Man receives sentence for rapes

Assailant pleaded guilty in March to attacks on PSU students

BELLEFONTE -- A Centre County man will spend decades behind bars for raping four women in State College over a seven-year span.

Jeffrey Fields, 38, of Port Matilda, was sentenced Friday by President Judge Pamela Ruest in Centre County court. Fields was sentenced to 29 1/2 to 61 years behind bars. The Commonwealth had requested a sentence of 53 to 106 years, the maximum allowed by law.

Fields first sexually assaulted a woman in 2010 before assaulting three more victims. The most recent assault, according to court documents, took place in 2017. All of his victims were 19 to 20 years old. He chose his victims at random and attacked them in the middle of the night outdoors in the densely populated Highlands neighborhood of State College borough. Although the attacks took place in and around student housing, there were no witnesses to any of the attacks.

"These were densely populated areas," Centre County First Assistant District Attorney Sean McGraw said. "How do you commit assaults and rapes in public areas without someone seeing you? You have to have awareness, you have to have good timing and maybe you even have to have a plan going into it."

McGraw said that all of the victims were simply walking home at the times of their attacks.

"They were just trying to get home at night," McGraw said.

McGraw said Fields was a "very sophisticated rapist."

"Jeffrey Fields stalked and raped intoxicated, vulnerable young women," McGraw said.

He raped his victims in a way so that they never saw his face. As a result, none could identify Fields. However, the State College Police Department say that DNA left at the crime scenes eventually led them to Fields.

Several people spoke during Friday's proceedings, including Fields himself. However, the most powerful testimony came from a woman who was listed on court documents as victim No. 1. She was a Penn State student at the time of the attack.

"He changed my life completely. He changed who I am at my core," she said.

She said that the assault changed her relationship with her family and with her boyfriend at the time.

She then addressed Fields directly.

"You didn't just hurt me. You hurt the people I love. In many ways, that is worse than the pain you inflicted on me," she said.

Fields had several people speak on his behalf, including his wife, sister, father and mother.

Prior to his sentencing, Fields addressed his victims.

"My words cannot express how truly sorry I am," Fields said. "I regret everything I've done. You did not deserve to go through this. I am so sorry."

In addition to the sentence, Judge Ruest said that the court deemed Fields as a "sexually violent predator."

Following his sentence, Fields was taken away in shackles. He showed no emotion as he left the courtroom.

At a news conference, McGraw talked about the sentencing, which lasted nearly three hours.

"The first point I would like to make is that victims one through four are no longer victims one through four. They're survivors one through four. They have endured this process that began over a decade ago with the most admirable fortitude, perseverance, dignity and grace. The Commonwealth is most grateful to them," McGraw said.

"We feel that the sentence of the court today ... validates their efforts over the years," McGraw said.