A revenge plot gone tragically wrong has landed a Hampton County man behind bars for the next three decades.
Franklin Radell Smoak Jr., 27, was sentenced to 30 years in prison this week after pleading guilty to murder in the shooting death of 32-year-old Terrance Fields, according to the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office. He also received a concurrent 30-year sentence for attempted murder after wounding two other passengers riding in the same car.
The case traces back to grief and mistaken identity. Three months before the shooting, Smoak’s 18-year-old cousin, Kaleb Cave, was killed — a case that, as of last year, still remains unsolved. Investigators say Smoak believed he knew who was behind his cousin’s death, and that the suspect drove a car similar to a white sedan.
On July 31, 2023, Smoak spotted a white sedan traveling along State Highway 68 and became convinced the driver was the man responsible for killing Cave. He cut his headlights, quietly closed the distance behind the car, and opened fire without warning.
More than a dozen bullets — at least 14 — tore into the vehicle. Fields, sitting behind the wheel, was struck in the chest and died at the scene. His front-seat passenger was shot in the head and left with severe injuries. A third man in the back seat was physically unharmed but watched the attack unfold.
The devastating truth: Fields had no connection whatsoever to Cave’s death. He and his friends were simply driving to a nearby Love’s travel stop when they were caught in a case of mistaken identity that cost a man his life.
“This was a tragic case of mistaken identity, and it cost Terrance Fields his life,” said Reed Evans of the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, who prosecuted the case. “The attack on Highway 68 unleashed a rain of bullets on Fields’ car, killing him and gravely wounding another passenger.”
As of last report, no arrests had been announced in connection with Kaleb Cave’s death — the killing that set this entire chain of tragedy in motion.