Before a Wheat Ridge gun dealer became a reality TV star on the Discovery Channel, he had already agreed to relinquish his federal firearms license and was not paying federal taxes, prosecutors argued in opening statements at the man’s trial Tuesday.

The attorney for Richard Wyatt, 53, of Evergreen acknowledged that his client was a reckless bookkeeper but had no criminal intent and always made sure his customers got criminal background checks.

A jury was selected Tuesday morning in the trial. Wyatt faces numerous charges including failure to report $1.1 million in income to the IRS, conspiracy and dealing firearms without a license. He has pleaded not guilty. ATF agents seized 583 guns and ammunition from his Gunsmoke store on March 31, 2015.

“Richard Wyatt thought he was above the law,” prosecutor Peter McNeilly said early Tuesday afternoon.

McNeilly said that after Gunsmoke, at 9690 W. 44th Ave., violated serious licensing rules, he entered an agreement with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to relinquish his federal firearms license.

But Wyatt had no intention of obeying that agreement, McNeilly said. In fact, he negotiated a lucrative contract with the Discovery Channel that would eventually pay him about $500,000 in 2011 and 2012 to star in American Guns. He, his wife, two children and employees did 26 episodes of the show.

To keep his business running, Wyatt conspired with a Castle Rock man to continue operating the business under a straw license through a gun store called Triggers, McNeilly said. When Triggers also surrendered its firearms license, Wyatt conspired with other gun dealers to keep his business afloat, the prosecutor said. His customers would buy a gun from him at Gunsmoke and then go to other stores for criminal background checks and to pick up their guns, he said.

Two undercover ATF agents wore body cameras while they purchased four guns from Wyatt on three occasions, McNeilly said.

He said Wyatt, who is also a gunsmith, was so successful that gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson began selling a gun Wyatt had designed called “The Wyatt Deep Cover.”

“‘It’s the best concealed gun weapon ever,'” McNeilly quoted Wyatt as saying on a YouTube advertisement. He said people could buy the Wyatt Deep Cover at Gunsmoke, the store with no firearms license, the prosecutor said.

The Discovery Channel billed Gunsmoke as one of the finest gun shops in the world.

Wyatt failed to pay taxes in 2009 when he made $290,000; in 2010 when he made $123,000; and in 2012 when he made $689,000, according to a court records. The only year he filed taxes in that time was in 2011 when he was starring on American Guns and was getting paid a lot of money, McNeilly said. But the return claimed he actually lost money instead, he said.

While Wyatt is a brilliant marksman and salesman, his attorney argued, “his books were a disaster. He was a horrible bookkeeper.”

When Wyatt signed the TV contract, he hired an accountant, according to his attorney Mark Johnson said.

“This is a man who was about to make a great deal of money and he hadn’t paid taxes in two years,” Johnson said.

Johnson admitted that the 2011 tax return was bizarre, but he added that it was never meant to be a final document. Johnson said Wyatt’s accountant failed to indicate that a final return would be completed later.

“Everybody knows this is junk. Everybody knows that this is a place holder,” Johnson said.

Johnson also pointed out that Wyatt always made sure that everyone who bought a gun from him first had to obtain a criminal background check.

“The only people who bought guns were entitled to buy a weapon,” Johnson said.

This story was updated at 12:40 p.m. Feb. 22, 2017 to restore the first name of Richard Wyatt’s attorney Mark Johnson.