Homeowner to stand trial for shooting Ralph Yarl in Kansas City

A Missouri judge ruled Thursday that a white homeowner accused of shooting a Black teenager who went to the wrong Kansas City house will stand trial.

Andrew Lester, 84, allegedly shot teen Ralph Yarl on the night of April 13 when the youth went to the wrong house to pick up his younger brothers from their babysitter.

Lester, a retired aircraft mechanic, previously pleaded not guilty to first-degree assault and armed criminal action.

He was scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 20.

Clay County Judge Louis Angles issued Thursday’s ruling after a dozen witnesses including Yarl spoke during a preliminary hearing.

Yarl testified he had lost his phone at school earlier that day and went to a house on the wrong street. The houses in question have the same number and are on parallel streets.

He said that he reached for the screen door when the inner door opened, but Lester said, “Don’t come here ever again” before Yarl was shot in the head and arm.

Breaking News

As it happens

Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts.

Lester’s attorney argued his client was terrified and acting in self-defense. Missouri is one of dozens of states with “stand your ground” laws.

Crime scene workers testified surveillance cameras in Lester’s home did not record footage of the incident.

The new ruling came a day after officials in South Carolina decided not to press charges after a college student was fatally shot attempting to enter the wrong home on his block early Saturday morning.

Yarl, now 17, is still recovering from the shooting — which left a bullet embedded in his brain — and recently began his senior year of high school.

Several other people have been shot in similar incidents this year.

In April, Kaylin Gillis, 20, was shot and killed in upstate New York after the car she was riding in turned into the wrong driveway. Kevin Monahan, 65, shot at the car, striking Gillis. He was charged with second-degree murder.

That same month, cheerleaders Heather Roth and Payton Washington were shot after Roth mistakenly got into the wrong car in a grocery store parking lot in Texas. Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr., 25, was arrested and charged with deadly conduct.