Trial date set for Kansas City homeowner charged after shooting Black teen

(Reuters) - An October 2024 jury trial was scheduled for an 84-year-old white Missouri man charged for shooting and wounding a Black teenager who had mistakenly walked up to the man's Kansas City house in April, after he pleaded not guilty again on Wednesday.

Defendant Andrew Lester was charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action for shooting Ralph Yarl, 16, on the doorstep of his suburban home on April 13.

Lester pleaded not guilty at an arraignment six days later, and again on Wednesday in Clay County Circuit Court, where his case was moved in August because the first court could not try felony cases, according to assistant Clay County prosecutor and spokesperson Alexander Higginbotham.

Lester faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of first-degree assault, and up to 15 years in prison for the armed criminal action charge.

The encounter between Lester and 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, according to prosecutors. Yarl was struck in the head and an arm, apparently before crossing the threshold or exchanging any words with Lester, according to Clay County prosecutor Zachary Thompson.

Local media, however, reported that court documents indicate Yarl reported to police who interviewed him at the hospital that Lester told him: "Don't come around here."

An attorney for Yarl's family called for prosecutors to file hate-crime charges, but they carry lesser penalties in Missouri than the two counts Lester faces. Thompson has said the case has "a racial component," without elaborating.

Lester was freed on his own recognizance soon after being detained following the shooting. His swift release fueled days of protest before he was charged days later and he turned himself back in to police.

(Reporting by Julia Harte; Editing by Will Dunham)