SC man who struck wife with machete charged with attempted murder, police say
An Orangeburg man who struck his wife with a machete in the head and on the hand is charged with attempted murder by the sheriff’s office.
Thursday, the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office announced the charge against 55-year-old Leonard Rivers.
On Jan. 25 about 2 a.m., Rivers showed up at his sister-in-law’s home on Par Court where his 48-year-old wife had been staying for two days, according to a deputy’s report. Rivers began to argue with his wife on the porch before she walked away into the yard. He attacked his wife then the sister-in-law broke the fight up, the report said. Rivers brandished the machete and went after his wife again, “swinging” the blade, the deputy wrote, and hit her in the forehead. He swung again and hit her in the hand.
Witnesses intervened and disarmed Rivers before he ran away.
Deputy and paramedics were called. When a deputy arrived at the home, he found the victim bleeding from an 8-inch gash in her forehead with several of her fingers nearly severed, the sheriff’s office said. The deputy tried to talk to the victim but she passed out from loss of blood. The deputies got statements from two witnesses about the attack, the report shows. Paramedics took the victim to the hospital. Her current condition is unknown.
The sheriff’s office arrested Rivers Wednesday. At his first court appearance, an investigator and victim advocate recalled the events in the attack and asked that Rivers not be released from jail. Orangeburg County Magistrate Don West sided with the victim’s supporters and denied Rivers bond.
“This was just a savage attack on this person,” Sheriff Leroy Ravenell said. “If this attack hadn’t been broken up by witnesses, we may have had a death result from this incident.”
Rivers has a prior history of violent offenses, court records show. In 1985 he pleaded guilty to burglary and in 2001 he pleaded guilty to driving under the influence and causing a wreck that killed someone, according to court filings. A judge sentenced him to 15 years in prison for killing someone in the wreck.
If convicted of attempted murder, Rivers could spend 30 years in jail.
This story was originally published January 31, 2020 at 10:39 AM.