SC man goes to prison after woman was fatally shot in kitchen, prosecutor says
A Lexington County man is going to prison years after a woman was shot and killed, the 5th Circuit Solicitor’s Office said Thursday in a news release.
On Tuesday, 36-year-old Carlos Renard Dates pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and attempted murder charges, according to the release.
Dates was sentenced to 25 years in a South Carolina Department of Corrections prison, the solicitor’s office said.
The conviction stems from the 2022 death of 27-year-old Sidney Williams, officials said.
The Richland County Sheriff’s Department said its deputies responded to a 911 call about a shooting at an apartment complex in the 3400 block of Kay Street at about 9 p.m. on On Oct. 21, 2022. That’s by Broad River Road, near the intersection with St. Andrews Road and Exit 106 on Interstate 26.
An apartment’s tenant reported hearing footsteps outside the window followed by gunfire, the solicitor’s office said in the release.
Deputies found the front window of the apartment riddled with bullet holes, and the victim dead in the kitchen from a single gunshot wound to the back, according to the release.
In 2022, the sheriff’s department said it appeared as if the gunman was outside when shots were fired.
The sheriff’s department said that two men were also in the apartment at the time of the shooting who were not hurt, and no other injuries were reported.
Months after the deadly gunfire, Dates was pulled over in a routine traffic stop, the solicitor’s office said in the release. Deputies found a gun in Dates’ glove compartment during a probable cause search because of the odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle, according to the release. The weapon was later confirmed to match the ballistic evidence collected from the crime scene where Williams was killed, the solicitor’s office said.
Shortly thereafter, a witness came forward, sharing that he was in the apartment the night of the shooting, according to the release. The witness said he was the intended target of the shooting, which appeared to stem from an ongoing dispute involving Dates and his associates, the solicitor’s office said.
More evidence was found on Dates’ cellphone, which was seized during his arrest, according to the release. Deputies extracted data from the device, which helped confirm his involvement in the shooting, the solicitor’s office said.
The investigation revealed that Dates fired several shots into the apartment through a window, the sheriff’s department said.
The sheriff’s department led the investigation, while Assistant Solicitor Nick Fowler prosecuted the case for the solicitor’s office. Public Defender Hope Demer was Dates’ attorney, Richland County court records show.
Dates has been arrested multiple times on several charges in the past decade, court records show. He pleaded guilty to drug charges in 2012 and again in 2019, according to Richland County court records.
Since 2007, Dates has also pleaded guilty to multiple robbery charges and a drug possession charge in Lexington County, court records show.
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This story was originally published April 10, 2025 at 1:39 PM with the headline "SC man goes to prison after woman was fatally shot in kitchen, prosecutor says."
