[dramatic music]
* *
- People have an image of what California is.
It's palm trees and bikinis.
And Newport Beach is the California
quintessential dream.
- Beautiful homes.
Beautiful cars.
Darren loved that high, fast-paced life,
but he also loved being an athlete
and being on the beach.
- In Newport Beach, it's very rare
that you see murders, never mind double homicides.
So when this occurred, it was big, big news.
- A retired pro hockey player and a striking mystery woman
are looking for fun and romance.
But they find tragedy instead.
- The crime scene consisted of Darren and a female.
And it appeared that they were engaged intimately
when the killer came into the bedroom.
- We had no idea who this woman was.
- And investigators didn't know anything
about the relationship between these two.
- Was this a love triangle?
Was this greed?
- Detectives race to hunt down a killer on a mission
before he strikes again.
- And they look out through their sliding glass door,
and there's a man with a gun in his hand.
He actually fires a round into the upper balcony.
- And then all hell breaks loose.
- My heart was, like, pounding out of my chest.
- I knew that we were gonna do everything we could
to bring justice to their family.
- And I just started screaming.
- There's no way we were losing this case.
[waves crashing]
* *
- My name is Keith Krallman, and in 2019, I was a lieutenant
for the Newport Beach Police Department.
April 21, 2019, was Easter Sunday.
Quiet.
Usually a very uneventful day
as far as law enforcement is concerned.
People are enjoying the religious holiday.
But at 9:27 p.m., we received a 911 call
from a local resident
telling us that he just discovered
his roommate, Darren Partch, and an unknown woman
in a pool of blood.
[sirens wailing]
- The peaceful spell over this tranquil seaside community
is broken as first responders race to the scene.
When they arrive, the 35-year-old caller,
Dean Matheson, directs them to an upstairs bedroom
where they uncover a grisly sight.
* *
- My name is Heather Brown, and I worked
for the Orange County District Attorney's Office
out of the Homicide Unit.
The crime scene consisted of a male and a female.
Both were, obviously, deceased.
They were naked, and it appeared
that they were engaged intimately
when the killer came into the room.
The female was on the left side of the bed,
and she had her head turned
with a very close range gunshot wound
to the right side of her head.
There was blood under her head, and it was a good size pool.
The male had his head on the bed,
but his knees were on the floor,
indicating to the detectives
that he had actually been shot while standing up
and then crumpled to the floor.
- While a forensics team scours the scene for clues,
investigators question the 911 caller, Dean Matheson,
who appears distraught over finding his roommate,
Darren, and a mystery woman so savagely murdered.
- Dean Matheson said he went out to dinner
with his fiancée on a Friday night.
He came back home on Saturday morning at around 11:30
to get some clothes, pack some bags
because he was gonna go with his fiancée
out to Palm Desert
and celebrate the Easter holiday.
At the time, Dean noticed a pair
of women's sandals, a cell phone,
and also a dirty bowl inside the sink.
He didn't find it unusual.
He just assumed that, possibly, Darren was on a date
and didn't want to disturb them
because Darren's bedroom door was shut.
So Dean leaves and goes and spends the holiday
with his fiancée out in Palm Desert.
He returns the next day in the evening time
and walks into his place of residence.
And according to Dean, everything's the same.
Nothing's moved. Nothing's changed.
The cell phone's in the same position,
the women's brown sandals are in the same position,
and so is the dirty bowl in the sink.
And he thought that was really weird.
- My name is Matt Murphy.
I'm a former Senior Deputy District Attorney
in the Orange County DA's Office Homicide Unit.
Dean walked around the condo.
Actually went into Darren's room.
He discovers his roommate, Darren Partch,
and this woman that he did not know dead.
He immediately dials 911.
- With Darren identified, detectives try to put a name
to the female victim.
- There was the cell phone in the kitchen, but no ID.
- The phone is locked
and requires a search warrant to open.
So detectives keep looking
for another way to identify her
while they continue to process the scene.
- CSI determined that there were four
.38 caliber bullets at the scene,
but the detectives never found a weapon.
- There were three bullet holes that were in the wall
on the side of the male's side of the bed.
And then the bullet entered into the floorboard of the bed
on the left side.
- Thinking that perhaps this was a robbery gone wrong,
investigators look for signs of a break-in.
