A local rapper who shot and killed his uncle while they drove on I-49 near Gilliam in early 2021 was convicted of the murder in Caddo District Court Tuesday, December 6, 2022.
Traveion Fields of Bossier City, who was 21 at the time of the slaying and who performs under the stage name Auto-Tray, was found guilty unanimously by the 10-man, two-woman jury in District Judge Donald Hathaway Jr.’s court. The jury also found him responsively guilty of aggravated battery.
Fields traveled to Shreveport from Tennessee January 14, 2021, to visit family, after the YouTube channel Ratchet City criticized him for violent lyrics claimed to be instigating violence in Shreveport. His grandmother, Debra Douglas, agreed to drive him back to Tennessee on January 17. She asked her nephew, Fields’ uncle Alan Jefferson, to accompany them. That morning, Douglas and Jefferson picked Fields up in Bossier City. Driving north on I-49, Fields, who was in the back seat, unexpectedly and without warning shot Jefferson in the back of the head at point-blank range, as borne out by powder burns found at autopsy. Fields tried to persuade his grandmother to dump Jefferson and drive on, but when that failed Fields attacked and choked her. She was able to stop the car and Fields fled. Ms. Douglas drove the injured Mr. Jefferson to Ochsner LSU Health, where he was pronounced dead.
When Fields was apprehended by Caddo Sheriff’s deputies, he gave multiple accounts of the shooting, at first accusing his grandmother. However, he finally confessed.
The jury deliberated 45 minutes before returning its unanimous verdict.
When Fields returns to Judge Hathaway’s court January 26, 2023, he faces a mandatory life at hard labor prison term, without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence.
Fields was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Jason Waltman and Courtney Ray. He was defended by Elizabeth Gibson and Carter Lawrence.
