleaded guilty to shooting at Brady on a different occasion, about a month before the August 2020 incident.

In his closing arguments, Baldrige emphasized interviews Gifford had with then-Fort Dodge Police Department Detective Larry Hedlund about his alibi for the crime — that he had been in Des Moines with a “homeboy,” and that he would give Hedlund more information, but failed to follow through.

Baldridge also noted that the Facebook Messenger conversation between Gifford and Leners around the time of the robbery indicate that they were in the same place.

Parker disagreed in his closing arguments, saying that the messages weren’t evidence that the two were together and noted that they ended an hour before the shooting.

Parker reiterated that Leners’ and Brady’s testimonies don’t match up, and posited that Leners was testifying in order to get a better deal with her robbery charge.

The answer is fairly simple, Parker said.

“They’re either lying or they’re wrong,” he said. “You cannot believe the two versions together.”

It took the jury just one and a half hours to decide on a verdict.

A month prior to the robbery, Gifford had been released from prison on a felony conviction of second-degree robbery and threat of terrorism out of Kossuth County.

A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for March 14 at the Webster County Courthouse. Gifford is facing up to 35 years in prison.