OKATIE, SC (July 6, 2023) – A Jasper County resident has been charged in connection with a 2021 shooting on Bluffton Parkway that killed a popular Bluffton High School football player and left two others injured.
The defendant was a minor at the time of the incident and has not yet been publicly identified. Solicitor Duffie Stone said at a news conference Thursday that he intends to petition to have the person waived up to General Sessions Court to be tried as an adult. The full news conference can be viewed below.
D’won “D.J.” Fields Jr., an 18-year-old Bluffton High School senior, was gunned down while driving along the Bluffton Parkway in March 2021. Another passenger was shot in the face and hospitalized 10 days, and a third suffered injuries in the crash thar resulted when Fields lost control of the vehicle he was driving.
The new defendant becomes the fifth person charged in connection with the incident.
On May 8, 2023 – the day his trial was to begin, Jimmy Lewis Green of Hardeeville instead pleaded guilty to one charge of murder, two charges of attempted murder and three charges of assault and battery by mob. With Solicitor Stone prepared to call 29 witnesses, Green changed his plea without any consideration of leniency from the state. Circuit Court Judge D. Craig Brown sentenced him to 40 years in prison.
Ty’leic Dae Jhon Chaneyfield, 20, of Ridgeland also is charged with murder, two counts of attempted murder, three counts of assault and battery by mob and possession of a weapon during commission of a violent crime. Shayniah Void, 20, of Orangeburg is charged second- and third-degree assault and battery by mob. Her brother, Jayden Lamont Void, 20, of Bluffton, is charged with with first-, second- and third-degree assault and battery by mob.
All four remaining defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.
Waiving up a juvenile
The juvenile defendant will be brought before a Family Court judge with a petition to waive the charges into General Sessions Court. The U.S. Supreme Court has identified eight factors that may be considered by the judge when deciding whether to waive a child to adult criminal court. The eight factors, set forth in Kent v. United States, 383 U.S. 541 (1966), are:
- The seriousness of the alleged offense and whether waiver is necessary to protect the community;
- Whether the offense was committed in an aggressive, violent, premeditated, or willful manner;
- Whether the alleged offense was against persons or property;
Whether there is sufficient evidence for a Grand Jury to return an indictment;
- The desirability of trial and disposition of the entire case in one court when the child’s co-defendants in the alleged offense are adults;
- The level of sophistication and maturity of the child;
- The child’s record and previous criminal or adjudicative history; and
- The prospects for adequate protection of the public and the likelihood of reasonable rehabilitation of the child by the use of services currently available to the court.
Additionally, under state law, anyone who has not yet reached the age of 18 at the time of the alleged offense is considered a juvenile. The rules and procedures for waiving a juvenile up to an adult court, including General Sessions Court, is covered under South Carolina’s Juvenile Justice Code, Section 63-19-1210, entitled “Transfer of jurisdiction.”
