Inmate Dies in Beating at Norco Prison : Victim Was Serving Six-Year Term for Assault in San Diego

An Ohio man, imprisoned for attacking a woman last year in San Diego’s Balboa Park, died after he was severely beaten by a fellow inmate, the Riverside County coroner’s office reported Wednesday. Ronald Fast, 30, of Lakemore, Ohio, had been in custody at the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco for five months, said Capt. Arnold St. Peter, a spokesman for the medium-security state prison.

Fast was serving a six-year sentence for assault with intent to commit rape.

A corrections officer found Fast lying in his bed last Saturday, with bruises covering his face and chest and suspected head and neck injuries, St. Peter said.

He was taken to Riverside General Hospital, where he died Tuesday from head injuries he suffered in the beating, said Mickey Worthington, deputy coroner.

Suspect Transferred

Prison officials believe another inmate was responsible for the fatal beating but have yet to discover his motive, St. Peter said. The suspect has been transferred to the California Institution for Men at Chino, a higher-security state prison.

That suspect, whose name is being withheld until an investigation is completed and charges are filed, is serving a six-year sentence for four burglaries in San Luis Obispo County, St. Peter said.

Fast pleaded guilty in November to a July 30, 1984, attack in Balboa Park, said Steve Casey, special assistant to the San Diego County district attorney.

Fast and another man, Allan Patrick Lattin, approached their victim near midday and asked her for cigarettes, the woman told investigators. The next thing the woman knew, she said, she was being dragged about two blocks through bushes into a secluded ravine.

Woman Raped

There, the two men removed her clothing and raped her over a three- to four-hour period, a district attorney’s investigation report said. Fast punched the woman, pulled her hair and choked her with a belt.

The victim persuaded the pair to take her to a San Diego hotel, where she was able to hide in a bathroom and summon help, the report said. Blood samples taken that evening showed Fast’s blood-alcohol level at .17%, Lattin’s at .14% and the victim’s at .12%.

Fast sought probation after he pleaded guilty, saying drinking had been a problem all his life, but he was sentenced to six years in state prison. Lattin was sentenced to three years in prison after he pleaded guilty to sexual battery, Casey said.