KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A judge on Thursday ordered a white man to stand trial and face charges that he shot a Black teenager who rang his doorbell after going to the wrong address.
Andrew Lester, the 84-year-old charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action in the April 13 shooting in Kansas City, had his arraignment set for Sept. 20.
“In Clay County, justice happens inside the courtroom,” prosecutor Zachary Thompson told reporters after Clay County Judge Louis Angles sent the case forward to trial.
Lester, who is free on bail, wore a white shirt under a dark sports coat in court Thursday and showed virtually no emotion during testimony when he was ordered to stand trial.
The victim, Ralph Yarl, testified Thursday and a prosecutor asked him how he was doing.
“Better than say four months ago,” said Yarl, who wore a long sleeve blue shirt and black pants.
Yarl recalled ringing the doorbell without any response for an extended amount of time.
Lester eventually came to the door, opening the interior wooden door, showing a gun and said, “Don’t come here ever again,” Yarl recounted.
Yarl also testified that at that moment, he took his hand off the exterior glass storm door before he was shot in the head. He fell to the ground and was shot again, this time in the arm, Yarl said.
The teenager was asked by prosecutors if he “yanked violently” or actually opened the glass storm door and he said no both times.
Under cross-examination Yarl said he had touched the man’s door — which conflicted with earlier police interviews when the teen said he didn’t.
“It’s important for the judge, when they’re making a determination on probable cause to hear the evidence, part of the evidence was Ralph’s testimony,” Thompson said. “Anytime someone has to talk about a traumatic experience, it’s not easy. So we respect all those who undergo that decision and make that decision to testify.”
After court, defense lawyer Steven Salmon refused to second-guess his client’s actions that night.
“Once again, I think there’s a judgment call. You’re talking about an 84-year-old man who startled from sleep, and he just went to the door,” he told reporters after court. “I can’t substitute my judgment for his. He’s an 84-year-old man, and maybe his judgment is different than mine.”
The shooting sparked another national conversation on use of force, by police and citizens, on Black Americans.
Several of the teen’s family members were in court to support Yarl, some wearing T-shirts that read, “ringing a doorbell is not a crime.”
Yarl was 16 when he went out to pick up his younger brothers from a friend’s house.
His mom had asked him to go to an address in Kansas City’s Nashua neighborhood, a little more than 15 miles north of downtown. But the teen went to a similarly named “street” instead of the right address which was a “terrace,” a short distance away.
Yarl said Thursday he didn’t have his cell phone that night, having lost it at school several days earlier, with the inference being he couldn’t have called his mother to confirm the address after ringing the doorbell with no initial response.
Yarl’s aunt, Faith Spoonmore, praised the teen for answering questions so calmly under oath.
“He did amazing, he did so good,” she told reporters. “He did a lot better than I would have done because I was sitting back there throwing punches in the air and he was there so well composed, answering those questions like he should have. And he spoke his truth, so I’m very proud of Ralph.”
Lester, who lives alone, told police he had gone to bed before hearing his doorbell and believed Yarl was trying to break in.
The court also heard a 911 call from Lester in which he told a dispatcher that a Black man came to his door: “He was at my door trying to get in, and I shot him.”
Before Yarl took the stand, three neighbors testified they heard the shots and the teen banging on their doors, frantically asking for assistance.
Two of those neighbors testified they told Yarl to sit outside while they called for help. The prosecutor asked those neighbors, rhetorically, if they had thought about shooting Yarl and they said no.
Selina Guevara reported from Kansas City, Halle Lukasiewicz from Chicago and David K. Li from New York City.