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.

Thirteen jurors — consisting of five men and eight women and including one alternate — were seated and sworn in around 11:45 a.m. Tuesday with testimony starting at 1:15 p.m.

Sgt. Steve Hanson, of the Fort Dodge Police Department, was the first officer on the scene of the shooting, which was reported around 3:30 a.m. He testified that the call originally came in as shots fired, but it was unclear at first if anyone had been hit. But when he arrived at the scene, he saw Wessels in the road with another man standing above him.

-Messenger photo by Peter Kaspari
Fort Dodge Police Sgt. Steve Hanson, right, looks at evidence photos as Ryan Baldridge, first assistant Webster County attorney, looks on.

Hanson identified the other man as Brandon Mapes.

“When I got there, Mr. Wessels was lying on his back and Mr. Mapes kind of leaned over him and he was kind of holding his head up under his arm,” Hanson said. He said it was his impression that Mapes was “comforting” Wessels.

There were about five to 10 other people in the area, but when he asked if anyone saw anything, Hanson testified that he didn’t get any responses.

Ryan Baldridge, first assistant Webster County attorney, asked Hanson if anyone in the crowd said they had been assaulted.

Hanson said no one did.

-Messenger photo by Peter Kaspari
Coleman McAllister, assistant Iowa attorney general, gives his opening statement in Webster County District Court. McAllister is one of the prosecutors in the first-degree murder trial of Levi Gibbs III.

After more officers arrived, Hanson said he began looking through the area for evidence. That’s when he found two shell casings.

He also testified to taking a number of pictures at the scene, including ones of a vacant field where someone had reported the suspect fled. Hanson didn’t believe this was true because there was dew on the grass and no foot impressions.

Officer Matt Meyer also testified Tuesday, saying he too was working the morning of the shooting.

He said Wessels had been shot in the arm.

As he was still heading to the scene, Meyer recalled reporting a license plate on a vehicle leaving the area. He said it’s something officers do when heading to a possible crime scene.

-Messenger photo by Peter Kaspari
Attorney Peter Berger, of Des Moines, makes his opening statement in Webster County District Court. Berger is defending Levi Gibbs III, who is charged with first-degree murder.

Once on scene, Meyer testified that he began taking photos for evidence. Those photos were shown to jurors. They included pictures of the scene with Wessels’ body on the road, paramedics working on Wessels and after Wessels had been loaded into an ambulance.

Other photos showed Wessels’ body in the hospital after he had been pronounced dead, what Meyer described as “a broken alcohol container,” and what appeared to be a black club in the street.

Meyer said he ended up being the one to drive the ambulance back to UnityPoint Health — Trinity Regional Medical Center, as all three paramedics who responded, including the driver, were working on Wessels.

Under questioning from Gibbs’ attorney, Peter Berger, of Des Moines, Hanson and Meyer both said that Mapes did not appear to be intoxicated at the time of the incident, and no field sobriety tests were performed on him.

Jurors also heard testimony from Mackenzie Conrad, a dispatcher with the Webster County Communications Center who took the call about the shooting.

-Messenger photo by Peter Kaspari
Mackenzie Conrad, a dispatcher with the Webster County Communications Center, talks about receiving reports of a shooting in Pleasant Valley on Sept. 3, 2017.

She received about five calls on the shooting; three of them were 911 calls and the other two were calls made to the Webster County Law Enforcement Center’s main number.

About 10 minutes after the shooting was reported, Conrad said she received a call on the non-emergency number with someone saying they knew who committed the shooting.

The call, which was recorded by the LEC, was played for the court.

“The shooting that just happened?” the caller said. “The shooter was Levi Gibbs.”

“How do you know this?” Conrad asked the caller.

-Messenger photo by Peter Kaspari
Sgt. Steve Hanson, of the Fort Dodge Police Department, speaks to jurors about a photo showing the scene of Shane Wessels’ shooting at 10th Avenue Southwest and 10th Street Southwest.

“‘Cause I was just down there,” the caller said.

The caller also said “the dude pulled out a gun and started shooting.”

She declined to give their name, but Conrad said she was able to figure out it was Aleah Degen. She explained this was because the number the call came from was logged in the system as coming from a number associated with Degen.

She relayed the information to officers via MACH, a chat software used by law enforcement in Webster County.

In his opening statement for the prosecution, Coleman McAllister, assistant Iowa attorney general, told the court that the shooting of Wessels was pre-meditated. He said evidence will include testimony from witnesses and surveillance images. He also said that Gibbs’ actions after the shooting will prove it was first-degree murder.

“He concealed the weapon, which has not been recovered,” McAllister said.

He also said testimony will show that Wessels was assaulted by at least two people before the shooting, including one person who used a stun gun on Wessels.

Berger said he will be calling eight eyewitnesses who were not interviewed by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, which investigated the case.

“They were there,” he said of the witnesses. “There was blood on Shane Wessels’ knuckles the DCI didn’t test because it didn’t fit in to their story.”

Berger said that Wessels had assaulted Gibbs’ sister, Latricia Roby, prior to the shooting and that Gibbs was trying to defend her.

“He’s coming to the defense of his sister,” Berger said.

Roby, he said, sustained a broken nose in the assault.

Testimony is expected to resume this morning at 9 a.m.

-Messenger photo by Peter Kaspari
Officer Matt Meyer, of the Fort Dodge Police Department, testifies during the Levi Gibbs III first-degree murder trial in Webster County District Court.

-Messenger photo by Peter Kaspari
Levi Gibbs III listens to opening statements in Webster County District Court. Gibbs is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Shane Wessels.