Two men plead guilty, get life in prison for deputy's murder

  • Allyson Bird
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  • Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2011 12:01 a.m.
    UPDATED: Friday, March 23, 2012 7:51 p.m.
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Jacoby Fields (left) and Travis Javon Harris were sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without the chance for parole in the 2008 slaying of Colleton County sheriff's deputy Dennis Compton.
Brad Nettles /Jacoby Fields (left) and Travis Javon Harris were sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without the chance for parole in the 2008 slaying of Colleton County sheriff's deputy Dennis Compton.

WALTERBORO - Two men who committed a string of burglaries and fatally shot a Colleton County sheriff's deputy in 2008 pleaded guilty this morning and received sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Jacoby Fields, 23, and Travis Harris, 24, both pleaded guilty to murder, second-degree burglary and four counts of first-degree burglary. The men admitted that they burglarized four homes and a sheriff's office substation in the summer of 2008 and killed sheriff's deputy Dennis Compton.

Compton had responded to a tripped alarm at one of those homes in Smoaks, and one of the men shot him. The pair faced a possible death sentence for their crime.

Solicitor Duffie Stone said he wanted both men treated equally and both to die in prison.

"The only two people in the whole world who know who the trigger man was are these two men standing before you," Stone said.

Tabatha Compton's, Dennis Compton's wife, said after the hearing that today marks her anniversary with her late husband.

Read more in Thursday's editions of The Post and Courier.