Suspect in Columbia schools incidents pleads guilty
A man accused of trespassing on Columbia Public Schools property pleaded guilty on Wednesday to first-degree trespassing.
Kelvin Joe, 53, of Columbia, trespassed on the campus of Gentry Middle School in April and asked a student to take money from him, according to the Columbia Police Department. Joe was given a citation for the incident.
Then, a week later, Joe trespassed on the campus of West Middle School and was arrested and charged with first-degree trespassing.
Joe told police he went to the schools to ‘bless them’ and felt compelled to do so, according to a probable cause statement filed in the case.
Joe pleaded guilty to the charge on Wednesday and was sentenced to two years of unsupervised probation, according to online court filings. Joe will serve 180 days in jail if he violates his probation.
