York Beach killing: Man faces trial for bludgeoning girlfriend to death with rock
YORK — A man who pleaded insanity for killing his son’s mother at York Beach is heading to trial.
Jury selection is set to start Wednesday in the case of Jeffrey Buchannan, who is accused of killing his 35-year-old girlfriend Rhonda Pattelena at Short Sands Beach on March 26, 2021. The trial is scheduled to begin on March 18.
Buchannan, 33 at the time of the murder, entered a plea in March 2022 of not criminally responsible by reason of insanity. One of the main reasons Buchannan was arraigned a year later was due to a backlog in criminal cases as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a court order that he undergo a mental health evaluation.
Leading up to the trial, attorneys for both parties met to discuss a potential settlement, but a deal was not reached.
Attorneys for Buchannan requested Feb. 16 that the trial date be continued to another date, but the motion was rejected. The defense was seeking additional time to have a third psychological evaluation conducted on Buchannan.
Buchannan and Pattelena, both from Bedford, Massachusetts, were visiting York Beach on March 26, the day the killing took place. Their son, Jaxson, who was 2 at the time of the murder, was not with his parents.
According to her family, Pattelena took Buchannan to York Beach to show him her favorite beach.
York police responded to Short Sands Beach at 4 p.m. that day after receiving multiple 911 calls of a man assaulting a woman. They found Pattelena already deceased behind a large rock and were told by witnesses they saw Buchannan walk away from the scene, police said.
Buchannan was arrested by police near Railroad Avenue, according to a police affidavit.
When police interviewed Buchannan, he told them he "blacked out" before the alleged assault. He told police the last thing he remembered was seeing his girlfriend make hand gestures while a man ran toward them, and he felt threatened.
When asked if he remembered anything more about what happened, Buchannan said he recalled breathing heavily and seeing Pattelena lying on the ground before walking away, according to the affidavit.
Video surveillance from a nearby business appears to show Buchannan striking Pattelena while her back is turned to him, followed by several more strikes. Officers from the York and Eliot police departments documented the scene and collected evidence, including a rock that appeared to have been used as a weapon in the assault, according to the affidavit.
An autopsy completed by the Maine medical examiner determined Pattelena's death was a homicide caused by blunt force injury to the head, according to the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit.
Buchannan had committed crimes against Pattelena previously, according to the Boston Globe. In 2017, he pleaded guilty to assaulting and kidnapping Pattelena, along with her two other sons, according to the newspaper. The Globe reported he was sentenced to two years in prison after Pattelena told police he attacked her and wouldn't allow her children to leave her home in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
Pattelena was remembered by loved ones at a candlelight vigil at York Beach the week after her death. Pattelena had worked as a nursing assistant at Urgent Care and was the mother of three children. Her sons from prior relationships, Bobby and Noah, were 17 and 14 at the time of her death.
If you need help
As a community service, the following information is published with stories in which domestic and/or sexual violence is alleged:
Help available in York County, Maine: Caring Unlimited, based in Sanford, Maine, offers individualized safety planning services to anyone impacted by domestic abuse, supporting thousands throughout York County each year with free programs. The Caring Unlimited hotline is available 24 hours per day: 1-800-239-7298. For more information, visit caring-unlimited.org.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: York Beach killing: Man faces trial for brutal murder of girlfriend
