It will be more than a year until Andrew Lester, 84, stands trial in the shooting of then-16-year-old Ralph Yarl, who he is charged with shooting twice after the student mistakenly showed up on his north Kansas City front porch.
On Wednesday, a jury trial was scheduled for Oct. 7, 2024, at the Clay County Courthouse. Judge David Paul Chamberlain will oversee the trial.
Lester, who is white, has been charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action in the shooting of Yarl, who is Black, in April.
Other hearings are expected in the meantime, and there is always potential the trial could be pushed to an even later date.
Next fall, Yarl will likely be a freshman in college. The Staley High School senior is planning college visits, including to the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Michigan, Texas A&M University and Purdue University. His family said he hopes to study engineering.
First meeting in court
In late August, Yarl, who is now 17, faced Lester for the first time since the shooting during a preliminary hearing in a Clay County courtroom. The teen was the last to testify during the day-long hearing.
After, Judge Louis Angles ruled that prosecutors presented sufficient evidence to establish probable cause that Lester had committed a crime in the shooting of Yarl.
Evidence was presented and a dozen witnesses testified, including neighbors who either watched from their windows or went outside to help Yarl as he ran from home to home bleeding and asking for help.
Yarl, when asked by the prosecutor how he is doing, said “I feel I have a great support system which is helping me recover and become my true self again.”
Lester’s attorney Stephen Salmon told media after the judge’s decision that the shooting was “a mutual mistake.”
He maintains Lester has a good chance of being acquitted at trial. In his closing…
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