Des Moines man pleads to lesser charge after investigators determine he didn't commit murder
A Des Moines man charged with murder in a shooting last October has been sentenced on a lesser robbery charge after investigators determined another man was primarily responsible for the killing.
Christopher Wessels Jr., 18, was charged with robbery and attempted murder in the Oct. 22 shooting of 22-year-old Dok Nyok Akol Dok. The charge was upgraded to first-degree murder when Dok died several days later.
Police found Dok with a gunshot wound behind the wheel of a crashed car. Investigators believe the shooting followed an attempted robbery during a drug transaction outside the Grubb YMCA on 11th Street.
In the original complaint against Wessels, prosecutors alleged he was identified as the perpetrator through phone records of him arranging the transaction, and said surveillance video showed him approaching Dok's car, reaching inside, and then firing the fatal shot as Dok attempted to drive away.
But in November, prosecutors charged a second man, 21-year-old Capone Blake, in the same murder. This time, according to the complaint, it was Blake who was identified through phone records and surveillance video as the suspect.
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Wessels has agreed to a plea deal, admitting to committing second-degree robbery. He was sentenced Jan. 17 to serve up to 10 years in prison, with a mandatory minimum term of seven years.
First Assistant Polk County Attorney Justin Allen confirmed the deal was offered after prosecutors determined Wessels was not, as originally charged, the shooter.
"What we originally said he did was not what he did," Allen told the Register. "He was an accomplice."
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Allen declined to comment on the case against Blake, or to say what role exactly prosecutors now believe Wessels played in the shooting, because that would involve evidence in the still-pending charges against Blake. Professor Bob Rigg of the Drake University Criminal Defense Clinic, which represented Wessels, said his client has agreed to testify if needed in Blake's case.
"(Wessels) wasn't directly involved in the murder, he just provided transportation," Rigg said. "It was a classic aiding-and-abetting situation."
Blake remains in custody at the Polk County Jail awaiting trial, which is scheduled to begin Feb. 27.
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William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com, 715-573-8166 or on Twitter at @DMRMorris.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Des Moines man originally charged in murdere pleads to lesser count