- Everything was, for the most part,
clean, orderly.
No signs of a forced entry.
There was no broken glass.
There was no door being shimmied, punched open.
There weren't any type of defensive wounds
on the bodies.
The bodies were not in a position
where they looked like they had been manipulated
or dumped or placed there.
So someone got in there quietly
and shot them
and did not disturb them.
- The only person that the detectives knew
had access to that unit
was Darren's roommate, Dean Matheson.
- There are times people will call 911,
but they're involved in a crime.
- We needed to know whether or not
Dean was telling the truth about that weekend,
so we had to corroborate his story.
- Perhaps he was a jealous roommate.
Perhaps Darren was dating
one of his ex-girlfriends or whatever.
The possibilities are endless.
- But Dean's alibi is quickly verified.
- After calling his fiancée,
he seemed that he was giving us truthful statements.
- Dean had been with his girlfriend for Easter weekend.
- The roommate has already called
Darren's mother, Brenda.
She and Darren's half sister soon arrive on the scene.
[somber music]
- I am Dana Lynn Partch, and I am Darren's big sister.
It was Easter weekend.
Brenda called me and she's screaming
at the top of her lungs.
I could barely understand her.
"He's gone, Dana.
He's gone."
I'm like, "What happened?"
Like, "What are you saying to me?"
"He's gone, Dana. Your brother is dead."
And I just started screaming.
Once I could pull myself together,
Brenda and I just got there as fast as we could.
- Investigators hope Darren's family
can shed some light on who could have committed
this vicious crime.
- We asked about, was there any
disgruntled colleagues that he had?
Ex-girlfriends? Did he have any enemies?
- But I just--I couldn't come up with anything.
It was a total mystery.
- Talking to Darren's family,
we learned that Darren Partch had conflicts with nobody.
He lived his life in a way that was pretty drama-free.
He's just a good guy.
- Darren and I were both raised
in the Southern California area.
We shared a father and we had different biological mothers.
Although we weren't raised together,
we were able to spend time together
and grow up together.
From the time Darren was born,
his personality was just so sweet, so loving.
I knew he was special with the hockey
because it's all he talked about.
It's all he dreamed about.
It was eat, sleep, and breathe hockey.
After high school, Darren played
for two of our Southern California teams,
the Long Beach Ice Dogs and the San Diego Seagulls.
- After eight years in the Minor Leagues,
Darren began to tire of life on the ice.
In 2005, he quit hockey to pursue a career in finance
in sunny Newport Beach.
- He loved Newport Beach because, basically,
it was life in the fast lane.
He thought there was no better place on Earth.
Darren loved that high, fast-paced life,
but he also loved the beaches.
Darren's passion was still being an athlete
and being on the beach.
And he played roller hockey on the beach every weekend.
At 38 years old, Darren was very much a bachelor.
And he had amazing friends.
There was no way in my mind for even one moment,
not even one second,
that this had something to do with Darren.
- If Darren wasn't the intended target,
detectives consider the next most logical theory.
- You have to identify the woman
because the victim's identity is almost always
gonna lead you to the killer.
- My first thought was, maybe it was her boyfriend,
a husband, or somebody that saw them together.
But nobody knew who she was.
- You see two naked bodies in the manner
in which we found them, was this revenge?
What's the relationship between the two deceased?
Was this a love triangle?
Was this greed?
We needed to find out.
- My grandma said she didn't show up for lunch,
and I was like, "Okay, something's wrong.
- I just broke down crying.
I was like, "Oh, my gosh."
- His criminal history involved a vicious assault
on a police officer.
- He's running stop signs.
Driving on the wrong side of the road.
- And if he was upset, it literally meant
everybody that upset him had to die.
[dramatic music]
* *
- Police in opulent Newport Beach are on the scene
of a horrific double homicide, trying desperately to identify
the woman who was killed
with 38-year-old athlete Darren Partch
and determine how the two knew each other.
- I can't even tell you how many times
they kept asking me, "Who is she?
Do you know?"
I said, "I don't know who it is."
- Investigators go through the house
with Darren's roommate, Dean, trying to identify anything
that might be out of place.
- They located a key fob in the kitchen.
It wasn't Darren's.
[key fob beeps]
- So the detectives activated it
and located a Lexus parked across the street.
