Antonio Thelen, 32, is on trial in the shooting death of Sean D. Gibbs at an intersection near the Xcel Energy Center in downtown St. Paul, but the defense attorney says a man who was with Thelen that night is the real killer.
That man was the prosecution's first witness on Thursday.
Prosecutors say: Thelen killed Gibbs, 21, of New Brighton with one shot to the forehead after Gibbs did nothing more than drive by a house in the 200 block of Forbes Avenue in St. Paul, where Thelen and others had been partying, Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Dan Vlieger told the jury in his opening statement. Thelen is accused of two counts of second-degree murder.
The defense says: Thelen and Gibbs did argue after they met at a stoplight near the Xcel Center, but it was Joshua Hanes who shot Gibbs, the defendant's attorney, Richard Sarette, said. Hanes was in the car with Thelen.
The scenario: Gibbs and his on-again off-again girlfriend were driving around the night of Aug. 17-18 and had gotten lost so many times that it was almost a joke between them, Vlieger told the jury.
They noticed a bunch of people partying outside a house on Forbes but had "no conflict with anybody there," the prosecutor said. But when Gibbs stopped at a red light at Smith Avenue and Kellogg Boulevard, a white convertible pulled up next to him in the early hours of Aug. 18.
Three men got out: Gibbs from his girlfriend's car, Thelen and Hanes from the convertible. Thelen and Gibbs argued, Thelen fired two or three shots and Gibbs fell to the pavement, Vlieger said.
Thelen and Hanes fled in the convertible and ditched the gun and later the car; Gibbs' girlfriend panicked, slid into the driver's seat and left the scene, the prosecutor said.
