Andrew Lester dies while awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty in shooting of teen Ralph Yarl
Andrew Lester, the Kansas City man who pleaded guilty to felony assault in the second degree for the shooting of Ralph Yarl, has died while awaiting sentencing, Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson announced on Wednesday....
Lester, 86, was set to go on trial this week for shooting Yarl, a Black teenager who mistakenly knocked on his door, but ahead of the trial, Lester entered a guilty plea on Friday for felony assault in the second degree.
He was expected to be sentenced in this case during a hearing on March 7.... Lester was initially charged with one count of felony assault in the first-degree and one count of armed criminal action, also a felony, in the shooting of Yarl, who mistakenly went to Lester's Kansas City home after arriving at the wrong address to pick up his twin brothers from a play date on April 13, 2023.
Lester, who is white, shot Yarl in the head and right arm, saying he believed someone was trying to break into his house, according to a probable cause statement obtained by ABC News....
Yarl was 16 at the time of the shooting and suffered a traumatic brain injury, according to his family....
"About two years ago, we knew Mr. Lester was guilty," Yarl's mother Cleo Nagbe told Davis on Friday. "We let him do what he wanted to do and waited two years after for him to show up and say, 'I'm going to plead guilty to the lesser of the charges.' So we're sick of this. So let's just move on and give this kid a chance to move on with his life and live on as a regular kid."
... "He points [the gun] at me … so I kinda, like, brace and I turn my head," Yarl told Roberts. "Then it happened. And then I'm on the ground ... and then I fall on the glass. The shattered glass. And then before I know it I'm running away shouting, 'Help me, help me.'"