Jury enters deliberations for Huntington Beach man accused in 2019 double homicide

After a week of hearing the testimonies of police and over a dozen witnesses, a jury on Monday began deliberations at the Harbor Justice Center in the case of Jamon Rayon Buggs, who stands accused of murdering Darren Partch and Wendi Miller in a Newport Beach condominium in 2019.

Buggs, 47, is charged with attempted first-degree burglary, possessing a firearm as a convicted felon and murder with additional sentencing enhancements for using a firearm and committing multiple murders.

Buggs denied all charges and pleaded not guilty in February last year, but his attorneys Monday said they did not contest the accusations that Buggs killed Partch, 38, and Miller, 48.

In his closing remarks, attorney Michael Hill said the case was not a “whodunnit” and reaffirmed that the defense did not claim another party committed the murders. Hill said the sole issue before jurors will be deciding on is the degree to which Buggs could be held responsible for his actions on April 20, 2019.

Hill reiterated much of what co-counsel Sarah Hefling said in her opening remarks at the start of the trial in April, maintaining that the murders were not premeditated as prosecutors have said, but was instead a crime of passion fueled by what was described as a “toxic” relationship between Buggs and his ex-girlfriend, Samantha Brewers.

Buggs and Brewers’ shared an on-and-off relationship, beginning in Riverside in 2017. Prosecutors said that ended by early 2019. But, Buggs, fueled by jealousy, continued to keep tabs on Brewers and her subsequent relationships. Brewers and Partch met at a gym in 2019. Buggs later called Partch, telling him to stay away from Brewers.

Partch agreed to do so. But, Buggs continued to keep an eye on Partch. Hill said Buggs mistook Miller for Brewers and, upon hearing Miller and Partch being intimate in the latter’s Newport Beach condominium, killed the two out of a blind rage.

The defense attorneys asked jurors to consider downgrading the murder charge to voluntary manslaughter, the difference coming down to Buggs’ state of mind at the time he committed the murders.

Partch was shot at four times, though only two bullets struck him, including the fatal shot. Miller was shot at once at close range, according to investigators. The two were later found by Partch’s roommate, who returned home from a weekend away.

Prosecutor David Porter argued that none of the evidence exhibited during the trial pointed to the possibility that the murders were not premeditated.

Porter called the murders “heinous” as Partch and Miller were defenseless at the time of their deaths. Partch’s mother, Brenda, dabbed at her eyes with a tissue as the events of the night were recounted again by prosecutors. Buggs sat stoic beside Hefling at the front of the courtroom.

“‘In his mind, they were going to getting back together’ is a claim worth pursuing? Where did that come from? What evidence is there? There’s nothing. Absolutely nothing; there’s nothing in this record March 25th on that suggests that,” Porter told the jury. “... There was no witness testimony of that. Samantha Brewers certainly did not testify to that. There was nothing.

“No text messages, no emails — nothing, after March 25. How about this? ‘Any time they would have sex, it was important to the defendant. It may not have been important to Samantha, but it was important to the defendant.’ Where did that come from? What evidence is there? Nothing. ... how about this? [He] believed that Samantha Brewers is having sex with [Partch] on April 20th, 2019 and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“What evidence is there in this case that he thought that?”

Porter also pointed to the events that led to Buggs’ arrest two days later on suspicion of attempted burglaries in Irvine.

Investigators believed Buggs was seeking out another man he believed was dating Brewers and had confronted previously at his place of work a month before the murders took place.

If found guilty of murder, Buggs faces life in prison without the possibility for parole. If found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, that sentence could be downgraded to what would be a maximum of 11 years in state prison, according to California state law.

The case has become mired in controversy in relationship to Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer, who made comments about the dating habits of Black men. Spitzer said he knew “many Black people who get themselves out of their bad circumstances and bad situations by only dating white women,” according to a memo by former prosecutor Ebrahim Baytieh.

Buggs is Black. His ex-girlfriend is white, as were Partch and Miller.

Spitzer has apologized for his remarks, though Orange County Superior Court Judge Gregg Prickett is in the ongoing process of reviewing documentation relating to his comments and the case.

Support our coverage by becoming a digital subscriber.