A death row inmate who went on a three-week crime rampage in Los Angeles in 1978 that included the fatal shooting and beating of a USC student died in his cell Tuesday at San Quentin State Prison, authorities said.

Stevie Lamar Fields, 60, was found unresponsive at 5:38 a.m. in his single cell, said Lt. Sam Robinson with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Paramedics tried to resuscitate him, but Fields was pronounced dead about half an hour later. The cause of death is pending the results of an autopsy, Robinson said.

Fields had been on California’s death row since Aug. 27, 1979.


He was sentenced to death by a Los Angeles County judge for a string of crimes that occurred from Sept. 28 to Oct. 5, 1978.

Fields was convicted in the kidnapping, robbery, rape and murder of 26-year-old USC student Rosemary Janet Cobb.

Fields was also convicted of the kidnapping, robbery and rape of Gwendolyn Elaine Barnett, Cynthia Marie Smith and Colleen Coats, and in the robbery of Clarence Gissendander, according to the corrections department.

He had been out on parole for a manslaughter conviction for two weeks when the crimes occurred.


Since 1978, when California reinstated capital punishment, 71 condemned inmates have died from natural causes, according to the corrections agency. There are 750 offenders on California’s death row.

ben.poston@latimes.com

Follow @bposton on Twitter.