We ran the license plate and it came back
to 48-year-old Wendi Miller.
- In the car, they locate a purse
with Wendi's California driver's license inside.
- She looked very similar to the woman
that they had found in the room.
- We discovered that she was reported missing person
several hours earlier out of Costa Mesa.
The Orange County Coroner's Office made
notification to next of kin.
We followed it up with Wendi Miller's mother.
[solemn music]
- My name is Mary Lu Miller,
and I'm the mother of Wendi Sue Miller.
We found out that Wendi had been murdered.
Oh, it was horrible.
I just broke down, of course, crying.
I was like, "Oh, my gosh."
* *
The detectives asked me
the last time I heard from her,
and I said she was gonna come over Easter.
And then Sunday morning before I went to church,
I texted her and I said,
"What time should I expect you?"
And didn't hear anything.
This isn't like Wendi.
So it was sometime in the afternoon,
Luke and Cambria called me and, "Have you heard from Mom?"
* *
- I'm Luke Carpenter, and I'm Wendi Miller's son.
I remember it being--
it was really weird that I had gone so much of the day
without a text from her.
We were like, "Okay, something's going on."
- My name is Cambria Carpenter,
and Wendi Miller is my mom.
As more time went on, it was like,
"No one's heard from her."
My hope just kept getting smaller and smaller and smaller
to the point where, like, you think of, like, the worst.
- And so that afternoon, I called the police department
and I said I wanted to fill out a missing persons report.
- Now, just a few hours later,
investigators are confirming the family's worst fears.
- I found out that she had been murdered.
And...
it was, I mean, like, a shock.
My heart was, like, pounding out of my chest,
and I was just like-- laid on the floor and cried.
And like--like--
oh, my gosh.
[sniffles]
I just remember, like, I was overwhelmed
'cause it was the saddest I'd ever been.
- I said...
I said, "Tell me it's a lie.
"Tell me it's a joke.
There's no way."
It's not fair.
I was in such disbelief. I just wanted to know.
My main question was, like, what the heck happened?
- When investigators explain the circumstances
of Wendi's death, no one in her family
has ever heard the name Darren Partch.
But like Darren's family,
their anguish over the double murder
goes just as deep.
- I told the detectives when Wendi was younger,
she was pretty shy until after she started school.
And then she really came out of her shell and she excelled.
And she was a cheerleader in high school, junior high,
through college.
She walked into the room and she just lit it up.
She always wanted a family.
- Wendi's wish came true in 1996.
She married a classmate from Point Loma College
in San Diego and soon after welcomed
Luke and Cambria into the world.
- We lived in California until we were about four.
And then when we moved to Michigan,
we had, like, these awesome times
of growing up in elementary school.
- But the marriage didn't last long.
After several years in the Midwest,
the couple split.
- My parents got a divorce when I was, I think, nine.
And, I mean, it's always hard when parents split up.
- We ended up with our father.
He ended up getting sole custody.
- It was very heartbreaking because...
Wendi was such a good mom.
It was after she got divorced,
Wendi moved back to Orange County,
but she was very close to her children.
- Wendi's relationship with her kids held strong.
But in talking with several people
in Wendi's life,
detectives learn that she may have had
bad blood with her ex.
- When Wendi and her ex-husband were going through a divorce,
she accused him of abuse.
It's a red flag because it actually might
establish motive of why he might want her killed.
Ex-husband can be very motivated
to want to get revenge or get even with Wendi
for making such an allegation against him.
So now we're wondering if Wendi's in the crosshairs
of a angry ex-husband.
[dramatic music]
* *
- In the gruesome shooting of Wendi Miller
and Darren Partch,
Newport Beach detectives
have honed in on a person of interest,
Wendi's ex-husband.
- She had a divorce that wasn't so amicable.
When you start looking at motives,
murders happen around divorces all the time.
- Since she accused him of abuse...
We wanted to reach out to her ex-husband
and find out, what was the truth?
There's always two sides to a story.
- When the police reached out to Wendi's ex-husband,
he told them that he'd been in Colorado the entire weekend.
- He has since been remarried.
We talked to his wife, and she was able to corroborate
where his whereabouts were at.
- There were a lot of people that could vouch for him
and the fact that he was in Colorado when this happened.
