McClendon’s Death: Oil Trail to Ackerman and Murder Verdict

The Davis McClendon murder was the May 7, 2023 killing of a 46-year-old Greenwood, South Carolina marketing director who was deliberately run down with a Ford F-250 pickup truck by William “Bud” Ackerman Jr., the estranged husband of McClendon’s girlfriend. A Greenwood County jury convicted Ackerman of murder in October 2024 after 22 minutes of deliberation, and he was sentenced to 45 years in prison.¹

What Happened That Night

McClendon had been out that evening with his girlfriend, Meredith Haynie, who was Ackerman’s soon-to-be ex-wife. They had dinner at a restaurant called Break on the Lake, and McClendon later went to the Key West Club. Throughout the night, Ackerman called and texted Haynie repeatedly while driving around Greenwood looking for them. Security footage caught his truck circling the restaurant’s parking lot.²

At 12:51 a.m., McClendon left the club to meet Ackerman at the intersection of Avid Road and Sawgrass Place. He called Haynie to tell her where he was going. When he stopped answering, she got a ride to the location.²

At 1:11 a.m., Ackerman’s truck struck McClendon. Data pulled from the vehicle’s onboard computer narrowed the collision to a two-second window between 1:11:31 and 1:11:32 a.m., recording hard braking and a sudden deceleration. Prosecutors argued Ackerman sideswiped McClendon’s BMW and hit McClendon, who was standing outside the car. The computer then logged a gear shift, the driver’s door opening and closing, and the truck driving off to Ackerman’s parents’ home about half a mile away. Ackerman did not call 911.²³

Haynie and a friend arrived to find McClendon’s mangled BMW with its airbags deployed. McClendon’s body lay on the shoulder roughly 50 feet from the car, his shirt and one shoe on the pavement. They called 911.⁴

The Oil Trail That Led to Ackerman

At first the scene looked like a hit-and-run, but something was missing: there was no second damaged vehicle anywhere nearby. Greenwood County sheriff’s deputies did find an oil slick at the crash site, oil spatters on a nearby streetlight post, and a continuous trail of oil running away from the intersection. The trail led directly to the driveway of Ackerman’s parents’ home on Old Abbeville Highway.²

Ackerman’s white 2019 Ford F-250 was in the driveway. It had a cracked grille, a large dent in the hood, a scrape along the tire well, oil leaking from the undercarriage, and what appeared to be a palm print on the exterior. Oily footprints ran from the truck into the house. McClendon’s blood was later found on the outside of Ackerman’s khaki shorts. Ackerman was arrested around 6:30 that morning.⁵⁶

Why Prosecutors Called It Murder

Ackerman and Haynie had been married for ten years and had three children. They separated in the spring of 2022, and Haynie began dating McClendon that December. Haynie testified the marriage had deteriorated and described Ackerman as paranoid and controlling, saying he had hidden cameras throughout their home, including in the children’s rooms and the bedroom.²

Ackerman learned about the relationship in late April 2023, about four weeks before the divorce would have been finalized. He contacted McClendon directly asking him to “back off” until the divorce was official, and sent Haynie a stream of messages including “Meredith, how could you.” Prosecutors framed the case as a “jealous husband murder.”²⁷

The truck itself became the single most important witness. Its infotainment system logged more than 3,000 events in a 24-hour period, including Wi-Fi pings, speed, acceleration, brake pressure, gear shifts, and door openings. That data placed Ackerman at Haynie’s home and on McClendon’s street earlier in the night, and then at the intersection at 1:11:33 a.m., when the system registered a “wheel slip.” The log showed the truck stopping, the driver’s door opening before the vehicle was shifted into park, the door closing, and the gear shifting back into drive. Prosecutors used that sequence to argue Ackerman got out, saw what he had done, and drove away. Assistant Attorney General John Meadors told jurors in opening arguments: “He intentionally drove his car into the body of Davis McClendon. BAM! … This might as well be a drive-by shooting with a gun.”⁸²

Ackerman pleaded not guilty. His defense argued the collision was a tragic accident in the dark and that Ackerman had swerved left to avoid hitting McClendon directly.⁵

Mistrial, Retrial, and Verdict

The first trial began in June 2024 with opening arguments on June 25, but ended in a mistrial after defense attorney Jack B. Swerling was hospitalized twice during proceedings.⁹ The Eighth Judicial Circuit Solicitor had recused from the case, and the South Carolina Attorney General’s office took over, with Assistant Attorneys General John Conrad and John Meadors trying it.³

The second trial ran from September 24 through October 5, 2024, before Circuit Judge Donald B. Hocker in Greenwood County Courthouse. On October 5, the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict after 22 minutes.¹⁵

Sentence and Where Ackerman Is Now

Judge Hocker sentenced Ackerman to 45 years in prison, with credit for the 543 days he had already spent at the Greenwood County Detention Center. He was ordered to Kirkland Correctional Institution in Columbia for intake. Based on that sentence, he would not be released until 2068. Ackerman is appealing his conviction and is serving the sentence in the South Carolina Department of Corrections.⁵¹⁰

McClendon’s family filled the courtroom through the trial and spoke at sentencing. His mother Carie McClendon told the court, “This shouldn’t have happened. Davis was a big part of our lives, and a beautiful human being.” His brother Jay said: “Instead of calling 911, a half a mile away, he left Davis dying on the side of the road and called his lawyer.” His 17-year-old daughter Blair told the judge Ackerman had “taken away every moment I was to have with him in the future.”³

Ackerman’s father, Gray Ackerman Sr., called his son “tender-hearted” and maintained the killing was not intentional.³

Freddie McClendon’s American Idol Tribute

In March 2025, McClendon’s eldest son Freddie, then 19, auditioned for Season 23 of American Idol with an original song, “You Never Loved Him,” written for his father. He had taken up songwriting about a year earlier to process the loss and said he wanted his father remembered as “so much bigger than just the true crime story of the week.”¹¹ Judges Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, and Lionel Richie all voted him through to the Hollywood round.¹⁰ CBS had aired a 48 Hours episode on the investigation, titled “The Oil Trail,” on March 29, 2025.²

1
Index-Journal. Bud Ackerman Jr. Sentenced to 45 Years in Death of Man
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CBS News. Davis McClendon, Bud Ackerman South Carolina Hit-and-Run Homicide
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Index-Journal. Victim’s Family Has Better Grasp of Events Surrounding Homicide Since Trial
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Index-Journal. Witness Meredith Haynie Describes Relationship With William Bud Ackerman Jr.
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Court TV. SC v. William Bud Ackerman Jealous Husband Murder Trial
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Fox Carolina. Man Charged With Murder After Crash in Greenwood
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Court TV. William Ackerman Trial Coverage
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CBS News. Davis McClendon, Bud Ackerman Truck Computer Clues
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Index-Journal. Defense Attorney in ER, Bud Ackerman Jr. Murder Trial Delayed Again
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CBS News. Davis McClendon Death, American Idol Freddie McClendon Song
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ABC News. American Idol Contestant Moves Judges With Song About Late Father