Jurors in the double-murder case of Kylr Yust, 33, Belton, will be allowed to hear what is purportedly Yust admitting to killing the first of the victims, Kara Kopetsky.
Judge William Collins ruled March 11 the government had not entrapped Yust when a former girlfriend wore a wire while speaking with him in 2011 when he allegedly shared details of the Kopetsky’s 2007 murder. He is also charged with the murder of 21-year-old Jessica Runions after her disappearance in 2016.
The tape in question was recorded when Yust talked with the former girlfriend, Katelynn Farris. The defense motion to exclude the tape was based on the fact that the FBI had paid to fly Farris from North Carolina back to Missouri and Farris had allegedly used the possibility of sex to entice the confession.
Former FBI agent Dirk Tarpley testified he did not advise Farris to offer sex.
“There’s absolutely no way that I would ever tell her to do that,” he said.
Farris said while she and Yust had a “flirtatious relationship,” she did not remember offering or promising sex for his confession.
Cass County Prosecuting Attorney Ben Butler said the confession was not the result of entrapment
“Good police work is not suppressible,” Butler said.
The motion to suppress was one of the last in a series of decisions made prior to the actual trial which is slated to begin April 5. Jury selection is set to begin March 29 in St. Charles County. The chosen jurors will travel to Cass County and will be sequestered in what is expected to be a three-week trail.
Kopetsky was 17 when she was last seen alive at 9:19 a.m. May 4, 2007, on Belton High School surveillance footage. Runions was last seen alive Sept 8, 2016, when she and Yust were seen leaving a party in Grandview.
Both bodies were missing until April 2017 when they were discovered by a mushroom hunter in the area of 233rd Street and Y Highway in Cass County. Yust was arrested for the murder of both women in October of that year.