- And he was appropriately emotional.
Despite the problems they had in their marriage,
which led to the divorce, he was a decent human being
who was distraught
when they told him what had happened.
- And the abuse allegations against Wendi's ex-husband
could not be substantiated.
- He didn't appear to have any more motive
than any other divorced person would have.
And he was eliminated very, very quickly.
- With their only suspect cleared,
investigators find themselves with no real leads.
- It's a true whodunit,
meaning we don't know who committed this murder.
We don't have any idea what's going on.
- Police are also still unsure
about how and when the two victims met.
Had they only just connected
a few hours before they were murdered
while out on the town enjoying
the lively Newport singles scene?
- Investigators question Darren's family
and Wendi's family about the relationship
between these two.
- But there was no established relationship
between Darren and Wendi.
- Investigators have little to go on,
so they come up with a plan to construct a timeline
of Friday, April 19th,
the last night Wendi and Darren were seen alive.
- Wendi's mother, Mary Lu, indicated
that she had gone out with her good friend Dana that night.
Wendi's best friend, Dana, was crucial to investigators
because she could really fill in the missing pieces
as to what actually happened
in the hours leading up to their murders.
- So we need to talk to her and we need to know
what she knows and find out quickly.
Dana, she and Wendi went to Good Friday service
down at a church in Dana Point.
They also went out later that evening
to the Sandpiper Lounge.
Sandpiper Lounge in Laguna Beach
is a historical landmark bar in Orange County.
Dana and Wendi, they're just being
two girlfriends going out
and having a good time to unwind.
Sandpiper is a place
known for strangers to become friends.
And in this particular case, Wendi met Darren that night.
- Dana told detectives that they had hit it off
really well, and they hadn't
gotten into a fight with anyone,
and that there was really nothing unusual
that indicated that someone would want to harm them.
- Wendi and Darren are at the bar
in the early morning hours till 1:00, 1:30 a.m.,
and they decide to leave with each other.
And Wendi sends her friend a text
at 1:46 a.m. in the morning
saying that she's at Darren's house.
Basically saying, "Hey, I'm okay.
Here's where I'm at."
- Based on the time frame of when they left the bar
and the time that Dana got the text from Wendi,
it was highly unlikely that they had encountered someone
that would want to do them harm.
- The mystery of how Darren and Wendi knew each other
has finally been solved,
but investigators still aren't any closer
to knowing why they met such a tragic end.
- You would never think
because you're hitting it off with somebody,
that's gonna be, you know, a death sentence.
- Who killed Wendi and Darren may still be a mystery,
but it's one that Newport Beach detectives
are determined to solve.
- The Newport Beach Police Department
are among the finest detectives
I ever had the opportunity to work with.
They are dogged
in their pursuit of homicide cases.
This is the wrong city to commit a murder in
if you want to get away with it.
- As part of their procedure,
investigators quickly put the word out
to neighboring police departments
about the murder involving a .38 caliber.
- Orange County is a patchwork of small communities.
The cops all know each other.
- If this is a random murder, then potentially,
someone could be out on the loose
and they could be committing more crimes in Orange County.
- And just two days after Wendi Miller
and Darren Partch were murdered,
detectives' tactics seem to pay off.
[phone ringing]
- Suddenly, they get information
from a nearby city, the city of Irvine,
that something has happened at an apartment complex
that focuses their investigation
very quickly on a potential killer.
[dramatic music]
* *
- Two days after Wendi Miller
and Darren Partch were murdered,
Newport Beach detectives get a call
from the police department
in the neighboring town of Irvine.
- And they said, "We understand you guys have a homicide
"involving a .38 caliber.
"We just had this odd incident
"that happened with an individual
firing a .38 caliber weapon."
In quiet Irvine, this was such an unusual occurrence.
- The incident happened
just hours after Wendi and Darren were shot
a few miles away
in a similarly serene pocket of Orange County
with the same type of weapon.
Could it be a coincidence,
or was there more to the story?
- What Newport learns from the Irvine Police Department
is, Saturday evening, there was a bizarre event
that took place at an apartment complex.
A man crawled a tree to a second-story balcony.
- He was dressed in all-black clothing
and looking at the homeowner
through her sliding glass door.
