KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The murder trial for Kylr Yust, the man accused of killing two Cass County women nearly a decade apart, has been set for July.
At a hearing on Thursday morning, a Cass County judge scheduled jury selection in Yust’s trial to begin July 22. Jurors in the trial will come from St. Charles County outside St. Louis.
Opening statements and testimony in his trial will begin on July 27.
Also Thursday, a judge set an evidence hearing for Jan. 21 to discuss additional DNA testing that Yust’s attorneys have requested.
His defense filed a motion this week asking for the remains of Kara Kopetsky and Jessica Runions to be turned over for retesting. The attorneys also asked to independently examine hair recovered from a white SUV searched in January 2013 by the FBI.
In court on Thursday, prosecutors expressed concerns over the accreditation of the laboratory the defense wants to use to test the remains.
Kylr Yust trial begins July 22. Yust accused of murdering two women. Updates @41actionnews
— Andy Alcock (@AndyAlcock2) December 19, 2019
Yust was originally scheduled to go on trial in November, but discovery issues prompted a delay in the proceedings.
He faces two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of abandoning a corpse in connection with the deaths of Kopetsky, 17, and Runions, 21. Kopetsky went missing in 2007, and Runions disappeared nearly 10 years later in 2016. Their remains were found near each other in rural Cass County in 2017.
