Andrew Lester, the 86-year-old white man charged with shooting Black teenager Ralph Yarl in the head after Yarl mistakenly rang his doorbell, accepted a plea deal Friday of up to seven years in jail, prosecutors said.
Lester agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of second-degree assault and faces one to seven years in the Missouri Department of Corrections service under terms of the agreement made with Clay County prosecutors. He will be sentenced on March 7.
He entered court in a wheelchair.
Yarl’s mother, Cleo Nagbe’, put her arm around her son and asked if he was OK. Yarl nodded.
Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson said after the court hearing that the outcome “ensures accountability for the defendant, provides closure to Mr. Yarl, and satisfies the need to achieve a just result in the case.”
Lester’s trial had been scheduled to start Tuesday in Kansas City, Missouri. He had previously pleaded not guilty to one felony count each of first-degree assault and armed criminal action.
Yarl’s family expressed frustration with the deal, saying it does not erase the trauma the boy and the family endured, nor does it address perceived failures in the justice system, including racial bias.
“While this marks a step toward accountability, true justice requires consequences that reflect the severity of his actions — anything less would be a failure to recognize the harm,” the family said in a statement. “This case has never been just about Ralph — it is about every child’s right to exist without being seen as a threat.”
Before the plea agreement, members of Yarl’s family said that they had little trust in the Clay County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office because they believe it had not worked aggressively enough for a conviction, said Faith Spoonmore, Yarl’s aunt and the family’s spokesperson.
As an example, she said, Thompson did not argue in the charging documents filed against Lester that race was a factor in the shooting.
“I don’t think that the prosecutor’s office is on our side,” Spoonmore said before the deal was announced.
Thompson responded Friday, saying, “We understand their frustration, but throughout this process our office has maintained regular and respectful communication with Mr. Yarl’s family. They were consulted during the process.”
Race was a component in the case, but there was no evidence of racial motivation, Thompson said, adding he explored all aspects of the case.
Lester, who was charged with a felony count of first-degree assault and armed criminal action, shot Yarl with a handgun on April 13, 2023, when Yarl rang Lester’s doorbell, mistaking it for the house where he was supposed to pick up his siblings.
Lester filed multiple shots, grazing Yarl in the head and striking him in the arm. Lester immediately called police, telling them he fired his gun because he was scared.
Still, Spoonmore said, Lester should not have fired at her underage nephew.
“It’s not OK for a child to be shot in the head for knocking on the wrong doorbell,” she said.
Yarl, now 18, is in his first semester of college at Texas A&M. He declined to comment this week but told NBC News last year in his first in-depth interview about how the shooting affected him, that it had been “a bumpy journey.”
“Whenever there’s something that goes on that reminds me of what happened … I just have, like, such a negative wave of emotions, like anger, like disgust,” he said. “It’s always a mix of good and bad days. And I feel like the good days are when I’m able to be around people that help me build myself up.”
Spoonmore said the engineering major plays bass clarinet in the school marching band and has made new friends.
“He likes it,” his aunt said.
Ralph went home twice over the holidays, she said, making punch for Christmas and joining multiple family outings, but his reserved demeanor has not changed.
“He’s still very quiet, doesn’t say much,” his aunt said. “He’s one of those people who doesn’t talk.”
She said family members did not broach the subject of the then-upcoming trial during his visits.
“It’s not something that we bring up, but you can see it, you can feel it,” Spoonmore said. “Ralph has been doing his best, I’m so proud of that kid. He’s trying to put his best foot forward.”