* *
So she is panicked because apparently,
a man was breaking in to her home.
And immediately runs to the sliding glass door
and shuts it and locks it and screams.
The suspect was described as an African American male,
about 5'8", about 180 pounds.
- He sees her and he scrambles away.
And as he's doing that, he shoots a round
into a soft piece of wood
in essentially the ceiling of the balcony.
- Irvine crime scene investigators
start processing the scene of this incident
taking DNA from the handrail.
And they also recovered the bullet from the eave.
Everything's gonna go to the crime lab
and get analyzed.
- And then they set up surveillance operation
just in case this guy came back.
* *
- The feeling was, "Listen, someone just fired a gun
"in this neighborhood, a quiet neighborhood,
nice neighborhood."
Irvine's a lot like Newport Beach.
There's not a lot of crime-- violent crime going on.
And so they're gonna put units, undercovers,
unmarked cars in the neighborhood
and just see if they can't find the person responsible
for firing this gun into this house.
If we find him, it could help to solve the murders
of Darren Partch and Wendi Miller.
- Detectives' instincts appear to be right.
Two nights after the incident on the balcony,
Irvine police observe the man return.
- At 11:30 p.m., in Irvine,
a man in a black Camaro
matching the description had pulled up
to the same location.
- They run the plate and there is a name.
And it's Jamon Buggs.
As soon as they get a name, the next step is determining
his criminal history, which, in this case,
involved a vicious assault on a police officer
and a restraining order.
So they knew that they were dealing with somebody
who was dangerous.
- Then, suddenly, the Camaro begins to drive away.
- So Irvine Police Department,
their undercover units follow him.
And they call a black-and-white unit
to come in and make a traffic stop
because he didn't have a front license plate.
- And what does he do?
He takes off.
- And then all hell breaks loose.
[sirens wailing]
* *
He's running stop signs.
Driving on the wrong side of the road.
He abandons his vehicle in a cul-de-sac
and starts running.
And Irvine Police notices he's carrying a blue bag
in one of his hands.
And that's a big concern for any police officer
when you're chasing somebody.
What's in the bag? Is it a gun?
So they set up a perimeter and call our SWAT teams out
because they're trained in knowing how to capture
an individual that's armed.
Finally, at 3:59 a.m., Buggs is surrounded
and taken into custody
for evading the police
and hit-and-run driving.
- At this point, Mr. Buggs is going nowhere.
- Buggs doesn't have a weapon or the blue bag
he was carrying when he ran from police.
But near where he was captured,
Irvine Police discover it with a gun inside.
- The gun is a .38 caliber snub-nosed revolver.
It was a perfect match for the expended bullet
that's found in the wood of the apartment complex.
- But is it the same .38 that murdered Darren and Wendi
in the early hours of Saturday morning?
Newport detectives send it to the crime lab for testing.
While they wait for the results,
they search Buggs' car for any possible connection
to the victims.
- On April 24th at 4:10 p.m.,
Newport Beach detectives go and search
Buggs' Chevy Camaro.
We wanted to see if there was any type of evidence
inside the Camaro that would link him
back to the crime scene at Darren's house.
And the mother lode of evidence is,
we find a yellow notepad, handwritten notepad,
with Darren's name written on it.
What this tells us is that
Jamon Buggs was definitely targeting Darren Partch.
[dramatic music]
* *
- Newport Beach detectives believe
that recently arrested Jamon Buggs
may be the cold-blooded killer
who murdered Wendi Miller and Darren Partch.
- We think we know who's involved in this crime,
but we don't know motive and we don't know the why.
- A week into the case, the horrifying crime
has captured the public's attention.
- I'm Paul Anderson, and I covered
the double homicide of Wendi Miller
and Darren Partch.
Obviously, a lot of the publicity
about the killings is now generating more leads.
- We received a phone call from a gentleman
who tells us that, "Listen, I saw a press release.
"And I think I have a guy on my security cameras
"coming around my neighborhood,
and you should take a look at it."
- It turns out, the person
who's in the home surveillance video
is Jamon Buggs.
And what's significant is that it's where
Darren Partch used to live.
- With Buggs in custody for evading police
and hit-and-run driving,
investigators obtain a search warrant
for his digital history.
- We started looking at phone records,
the computers and cell phones
that Buggs had in his possession.
