Jurors on Friday convicted a 54-year-old Long Beach man of murdering his girlfriend more than four years ago.
Prosecutors say John Buchanan caused the death of 46-year-old Jaynie Sauter when he beat her during an argument at the home they shared in the 700 block of Chestnut Avenue on Dec. 4, 2019.
“The defendant controlled Jaynie Sauter until the end,” Deputy District Attorney Marlon Duke Powers told jurors during closing arguments Friday. “Jaynie wanted to escape. She never made it more than four blocks.”
During his closing argument Friday, Powers highlighted how witnesses testified that Buchanan had exhibited a pattern of abusive behavior and would often take out his anger on Sauter by hitting her.
In the days leading up to the deadly beating, Buchanan had shown other patterns of violent behavior by threatening to kill Sauter’s male friend for having a conversation with her, Powers said.
The day before her death, Sauter sought help from her friends and left the home she shared with Buchanan because she didn’t feel safe, Powers said. But when Buchanan found out she was at the home of the same male friend, the 54-year-old rushed over on a bicycle, barged into the home, and demanded she leave before again threatening to kill her friend, Powers said.
Sauter went home and got into an argument there with another friend who she felt had sold out her location to Buchanan, Powers said. Sauter kicked that friend out of her home, Powers said. Then Buchanan got home and beat Sauter “not within an inch of her life, but past that,” Powers said.
After the beating, Sauter complained to Buchanan that she was having headaches and blurry vision, but he paid no mind to her injuries, Powers said. Sauter again left home early that morning and walked in the rain to visit her friend’s house a few blocks away, Power said. There, her friends noticed she was crying, and she told them Buchanan had hit her harder than he ever had before, Powers said.
“She knew something was wrong and she was seeking help,” Powers said. “The fatal blow had already been struck.”
Because she was drenched from the rain, her friends gave her dry clothes, Powers said, and Sauter started walking another couple blocks to where another friend was living in a van, Powers said. That friend noticed Sauter was not acting like her normal self, Powers said, adding that he was hysterical and inconsolable.
At her friend’s van, Sauter laid down to go to sleep when she slipped out of consciousness, Powers said. Within a few hours, she died from what doctors said was a subdural hematoma caused by severe blows to the head, according to prosecutors.
When Buchanan found out Sauter had died, he told a friend that he thought he may have caused her death after hitting her the night before, Powers said.
“The defendant was more right than he knew,” Powers said. “There’s no reason to doubt that he committed that second-degree murder of Jaynie Sauter.”
During trial in Long Beach Superior Court, Buchanan’s attorney, Bruce Karey, attempted to cast doubt on some of the prosecution’s witnesses by saying they were biased and characterizing them as criminals with previous felon convictions who had a reason to downplay their roles in causing Sauter’s death.
“There’s a lot of blame being put forth, and it’s all ‘blame John,'” Karey said.
He denied there was any evidence to suggest Buchanan had beaten her and said doctors couldn’t tell how when, or how the bruising on Sauter’s body had happened. He added that if Sauter had been beaten to death by someone of Buchanan’s larger stature, she would have suffered more broken bones.
Karey suggested that if Sauter had been beaten to death, it was most likely at the hands of the friend who she thought had sold out her location to Buchanan. But he pointed at an overdose as a more likely possibility, saying Sauter had a history of drug abuse and was found to have amphetamines, methamphetamine, fentanyl, and anti-depressants in her system when she died.
“You’re being asked to believe that what John Buchanan did is what killed her,” Karey said, arguing that Buchanan was not guilty of murder. “They did not have the perfect relationship, but we don’t know exactly what occurred.”
In his rebuttal, Powers said countless witness accounts established Buchanan fostered an abusive relationship with Sauter and had at times made comments justifying domestic violence.
Powers agreed that the evidence shows Sauter likely had drugs in her system when she died and that she was looking for drugs just before her death, but he added that it was likely because she was in severe pain from being pummeled by Buchanan just a few hours earlier.
Powers added that although paramedics assumed Sauter had overdosed when they arrived at the scene, a doctor and the medical examiner’s office ultimately determined that Sauter had died from being seriously beaten.
“The drugs had nothing to do with the subdural hematoma,” Powers said, adding that doctors ruled out an overdose as her cause of death. “In Jaynie’s case, it was called by multiple blows.”
Jurors deliberated for just under two hours before finding Buchanan guilty of second-degree murder. He was acquitted of an additional charge of criminal threats.
Buchanan will be sentenced Feb. 8. He faces a maximum of 15 years to life in prison, Powers said.
If you are in an abusive relationship, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233.