Judge awards $1.8M over deadly sucker punch that killed Rock Hill veteran

A judge Monday awarded $1.8 million to the family of a Rock Hill Vietnam veteran killed by a sucker punch in 2014 that was caught on video.

The family had asked for more than $5 million.

Odell Fields, 65, died after a single punch from Eric Cobb outside the Sandbar in May 2014, after which Cobb raised his arms in triumph, the video obtained exclusively by The Herald showed. Judge Jack Kimball wrote in a court order that Cobb “intentionally killed a man,” and then conducted a “celebration” after the awful feat.

Fields’ family had sought $5 million from Cobb, the bar, and bartender Jose Cintron in a wrongful death lawsuit. Kimball awarded just over $810,000 in actual damages against all three defendants. Kimball awarded Fields’ family $1 million in punitive damages from Cobb, calling Cobb’s actions “reprehensible under any analysis.”

But the judge did not impose any punitive damages against the bar and bartender.

The lawyer for Fields’ family, David Manzi, said the judgment is “very fair.”

After throwing the punch, Cobb raised his arms in glee, screaming out to others in the parking lot that he had killed a man with a single blow.

Kimball, the judge, wrote of Cobb’s punch that Cobb showed “utter disregard” for Fields and had “malicious intent.”

Cobb is serving a 15-year sentence in prison for voluntary manslaughter. And because he was indigent at the time he went to prison, it remains unclear how much can be collected from him, or when.

Fields, wounded twice in Vietnam combat, was defenseless and unaware that Cobb had pursued him outside the bar when the video shows Cobb unleashing a roundhouse punch. Fields never woke up from the punch and died the next day.

This story was originally published June 12, 2017 at 5:42 PM with the headline "Judge awards $1.8M over deadly sucker punch that killed Rock Hill veteran."