Deputies said a 32-year-old man was found fatally shot on Thomas Alley, and a 17-year-old was later charged with murder.
MOORE, S.C. — A deadly shooting in Spartanburg County early Monday left a 32-year-old man dead at a home on Thomas Alley in Moore, and deputies later charged a 17-year-old with murder as investigators worked to piece together what happened before sunrise.
The case drew swift attention because it moved quickly from an active scene to a murder charge. Spartanburg County deputies said the call came in at about 6:24 a.m., placing officers at a neighborhood home just after daybreak. The victim was later identified as Lidarrell Cheeks. Authorities charged 17-year-old Deondre Smith-Jefferson in the killing, and by Tuesday the case had already reached bond court, where the teen was denied bond. What led to the shooting, and what happened inside the home before deputies arrived, had not been publicly laid out in detail by late Tuesday.
Deputies said they were sent to the home on Thomas Alley after a report that someone had been shot. When they arrived, they found a person suffering from a gunshot wound and began the first steps of what became a homicide investigation. Cheeks was pronounced dead at the scene. By later the same day, authorities announced that Smith-Jefferson had been taken into custody and charged with murder. A representative with the solicitor’s office said in court-related reporting that the teen shot and killed Cheeks. Law enforcement officials have not publicly released a detailed timeline from inside the home, including who called 911, whether anyone else was present when the gunfire started, or how many shots were fired. Those gaps leave major parts of the chronology unfilled even as the criminal case advances.
Officials have described the shooting as an isolated incident, a point meant to calm concerns in the Moore area as patrol vehicles and investigators remained tied to the case. Another detail that emerged quickly was the claim that the episode grew out of a domestic dispute. That description gives the public a broad frame for the case, but it does not answer central questions that often shape how a homicide investigation is understood. Authorities have not publicly detailed the exact relationship between Cheeks and Smith-Jefferson, whether anyone else in the household was involved in the dispute, or what events immediately preceded the gunfire. They also have not publicly described any weapon recovery, forensic findings from the scene, or statements attributed to the accused. Until charging documents or courtroom testimony add detail, many of the facts that would explain motive and sequence remain unknown.
The location also matters. Moore is an unincorporated community in Spartanburg County where many cases unfold far from the downtown courthouse but quickly end up there once charges are filed. In fatal shooting cases, the public record often develops in stages: first a sheriff’s office scene response, then a coroner identification, then a court appearance that begins to expose the prosecution’s basic theory. That pattern appeared to hold here. Cheeks was publicly identified after the shooting, giving the victim a name and age and moving the story beyond an anonymous emergency call. The arrest of a 17-year-old added another layer because South Carolina law allows serious violent charges involving juveniles to move through the adult court system in some circumstances. Even so, the public picture remains narrow until affidavits, hearings or later filings fill in the details left open on the first day.
Tuesday’s bond hearing marked the next formal step. Smith-Jefferson was denied bond, meaning he remained in custody as prosecutors and defense lawyers prepared for the early phase of the case. A murder charge sets in motion a longer process that can include additional hearings, evidence review, possible grand jury action and negotiations or motions long before any trial date is set. Investigators are also likely to continue reviewing physical evidence, witness interviews, digital records and any 911 materials connected to the home. It is not unusual for law enforcement agencies to release only limited information at this stage, especially when a suspect has already been charged and a case is headed deeper into court. For now, authorities have not announced additional charges, have not described any self-defense claim, and have not said when more detailed investigative findings might be released.
For neighbors, the public version of the case has unfolded in blunt pieces: sirens before sunrise, a blocked-off home on a residential street, confirmation that one person was dead, and the rapid announcement that a teenager had been charged. In that kind of case, official language often stays brief while the human weight of the scene lingers much longer. Cheeks’ death leaves one family facing a sudden loss and another confronting a murder prosecution involving a juvenile defendant charged as an adult. The limited public statements have offered little emotion, but the facts already released are stark enough on their own. A man was dead before breakfast, and by the next afternoon the case had moved from a cordoned-off home in Moore to a courtroom where a judge refused to grant bond.
As of Tuesday, Smith-Jefferson remained jailed on the murder charge, investigators were still withholding many of the case’s underlying facts, and the next major milestone will come as prosecutors file additional records or schedule the next court proceeding in Spartanburg County.
Author note: Last updated March 24, 2026.