https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/melinda-henneberger/article234037967.html
After 32-year-old
Jessep S. Carter, who could have been a key witness in his half-brother
Kylr Yust’s upcoming murder trial, committed suicide in the Jackson County jail in September of 2018, the families of Yust’s alleged victims worried about how his death might compromise the case. “I remember getting the call” that he’d died, (
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean)Baker said, “and saying, ‘Not him!’ ‘’
...
Carter said he wanted the families of his brother’s victims “to feel better at night that he’s finally put away. I’m not OK, and my family is not OK with anything that he did.” He didn’t want that enough to stick around and testify, though. (
opinion of the journalist)
With Yust’s trial set to start in Cass County in late October, Baker didn’t want to talk about the extent to which the case might have been hurt by Carter’s death. According to charging documents, Yust told at least three other friends that he’d choked Kopetsky to death, and told a fourth that he’d “snapped and something bad had happened to her.”
“Jessep was a guy that had a whole string of problems himself,” Baker said. He was in jail on an unrelated arson charge when he died, at different points had two protective orders taken out against him, and “was a witness that was always a little bit problematic. He came with a full bag of pros and cons.” And now? “Now,” Baker said, “they work with one less problematic witness.”