Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Man, 29, Convicted of Beating Murder of Girlfriend : Violence: Months before she was slain the victim had refused to press charges against him after she had been brutalized.

A Lancaster man with a history of abusing women was convicted Monday of murdering his girlfriend just months after she had refused to press charges against him for a prior beating.

After deliberating two days, a Lancaster Superior Court jury convicted John C. Heller, 29, of first-degree murder in the Nov. 19, 1991, beating death of Jeanna R. Yetter, 33, of Lancaster. Heller faces 25 years to life in state prison at his July 20 sentencing, the prosecutor said.

The couple had been living together off and on for several years prior to Yetter’s death.

Originally, Heller had called 911 to report that he had come home and found Yetter had been assaulted by other men. However, following an investigation, sheriff’s deputies determined that it was Heller who struck the woman at least 40 times with his fists and a metal pipe.

He has remained in custody without bail since his arrest shortly after the woman’s death.

About five months earlier, in June, 1991, Yetter suffered a broken leg, cracked rib and ruptured eardrum, allegedly because she was beaten by Heller. Prosecutors filed criminal charges against him in that case, but later dropped them after Yetter refused to testify, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Joe Payne, who prosecuted the murder case.

After that episode, Yetter spent some time in a shelter for battered women, but later moved back into her Cedar Avenue home along with Heller. In the several months before her death Yetter had told friends that Heller once again was beating her on a regular basis, Payne said.

In the murder complaint, prosecutors alleged that the murder weapon was a pipe, which could have added additional time to Heller’s sentence. However, the jury did not accept that allegation.

Authorities offered no explanation of why Yetter continued to live with Heller in spite of the beatings.