Columbia man found guilty of 2015 robbery outside church

A Boone County jury found a Columbia man guilty of robbing a woman outside a church last year.

The jury decided Glen Lewis was guilty of first-degree robbery and armed criminal action Wednesday afternoon. Lewis will be sentenced on January 9, and faces a minimum of ten years in prison for the robbery charge.

Columbia police arrested Lewis on the east side of town, after he robbed a woman near Broadway Christian Church the morning of October 5. The woman testified at trial she was gardening when Lewis put a knife to her side and demanded her purse and car keys. The victim said she then ran to the church and asked a woman in the parking lot to call police when he left in her car.

Lewis faces two more robbery cases, one involving him zip-tying the victims’ hands behind her back as he escaped.

An FBI agent spotted Lewis in the stolen car on Highway 63 and tried to pull him over. Columbia police public information officer Latisha Stroer told ABC 17 News last year Lewis jumped out of the car near the Elks Lodge in east Columbia, and was eventually caught on Stone Mountain Parkway. The chase put nearby Cedar Ridge Elementary School and New Haven School on extra alert.

Lewis also faces charges of assaulting Boone County jail employees in May. The two robbery cases and assault case are awaiting trial dates.