Kansas City homeowner pleads not guilty to assault in shooting of Black
teen
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[April 20, 2023]
By Doug Barrett and Brendan O'Brien
LIBERTY, Missouri (Reuters) - An 84-year-old white man charged in the
shooting and wounding of a Black teenager who mistakenly walked up to
the man's house in Kansas City pleaded not guilty to felony charges on
Wednesday during his first court appearance in the case.
Andrew Lester would face a maximum sentence of life in prison if
convicted of first-degree assault, as charged, for shooting Ralph Yarl,
16, on the doorstep of his suburban home last Thursday night. He also
was charged with armed criminal action, punishable by up to 15 years in
prison.
He entered not guilty pleas to both counts during a brief arraignment in
a Clay County courtroom, online court records showed.
The defendant, slightly hunched and walking with a cane, stepped up to
the bench and stood with his attorney at his side as he spoke briefly
with the judge during a proceeding that lasted just over three minutes,
video-only footage of the session showed.
Lester, who surrendered to police on Tuesday but was subsequently
released on $200,000 bond, left the courthouse after Wednesday's
arraignment.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Apr/20/images/ads/current/elkhartgrain_sda_SFARM_2023.png)
His encounter with Yarl occurred when the teenager walked up to Lester's
house late at night by accident, mistaking it for another home nearby
with a similar address where Yarl intended to pick up his younger
siblings, according to authorities.
Lester fired two shots through a glass door with a .32-caliber revolver,
prosecutors said. Yarl, who was struck in the head and an arm, did not
cross the threshold, and it was not believed that any words were
exchanged before the gunfire, according to Clay County prosecutor
Zachary Thompson.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Apr/20/images/ads/current/charrons_bch_2022.png)
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![](../images/042023PIX/news_s87.jpg)
Andrew Lester, who was charged in the
shooting of Black teenager Ralph Yarl after the boy mistakenly went
to the wrong house to pick up his siblings, arrives for his initial
court appearance before Judge Louis Angles in Kansas City, Missouri,
U.S. April 19, 2023 in a still image from video. Pool TV via REUTERS
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Apr/20/images/ads/current/atlantabank_lda_SFARM_2023.png)
However, local media, citing court documents, reported that Yarl
told police who interviewed him at the hospital that Lester told
him: "Don't come around here."
Thompson has said the case has "a racial component," without
elaborating. Prosecutors have not filed hate-crime charges, which
carry lesser penalties in Missouri than the two counts Lester faces.
The high school student has been recovering at home, according to
his family.
Lester was initially detained shortly after the shooting and placed
on a 24-hour investigative "hold," then freed on his own
recognizance. His swift release fueled days of protest before he was
charged days later and he turned himself back in to police on
Tuesday.
In another case of a person being shot after going to the wrong
address, a homeowner in upstate New York fatally wounded a
20-year-old woman on Saturday when she turned onto the wrong
driveway while looking for a friend’s home.
Two Texas cheerleaders were also shot northeast of Austin after they
got into the wrong car in a grocery store parking lot early on
Tuesday. In both the New York and Texas incidents, the shooters have
been charged with felonies.
(Reporting by Doug Barrett in Liberty, Missouri, and Brendan O'Brien
in Chicago; Additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles;
editing by Deepa Babington)
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