Stephen Doantae Lester
Edward Lebron Glenn, Jr.
The murder trial of a man accused of commanding his friend to fatally shoot a father of five during a robbery started Tuesday, nearly three years after the shooting.
Clean-shaven and wearing a salmon-tinted dress shirt, 27-year-old Stephen Lester appeared in Hamilton County Criminal Court beside attorney Dan Ripper on the first day of his trial on first-degree murder and especially aggravated robbery charges.
Prosecutors say Lester, then 24, told Carmisha Lay and another friend to go “dance” for Edward Glenn Jr. and his friends, with the end goal of robbing them.
Days later, on Jan. 10, 2013, she invited Glenn over to her home for sex. While Glenn was in her bed, Lay sent a series of text messages to Lester and his friend, Eric McReynolds, telling them Glenn was at her home at 2500 O’Rear St. When Lester and McReynolds arrived, they robbed Glenn of his money. Then, prosecutor Cameron Williams said Tuesday, Lester gave McReynolds a command: “Shoot him, shoot him again.”
Glenn was pronounced dead on arrival around 5 a.m., Chattanooga Police Department officers testified Tuesday. First responders found him on the floor, naked from the waist down except for one sock and a T-shirt, blood pooling beneath his body.