State v. Ybarra

• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals
• Writing for the Court: Anthony Rex Gabbert, Chief Judge
• Citation: 720 S.W.3d 277
• Docket Number: WD 86611
• Decision Date: 26 August 2026
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Maggie P. YBARRA, Appellant.

720 S.W.3d 277

STATE of Missouri, Respondent,

v.Maggie P. YBARRA, Appellant.

WD 86611

Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District.

OPINION FILED: AUGUST 26, 2025

Appeal from the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri, The Honorable Joel P. Fahnestock, Judge

Daniel N. McPherson, Jefferson City, MO, Counsel for Respondent.

Jedd C Schneider, Columbia, MO, Counsel for Appellant.

Before Division Four: Anthony Rex Gabbert, Chief Judge, Presiding, Mark D. Pfeiffer, Judge, Thomas N. Chapman, Judge

Anthony Rex Gabbert, Chief Judge

Maggie Ybarra appeals her conviction following jury trial of murder in the second degree, harassment in the first degree, attempted child enticement, first-degree sexual misconduct, tampering with physical evidence in a felony prosecution, and three counts of attempted tampering with a victim in a felony prosecution. Ybarra was tried jointly with a co-defendant. In her sole point on appeal, Ybarra argues the trial court abused its discretion in failing to sever the trial of her case from that of her co-defendant. The judgment is affirmed.

Facts

In June 2021, the State of Missouri (“the State”) charged Ybarra and a co-defendant (“Co-Defendant”¹) via indictment either singly or jointly with nine counts. In July 2021, the State charged Ybarra and CoDefendant via superseding indictment either singly or jointly with ten counts. In August 2021, Ybarra filed a motion to sever her joint trial with Co-Defendant. The trial court denied that motion in August 2021.

In November 2022, the State charged Ybarra and Co-Defendant via superseding indictment with the following:

I. First-degree murder, section 565.020, “in that on or between October 10 and October 12, 2020, in the County of Jackson, State of Missouri, the defendants, Maggie Ybarra and [Co-Defendant], acting alone or purposefully in concert, after deliberation, knowingly caused the death of [KA.. (“Victim”)] by strangling her.”

II. First-degree harassment, section 565.090, in that “Maggie Ybarra and [Co-Defendant], acting alone or purposefully in concert, without good cause, engage in an act with the purpose to cause emotional distress to [K.M. (“Child”)] by showing her pictures of a dismembered female body and such act did cause [Child] to suffer emotional distress.”

III. Attempted child enticement, section 566.151, in that [Co-Defendant], “who was twenty-one years of age or older, acting alone or purposefully in concert with others, penetrated the vagina of Maggie Ybarra while Maggie Ybarra asked [Child], a child less than fifteen years of age, if [Child] wanted to know how it would feel for a finger to be placed in [Child’s] vagina[.]”

IV. Attempted child enticement, section 566.151, in that Maggie, “acting alone or purposefully in concert with others, asked [Child], a child less than fifteen years of age, if [Child] wanted to know how it would feel for a finger to be placed in [Child’s] vagina[.]”

V. Third-degree child molestation, section 566.069, in that [Co-Defendant] “knowingly subjected [Child] who was less than 14 years old to sexual contact by touching the vagina of [Child] over clothing.”

VI. First-degree sexual misconduct, section 566.093, in that Maggie and [CoDefendant], “acting alone or purposefully in concert with others, knowingly had sexual contact with [Co-Defendant] in the presence of [Child] under circumstances in which Maggie Ybarra and [Co-Defendant] knew that such conduct was likely to cause affront or alarm.” VII. Attempted tampering with physical evidence in a felony prosecution, section 575.100, in that Maggie “asked [Co-Defendant] to discard evidence located in her residence[.]”

VIII. Attempted tampering with a victim in a felony prosecution, section 575.270, in that Maggie “instructed a woman to tell [Child] to say that [Child] lied[.]”

IX. Attempted victim tampering in a felony prosecution, section 575.270, inthat Maggie “instructed a woman to buy gifts for [Child]”

X. Attempted victim tampering in a felony prosecution, section 575.270, in that Maggie “instructed a man to pressure [Child] to recant[.]”

XI. Possession of child pornography, section 573.037, in that Maggie “knowingly possessed child pornography that was a visual depiction of a person less than eighteen years of age engaged in sexually explicit conduct, consisting of a still image of the genitals of a female child under the age of fourteen.”

XII. Possession of child pornography, section 573.037, in that Maggie “knowingly possessed child pornography that was a visual depiction of a person less than eighteen years of age engaged in sexually explicit conduct, consisting of a still image of the genitals of [Child], a child under the age of fourteen.”

