Suspect out on bond in death of Hilton Head teen faces 2nd murder charge
A Beaufort County man who was released on bond in the deadly shooting of an 18-year-old Hilton Head Island soccer player now faces another murder charge in Columbia.
The Columbia Police Department accuses Lady’s Island resident Xavier Da’Quon Barnes, 23, of fatally shooting Maurice “Mo” Green at a home near Columbia College in July and disposing of his body in rural Orangeburg County.
Green’s family reported him missing in mid-July, about a month before his body was discovered in Branchville, according to reporting from WLTX 19.
Richland County jail records show Barnes remained in custody Sunday, on charges of murder and a felony firearm offense.
Barnes was already charged with murder in Beaufort County in the killing of 18-year-old Trey Blackshear in a church parking lot on Dec. 23, 2019. He was one of four people charged in connection with the shooting and the only one whose case remains pending.
During a marijuana deal that turned into an attempted robbery on Blackshear in his car, Barnes and one other gunman fatally shot the teen in the head and shoulder, prosecutors previously said.
Barnes, who was 16 at the time, turned himself in to police in the days after the shooting. He was held in the Department of Juvenile Justice before a judge’s ruling about a year later that he would be tried as an adult.
First to be convicted in the killing was 22-year-old Terrance Wing of St. Helena, who was also 16 during the shooting and was charged as an adult. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison after his trial in April 2024.
Last summer, two Beaufort residents who accompanied the gunmen — Kionna Ferguson, 25, who reportedly drove the group away after the shooting, and Jaesean Redd, 26 — both received five years of probation after pleading guilty as accessories to Blackshear’s murder.
Several days before his murder, Blackshear graduated early from Hilton Head Island High School with high academic honors and a number of soccer scholarships. He planned to study business administration in college to inherit his grandfather’s company.
Friends and family remember Blackshear for his humor, youthful wisdom and “strong ability to put a smile on faces,” his obituary said.
What’s next for the Beaufort Co. murder case?
Prosecutors have already filed a motion to revoke Barnes’ bond in his Beaufort County murder case, according to Jeff Kidd, a spokesperson for the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
But that effort is mostly a “safeguard,” Kidd said, as Barnes’ repeat charges should keep him in jail under bond reform statutes passed in 2024. The legislation mandates automatic bond revocation for any person out on bond for a violent crime who is then arrested again for another violent crime.
Trasi Campbell, who is prosecuting the Beaufort County case, has been in contact with officials in Richland County to discuss plans for Barnes’ custody, Kidd said.
“Then there will be discussions about ... which detention center holds them, and who goes first on some of these things,” Kidd told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette. “That determination hasn’t been made.”
Barnes’ bond for his Beaufort County murder charge was set by Circuit Court Judge Brooks P. Goldsmith in December 2020, shortly after the teen was charged as an adult, according to judicial records. He paid the $50,000 surety bond the following June.
Bond conditions included electronic monitoring, an 8 p.m. curfew and a ban on possessing firearms or illegal drugs. Barnes was also prohibited from contacting the victim’s family, court records show.
Kidd said Barnes’ murder trial was not yet on the docket in Beaufort County.
“We’re still working toward that prosecution,” he said.
This story was originally published March 29, 2026 at 1:30 PM.
