(RepublicanDaily.org) – Hunter Tatum of Alabama pleaded guilty to slaughtering his pregnant wife in October of 2021 and is now going to jail for life. The 26-year-old man accepted a plea deal on June 21, answering guilty to two life sentences of 99 years that add up to 198 years total. Tatum accepted the plea deal in order to avoid the death penalty.
On October 18, 2021, Tatum’s wife Summer discovered his online affair with a British woman and the couple began arguing at this time. The dispute escalated, and Summer took Tatum’s gaming device and dunked it into the kitchen sink, throwing Tatum into a rage. He then took his wife’s .38 handgun and threatened her with it. Prosecutors produced audio evidence of the argument in which Summer begged her husband to let her live for the sake of their unborn son Everett.
The audio evidence records Tatum saying “nope” and then shooting his wife several times. The audio recorded two gunshots at this point, and ballistic evidence showed that Tatum shot Summer twice in the back of her skull. Tatum called an ambulance which took his wife to the hospital, however she died from her injuries shortly after arrival. Emergency teams at the hospital successfully delivered baby Everett prematurely and he initially survived, however Everett died shortly after in the neonatal intensive care unit.
Summer’s family reportedly approves of this plea deal. Autauga County District Attorney (DA) CJ Robinson says the case had a heavy “emotional toll” for all involved in it and was a “gut-wrenching” and “senseless” act. It is possible that Tatum could come up for parole years down the road. Robinson says he will oppose this possibility “as long as I have breath.”
The crime occurred in the upscale suburban Sunset Court neighborhood of Prattville, Alabama, which is around 20 minutes’ drive north of Montgomery, Alabama.
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