21 years later, woman still suffers from attack

More than 20 years after she was raped in a South Side field, a woman was so traumatized Thursday during her attacker’s sentencing that she suffered what appeared to be a seizure or panic attack in a Franklin County courtroom.

The 68- year- old woman slumped against her son, crying and shaking as the judge was about to impose the sentence for 38- yearold Roshawn L. Tatom.

The hearing was delayed as the woman was comforted by her son and deputies, who helped her lie down on the bench where she had been sitting and called Columbus fire paramedics.

She was calmer and able to sit up by the time paramedics placed her on a gurney to be taken to the first floor, where a car was waiting to take her home.

Tatom remained seated beside defense attorney Zachary Olah during most of the delay, not reacting to the commotion.

He was indicted in 2015 for rape and kidnapping after DNA linked him to the Feb. 13, 1996 attack. The victim, who was 46 at the time, had just gotten off a COTA bus and was walking across the parking lot of the Parsons Avenue Baptist Church when she was grabbed from behind, choked and beaten unconscious, and raped in a nearby field.

A condom found at the scene of the attack and preserved as evidence helped investigators solve the crime two decades later.

Tatom pleaded guilty in July to a lesser charge of felonious assault because the passage of time created issues with evidence and witnesses.

He could have received probation or as many as eight years in prison. Assistant Prosecutor Amy Van Culin asked for the maximum.

Common Pleas Judge Richard Frye seemed to be contemplating probation at that time when he allowed Tatom to be placed on house arrest with an electronic monitor while awaiting sentencing.

Tatom had been released from prison in December after serving nearly 17 years for a variety of offenses, including involuntary manslaughter.

But on Thursday, Frye expressed frustration that Tatom twice tested positive for marijuana while awaiting sentencing and said he was troubled by prison records that show Tatom never transitioned out of the highest securityrisk level during his incarceration.

The judge also said he was influenced by the woman’s lengthy

— Assault victim

victim- impact statement, which was read aloud by a victim’s advocate. It included a harrowing account of the attack, with the woman recalling how she was dragged, face down, across the parking lot to the field before blacking out.

The statement made it clear that she has never recovered from the attack, spending time in hospital psychiatric units, attempting suicide, suffering seizures and having difficulty holding a job.

“Mr. Tatom, I’m just so tired,” she wrote. “I’m tired of watching and waiting for you to jump me again. I’m tired of waking up in the middle of the night, screaming ... I still cry because my nerves are on fire. I still remember what you did to me ... Mr. Tatom, you have killed me in so many ways.”

Citing concerns for public safety, Frye sentenced him to six years in prison.

“Oh, my God!” Tatom exclaimed.

“Why did I take a deal, man?” he asked several times. “I could have won this case.”