XIII. Sexual exploitation of a minor, section 573.023, in that Maggie “knowingly created child pornography of a person less than fourteen years of age by creating a still image depicting [Child’s] genitals.”

The superseding indictment listed 59 witnesses.

In February 2023, Ybarra filed a second motion to sever. The trial court denied that motion in April 2023. It found that Ybarra would not be prejudiced by a joint trial with Co-Defendant.

[1] The case proceeded to jury trial. In the light most favorable to the verdict,² the following evidence was presented:

Co-Defendant lived in Grain Valley with his wife and two children. He met Ybarra through an escort service and began a relationship with her. When their relationship began, Ybarra lived in Claycomo next door to Victim. Ybarra often engaged in three-way sexual activity with Co-Defendant and Victim. Ybarra moved from Claycomo to Grandview but the sexual activity with Victim continued.

Ybarra has a biological daughter, Child, who had been given up for adoption. She reunited with Child in August 2020 when the child was thirteen years old. In late 2020, while Co-Defendant was at Ybarra’s Grandview home, Ybarra asked Child to put on lingerie. Child reluctantly did so. Co-Defendant told Child she looked beautiful and told her to get in bed with him and Ybarra,

Ybarra, Co-Defendant, and Child were in bed together watching a scary movie when Co-Defendant said that people dying turned him on. Ybarra and Co-Defendant began having sex with each other. They began touching Child. The sexual activity stopped when Child said she did not want to join Ybarra and Co-Defendant in having sex.

Ybarra told Child that she and Co-Defendant wanted to show Child something. Co-Defendant got a camera, and Ybarra told Child that she and Co-Defendant had killed someone. Ybarra showed Child pictures of a dead woman. Child’s later description of the dead woman matched Victim’s description. The pictures on the camera included Victim with a bruised face, naked in a box with her arms tied up to her chest by a rope and her knees up. Several other pictures depicted Victim after her body had been dismembered. Ybarra told Child that she, Co-Defendant, and Victim had sex and Co-Defendant choked and killed Victim while they were in bed. Victim’s body was placed in a box.

It was later dismembered and put in a freezer at Co-Defendant’s house. Co-Defendant’s wife at the time of the murder testified that a freezer showed up one day in a plane hangar on Co-Defendant’s property and that Go-Defendant sold the freezer in April 2021.

Ybarra and Co-Defendant also discussed Victim’s murder with Ybarra’s mother (“Mother”). Mother testified that Ybarra and Co-Defendant were excited to talked about the murder. Co-Defendant told Mother he had always wanted to do something like the murder, that Victim’s life had not been productive, and that he was thankful that Victim gave him the chance to experience the murder. It took four minutes to kill Victim. Ybarra showed Mother pictures of Victim from the night of the murder. One picture depicted Victim alive with a ball gag in her mouth. Others showed her dismembered body in a freezer. Mother was told that Victim’s body was buried on Co-Defendant’s property.

In April 2021, Child told her foster care caseworker about her experience with Ybarra and Co-Defendant. The caseworker contacted the police, and Child was forensically interviewed. Child identified Co-Defendant from a photo lineup and described a tattoo on his back.

Victim’s remains were found buried outside a bedroom window of Co-Defendant’s home. Victim’s body was in an advanced state of decomposition, and was found cut into fifteen pieces that had been placed in multiple trash bags. Similar trash bags were found in a hangar on the property. Zip ties, pieces of wood, and Styrofoam found in the hangar were consistent with items found buried with Victim.

A circular saw in a tool box on Co-Defendant’s property had blood on it three septillion times more likely to be Victim’s blood than blood from an unknown person. A manual for a chainsaw was found, but no chainsaw was found. Co-Defendant’s wife at the time had seen a box for a chainsaw in a dumpster on their property. She testified their property was mostly grass and that they did not need a chainsaw.

At some point, Ybarra had moved from Grandview to Grain Valley. She was arrested before Co-Defendant. Ybarra called Co-Defendant from jail and told him that he needed to take out the trash she brought with her when she moved from her Grandview home. Police subsequently found lingerie at Ybarra’s Grain Valley home that matched the description Child gave. A ball gag was found wrapped in a sheet in the garage. During one phone call, Co-Defendant told Ybarra he was expecting to be arrested.

Co-Defendant’s emails revealed that he ordered an Uber in October 2020 for a trip that began at an address associated with Victim and that ended across the street from Ybarra’s Grandview home. Victim’s phone made two outgoing calls from that area on that day. Ybarra and Co-Defendant’s phones were connected to cell towers in that vicinity around that time. CoDefendant’s phone connected with cell towers between Ybarra’s Grandview home and his Grain Valley home around that time.

Co-Defendant was...