York Beach killing: Man pleads guilty to bludgeoning girlfriend to death with rock

YORK, Maine — A Massachusetts man pleaded guilty Wednesday to killing his son’s mother at York Beach in 2021, the same day jury selection for his trial was slated to begin.

Jeffrey Buchannan, 36, entered the guilty plea Wednesday morning, according to the York Judicial Center.He was scheduled to go to trial on March 18. Instead, he is now slated to be sentenced on March 27.

Buchannan was charged with killing his 35-year-old girlfriend Rhonda Pattelena at Short Sands Beach on March 26, 2021. Their son, Jaxson, who was 2 at the time of the murder, was not with his parents.

According to her family, Pattelena, of Bedford, Massachusetts, 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.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Jeffrey Buchannan pleads guilty to killing girlfriend at York Beach