Final shooting suspect identified in DJ Fields murder case. Will he be tried as an adult?
Previously unidentified due to being underage, 18-year-old Bluffton resident Messiah Anderson has been named as the fifth and final suspect in the 2021 murder of 18-year-old D.J. Fields, a Bluffton High football player who was killed in a fatal case of mistaken identity.
Anderson, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, was booked into the Beaufort County jail Friday afternoon after a court decision ruling he was now old enough to be transferred to an adult jail, according to Sgt. Bonifacio Perez of the Bluffton Police Department. He was previously held at the Department of Juvenile Justice in Columbia following his arrest last July.
The newly named suspect is being charged with murder, attempted murder and two counts of assault and battery by mob. Bluffton police believe Anderson also fired shots at Fields’ car while accompanying two other already-convicted shooters, according to Perez.
Prosecutors from the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office had been attempting to complete a “waiver procedure” to transfer Anderson’s case from Family Court to the Court of General Sessions so he could be tried as an adult. That decision had not yet been approved by Saturday and the Solicitor’s Office could not comment on the suspect’s identity, according to spokesperson Jeff Kidd.
Under South Carolina law, Anderson’s charges are still part of a juvenile case because he was under 18 at the time of the offense. To move his charges and adjudication to adult criminal court, a Family Court judge must consider eight key factors of the minor’s case, including the seriousness of the alleged crime and the child’s maturity level.
The 18-year-old’s murder and attempted murder charges were also applied to Ty Leic Chaneyfield and Jimmie Green, who were both convicted last year for spraying Fields’ car with a Glock pistol and mini semi-assault rifle. Green pleaded guilty and earned 40 years in prison, while Chaneyfield received a life sentence after a nearly week-long trial.
Also charged in connection with Fields’ death are siblings Jayden Void, 21, of Bluffton, and Shayniah Void, 21, of Orangeburg, who police say called the shooters’ attention to the wrong car. Stone said he plans to prosecute both cases for the siblings, who are each charged with multiple counts of assault and battery by mob.
The siblings were denied bond after their arrest in August 2022 and are still in custody at the Beaufort County jail, records show.
‘It was not supposed to be like that’
On March 5, 2021, the Void siblings met Chaneyfield and Green at the Station 300 bowling alley in Bluffton because Shayniah Void allegedly wanted to buy marijuana from Green, according to 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone. Green allegedly told the siblings he was looking for “the ops,” meaning “opposition.”
After leaving Station 300, the Voids went to Wendy’s on S.C. 170 and spotted what they thought was the target. The siblings then called Green and Chaneyfield — but they called attention to the wrong car, Stone said.
“It was not supposed to be like that,” Keema Bryant, Fields’ mother, previously told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.
The targeted vehicle, parked at Wendy’s on S.C. 170, was being driven by Fields. Fields had two passengers in the car, 18-year-old Kylan Simmons and 16-year-old Edwin “E.J.” Graham.
Driving behind and past the students’ car, Green and Chaneyfield “unloaded on the car,” Stone said. Fields was shot twice; one bullet hit his liver, while the other severed his aortic arch. He died almost instantly, leading the car to crash into a nearby roadside wall.
Graham was shot twice in the head but survived “by the grace of God” after an emergency surgery, Stone added. Simmons, who was only injured in the collision, called 911, thinking he was reporting a car wreck.
Fields, who was a defensive lineman for Bluffton High School’s football team, was two months from graduating at the time of his death. He had made his college commitment to Greenville Technical College just one day before the shooting.
