Two men convicted Thursday for 2018 gas station fight that led to deadly shooting
Two men were each sentenced to one year in prison after they pleaded guilty Thursday for their roles in a fight at a Hilton Head gas station that ended in the shooting death of one man in 2018.
Derrick Frazier, 29, and Shaquille Green, 29, both of Hilton Head, pleaded guilty to third-degree assault and battery by mob for the fight that ultimately led to the death of 39-year-old Christopher Shaun Fells. Fells died about five months after the incident, according to reporting from the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.
Joseph Burton, Frazier and Green’s friend, shot Fells multiple times on Aug. 4, 2018, around 2:30 a.m. at the Kangaroo Express gas station parking lot, according to previous reporting.
The fight took place between Fells’ friend, Frazier and Green after they had a “verbal argument which then turned physical” inside the convenience store at the gas station, according to Mary Jones from the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
Surveillance footage shows Fells was at a gas pump “minding his own business” waiting by his car when Frazier approached him using “fighting words,” Jones said. Frazier was seen on surveillance footage being pulled away from Fells when Green stepped in and “sucker punched” him, Jones said. In the footage, both men were seen “on top of” Fells, she said.
Burton then opened fire and shot Fells multiple times, she said.
Burton was charged and found guilty of murder in a three-day trial in 2021, according to previous reporting. Frazier and Green were charged with assault and battery third-degree, Jones said, because she did not believe they knew Burton would begin shooting.
‘Taking responsibility’
Frazier’s defense attorney, Courtney Gibbes, said what happened was “horrible” and that her client is “taking responsibility” for the fight. Frazier is a father of 10 and is a hard worker, she said. He works two jobs and grew up on Hilton Head, Gibbes said.
“I know he’s remorseful,” Gibbes said.
Green’s attorney, Colin Hamilton, said that the fight was a “catastrophic.” Green was working in the food service industry until August when he became a caretaker for his grandmother, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, Hamilton said. He has seven children, Hamilton said, and does “a lot of work” for his community.
Fells’ older brother, Nick Fells, said he was “not happy with this charge,” as he addressed the courtroom Thursday and asked for the maximum sentence of one year.
“It is not nearly enough,” Fells said. “I understand, a fight is a fight, but a man lost his life and without the help of Mr. Green, the fight would not have accelerated ... Without the assistance of Mr. Frazier there wouldn’t have been a fight at all and without either of those two events, my brother would not be dead today.”
Judge Bentley Price sentenced both men to the State Department of Corrections for one year and five years probation.
