Anderson, SC – Late Thursday afternoon an Anderson County jury convicted Raeford Wideman of Murder, and he was sentenced to 30 years in jail by Judge Lawton McIntosh. The case was tried by Assistant Solicitor Stan Overby for the State.
At trial it was established that during the early morning hours of March 15, 2015, Wideman shot the victim, Ryan Oneill Tatum, multiple times while Tatum was in a vehicle outside of Mr. Wideman’s residence. Mr. Tatum had been dating Mr. Wideman’s sister at the time of the shooting, and was returning from Greenville with her and her cousin when the Defendant came out of the house armed. An investigation by the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office determined that multiple shots had been fired at Mr. Tatum while the firearm was placed inside the vehicle he was driving. The investigation proved that Mr. Wideman had every intention of killing Mr. Tatum, though Wideman initially maintained he had fired accidentally.
Following the verdict Solicitor David R. Wagner said “Thanks to the investigation by Detective Nathan Mitchell and the rest of the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, Mr. Wideman’s story was disproved and there can be justice for Mr. Tatum and his family today.”