Huntington Beach man sentenced to life in prison for Newport Beach double homicide

A somber courtroom filled with media and the family members of Darren Partch and Wendi Miller erupted in applause and cheers as a sentence was handed down Friday afternoon for the Huntington Beach man convicted of Partch and Miller’s murders.

Jamon Rayon Buggs, 47, was sentenced to life in state prison without parole by Orange County Superior Court Judge Gregg Prickett.

After jurors deliberated for three hours, Buggs was convicted in May of the April 20, 2019 murders of Partch, 38, and Miller, 48, at the former’s Newport Beach condominium. Prosecutors said Partch was shot twice and Miller was shot at close range.

Buggs mistakenly believed Partch was involved with Buggs’ ex-girlfriend, Samantha Brewers. The two only met once at a gym and exchanged a few messages over Instagram, but when Buggs contacted Partch and demanded that he end contact with Brewers, Partch agreed, according to then-roommate Dean Matheson, who overheard the call. Still, Buggs continued to stalk Partch.

Defense attorneys maintained that Buggs mistook Miller for Brewers when the two were being intimate in Partch’s condominium and was outraged, leading him to commit the crime.

The case was complicated by remarks made by Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer about the dating habits of Black men “who get themselves out of their bad circumstances and bad situations by only dating white women” in the company of fellow prosecutors, according to a memo from former O.C. prosecutor Ebrahim Baytieh.

Prickett ruled that Spitzer violated the Racial Justice Act with those comments but noted Spitzer remediated the violation by not pursuing the death penalty in Buggs’ case. Prosecutor George Turner disagreed, and advising attorney Denise Gragg moved for a new trial.

That motion was denied, along with one made by Buggs, who requested a continuance to represent himself. He maintained that he wanted to revoke his plea as he felt his attorney was incompetent.

“You have this misguided belief somehow that we, in any way, need your permission to have you involved in these proceedings. That is not true,” said Prickett. “We have jurisdiction over you. The offenses were committed in this county and the allegation which was found true by the jury was that you were the person that committed those offenses. This is not a civil situation. This is a criminal situation.”

In his response, Buggs said, “So, I’m a slave because I don’t have a choice? Is that what you’re telling me ... that I am a criminal before I’m a citizen? That’s what it seems like to me.”

Buggs at one point demanded he be returned to county jail as he felt the sentencing could go on with or without him, but he then declined an option that would have allowed the proceedings to continue without him physically present in the courtroom.

Wendi Miller’s mother, Mary Lu Miller, thanked investigators and prosecutors for seeing the case to its conclusion.

Darren Partch’s mother, Brenda Partch, wrote in a statement that the loss of her son had had medical impacts and that she continued to suffer emotionally because “he did nothing wrong.”

“The pain of a mom’s broken heart never leaves,” Partch wrote. “I have so many emotions daily that I don’t even know what to do with them. It’s a constant roller coaster. My heart breaks every day and I still can’t believe this happened to my most loving and caring son, Darren, and for no reason.”

Partch thanked investigators, prosecutors, Prickett and the jurors involved in the case and described Buggs as “a demonic being, who is nothing but a rattlesnake that you don’t know when it will strike.”

Miller’s daughter, Cambria Carpenter, said she has struggled to put the pieces of her life back together in the three years following Miller’s death.

“You decided her fate. Not knowing, not caring about the witty person that she was or about the life that she had created. Not only was she a mother, but she was a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a niece, a cousin, a companion and a leader to a community that she had built from the ground up,” Carpenter told Buggs in the courtroom.

Carpenter noted that her mother was unable to attend her high school graduation and noted she would miss other life milestones like her daughter’s wedding or meeting any potential grandchildren.

As family members spoke of the impacts the murders had on them, Buggs watched quietly. Afterward, while delivering his statement, he asked for the families’ forgiveness for what he had done.

“I wanted to say that this was completely my fault. I was emotional during this time. I was in love with [Samantha Brewers] and I opened my heart to her.”

He then offered condolences to the families of Miller and Partch.

“I apologize and I stand accountable for what I did. I sinned and I am asking for forgiveness,” he said.

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