LIBERTY, Mo. >> An 86-year-old Kansas City man pleaded guilty Friday to a lesser charge in the 2023 shooting of Ralph Yarl, a Black honor student who rang the white man’s doorbell by mistake, in a case that shocked the country and renewed national debate about gun policies and race in the U.S.

Andrew Lester was scheduled to stand trial next week on charges of first-degree assault and armed criminal action in the shooting of the then-16-year-old, who survived and is now a freshman at Texas A&M, where he is a member of ROTC and the school’s marching band.

As part of a plea deal, Lester pleaded guilty to second-degree assault, a charge that Judge David Chamberlain said carries up to seven years behind bars. Lester, who will be sentenced on March 7, was hunched over as he was wheeled into the courtroom, his hands folded.

Yarl and his mother, Cleo Nagbe, sat in the front row.

In a statement issued after Lester’s plea, Nagbe thanked her family’s supporters who “saw Ralph’s humanity, and rejected a world where fear and prejudice endanger innocent lives.”

“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 he has caused,” she said.

The state will seek a five-year prison sentence for Lester, Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson told reporters after the hearing.

“Self-defense has limits,” Thompson said.

Under the first-degree assault charge, Lester faced a sentence of up to 30 years behind bars. One of the key elements of second-degree assault is that defendants “have the burden of injecting the issue of influence of sudden passion arising from adequate cause.”

“This is probably perceived as some middle ground, and the heat of passion would be what was the motivation for the shooting,” said J.R. Hobbs, a Kansas City defense attorney who is not involved in the case. “If he was afraid or whatever, it may not rise to a full defense. The parties might agree to that because on one hand, it’s a felony conviction — no trial, no possible appeal. On the other hand, with a lesser statutory limit, the defendant’s exposure is less as well.”

Yarl showed up on Lester’s doorstep on the night of April 13, 2023, after he mixed up the streets where he was supposed to pick up his twin siblings.

Lester’s attorney, Steve Salmon, has long argued that Lester was acting in self-defense and that he was terrified by the stranger who knocked on his door as he settled into bed. Authorities say Lester shot Yarl twice: first in the head, then in the arm.