The Community Times Dispatch

Fourteenth Circuit Court Solicitor Duffie Stone announced Monday at the Colleton County Courthouse that he is seeking the death penalty for two men charged in the shooting death of Colleton Sheriff Deputy Dennis Compton.

The courthouse was packed. Family members of suspect Fields were visible in the courtroom. Compton’s wife Tabatha and other family members wore memorial style t-shirts and entered the courtroom escorted by members of the solicitor’s office and law enforcement shortly before any motions were made.

At a bond hearing last September, Solicitor Duffie Stone presented charges of murder and two counts of burglary in the first degree against Travis Harris, then 19, of Smoaks and Jacoby Fields, then 18, of Walterboro. Stone told the court that both of the subjects made statements implicating each other and themselves in the murder of Deputy Compton. He said it would be necessary for them to have separate lawyers.

Fields entered the courtroom Monday clean cut wearing a white dress shirts and dark slacks. Harris entered wearing a county issued faded black and white stripped jumpsuit. After they entered the room, emotions seemed to flare and at least two family members were escorted out of the courtroom to be consoled.

Stone informed 14^th Circuit Court Judge Tommy Cooper that there were matters that may need to be discussed prior to the preceding.

Fields waved his rights at the hearing and was escorted out of the courtroom. Stone then told the judge that Harris’ attorney wanted to file a motion to be relieved due to a conflict of interest. After the charges were read, Judge Cooper approved the motion to relieve Clent Campbell.

Stone said that the aggravating circumstances attributed to the alleged killers of the deputy in August 2008 warranted capital punishment because they were in the commission of committing other crimes and that Dennis Compton was a law officer acting in the line of duty, when he was killed.

Now that the motion has been filed, the South Carolina Supreme Court will assign another Judge to hear the cases. Judge Cooper said that Fields’ attorney was death penalty qualified. Harris will be appointed another attorney.