Barefield, his brother and another accomplice abducted, robbed and raped Rice University student Cindy Rounsaville, 25, on April 21, 1986. When she tried to flee, Barefield shot her twice in the head. His brother was sentenced to 45 years in prison. The other accomplice got a life sentence for an unrelated rape-abduction. Evidence at his trial showed he shot her twice in the head as she was on her hands and knees in a field after running from the car.
John Kennedy Barefield, 32, died by lethal injection for the abduction, rape and murder of Cindy Rounsaville, an architecture student at Rice University, in 1986. Mr. Barefield, who was born four months after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, was named for him.