HAMPTON, S.C. (Aug. 14, 2026) – A Yemassee man who carried out a retaliatory but mistaken-identity shooting along a Hampton County highway in 2023, killing one man and injuring two others, has been sent to prison.
Franklin Radell Smoak Jr., 27, pleaded guilty to murder earlier this month and was sentenced Thursday to 30 years for the July 31, 2023, killing of Terrance Fields. He also received 30-year sentences for the attempted murder of two passengers in Fields’ same vehicle. The sentences will run concurrently.
“These charges reflect the extreme danger posed by the defendants’ actions,” said Reed Evans of the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, who prosecuted the case. “This was a tragic case of mistaken identity, and it cost Terrance Fields his life. The attack on Highway 68 unleashed a rain of bullets on Fields’ car, killing him and gravely wounding another passenger. Our office is committed to ensuring accountability for this violence.”
Smoak believed he was targeting the person responsible his cousin’s death. Kaleb Cave died in Varnville on April 21, 2023. Cave’s suspected killer and Fields drove similar vehicles.
While Fields headed to the Love’s travel stop in Yemassee, witnesses inside the vehicle said they noticed a dark sedan pull alongside them without its headlights on. Gunfire erupted moments later. Fields, the driver, was shot in the chest and died at the scene. His front-seat passenger survived a gunshot wound to the head. A back-seat passenger was not physically injured but witnessed the attack.
S.C. State Law Enforcement Division investigators documented at least 14 bullet defects in the victims’ car.
Circuit Court Judge Perry H. Gravely presided over both the plea hearing and Thursday’s sentencing.
Assistant Solicitor Jillian Contestabile assisted in prosecuting this case.
Evans is a member of the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office Career Criminal Unit, which prosecutes the circuit’s most violent and habitual offenders. Since its creation in 2009, the unit has secured convictions in 549 of the 603 defendants it has prosecuted.
