‘Hunting for retaliation’: 2nd trial begins for murder of Bluffton football player DJ Fields
A 21-year-old Bluffton man faces decades in prison if convicted as the second murder trial begins for the “senseless” 2021 killing of Bluffton High football player Dwon “D.J.” Fields.
Ty Leic Chaneyfield is one of four suspects charged for the fatal shooting on March 5, 2021, when Chaneyfield and 22-year-old Bluffton resident Jimmie Green reportedly targeted the wrong car with a shower of gunfire. Two other teens inside the car were non-fatally injured, while Fields was shot twice and bled to death at the scene, according to 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone, who is prosecuting the trial.
“(Chaneyfield and Green) were there for retaliation,” Stone told the jury Tuesday morning. “They were hunting for retaliation, and they went armed.”
The two men had intended to target a group of teenagers who had previously shot up Green’s house. One of those teens bore a striking resemblance to Fields’ passenger E.J. Graham, leading to a fatal case of mistaken identity, police later said.
Green, the first of the four suspects to stand trial, earned a 40-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to murder this May.
Beaufort defense attorney Scott W. Lee, who represents Chaneyfield, argued in his opening statement that current evidence cannot prove Chaneyfield was in the car at the time of the shooting.
“I’m telling you, when you look at what you see — and then what you don’t see and you don’t hear — you’re going to have reasonable doubt in this case,” Lee said. “It may not be a fun decision ... but it’s what you need to do and what the evidence will show is the right thing to do.”
Also charged in connection with Fields’ death are siblings Jayden Void, 22, of Bluffton, and Shayniah Void, 21, of Orangeburg, who police say called the shooters’ attention to the wrong car. Both face multiple felony counts of assault and battery by mob.
With the prosecution’s witness testimonies beginning late Tuesday afternoon, the trial is expected to extend well into the week. Circuit Court Judge R. Ferrell Cothran, Jr. is presiding over the case.
‘It was not supposed to be like that’
On March 5, 2021, the Void siblings met Chaneyfield and Green at Station 300 bowling alley in Bluffton because Shayniah Void allegedly wanted to buy marijuana from Green, according to Solicitor 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” with a Glock pistol and a mini semi-assault rifle, 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.