- And as they're going through his computer activity,
they're finding multiple searches for Darren Partch.
- Some of that search history was those different entities
that you can pay to get individual's information
of where they live, addresses, phone numbers,
that sort of thing.
April 14th through April 19th is the search history
when Buggs was searching
this type of information for Darren.
- On April 20th, the two victims were murdered.
- Investigators dig into the details
of Buggs' calling history
and discover something even more chilling.
- Buggs' cell phone actually did call
Darren Partch's cell phone a couple different times.
- These calls from Buggs to Darren's phone
took place a few weeks before the murder.
- No one knows who Buggs is
from Darren's side of the family,
but we have physical evidence
and a connection to our victim Darren Partch.
That is a big, big deal.
- It's a vital piece of information,
but detectives still don't know
how Buggs and Darren knew each other.
- So investigators went back to Darren's roommate,
Dean Matheson, to see if he had any information
about a relationship between Buggs and Darren.
- Dean can't recall anyone named Jamon Buggs,
but he does remember that Darren told him
about some very unnerving recent calls.
- Darren had received a few irate calls
from a male warning him to stay away from a girlfriend.
- And Darren had said, "I don't even know her.
I just met her once."
- Darren told Dean that the guy was really intense and angry
and wouldn't believe that he wasn't involved
with his girlfriend.
- But Dean Matheson didn't know the caller
or who his girlfriend might be.
- At this point, detectives looked
into Buggs' record to see if there was any evidence
of a prior girlfriend.
- And they see multiple searches
for a lady by the name of Samantha Brewers.
- But the question was,
did Samantha have a link to Darren?
Police tracked down Samantha Brewers
in her home.
- When police ask Samantha about Buggs,
she said that he is a personal fitness trainer.
He and Samantha met at a gym.
And she hired him to be her trainer.
And, as often happens in these cases,
they fell in love.
- But then they just broke up.
Buggs was having a hard time with the breakup
and was keeping tabs on her.
- On January 15, 2019,
Samantha Brewers had filed a restraining order
against Jamon Buggs.
The report stated that she was afraid of him.
He was becoming possessive and jealous.
And she was in such fear for her safety
that she needed the court to intervene.
- We asked Samantha if she knew Darren Partch,
and she said, "We're acquaintances.
We met at a gym, but there was no romantic relationship."
- Samantha explains that a few months ago,
she and Partch exchanged information,
but Partch quickly put the brakes
on their friendship.
- Darren had told Samantha Buggs had called him.
And he said, "I don't want to get
"in the middle of your drama.
We'll just have to call this off."
- Samantha showed the detectives
the text messages between her and Darren.
And it let police know that she was telling the truth
about her relationship with Darren.
- It seems that Darren wasn't the only man
to attract Buggs' fury.
- Mr. Buggs also confronted
Samantha Brewers' new boyfriend,
and he showed up at his office.
Threatened him. This was in March of 2019.
- It was only a month before the murders occurred.
- Case hit critical mass at that point
because we'd discovered Samantha Brewers' new boyfriend
lived for a time at this address in Irvine
where Buggs was trying to get in with the gun.
He went to that house
with the intent to commit murder.
- It appears Jamon Buggs was intent on killing any new man
in Samantha Brewers' life.
It's one of the oldest motives in the book:
jealousy.
- Jamon Buggs gets it in his head
that Darren Partch is hitting on his girlfriend,
Samantha Brewers.
And he decides
to not only murder Darren Partch
but this completely innocent woman.
- We believe Buggs is stalking Darren
and, on the night of the murder,
stumbles across Wendi.
And was it possible that from outside a window,
Buggs thought that Wendi Miller was Samantha?
Possible. They're both blonde.
Clearly, Wendi was at the wrong place
at the wrong time.
- Then, just days after the murder,
the forensics lab confirms
that Jamon Buggs is, indeed, a killer.
- In our homicide scene, there were
multiple bullets that were recovered
from Darren Partch's bedroom.
They're a perfect ballistic match
to the expended bullet
that's found in the wood of the apartment complex
where he tried to kill
Samantha Brewers' most recent boyfriend.
- Once we had that match, we had enough evidence
to arrest Jamon Buggs for the murder
of Darren Partch and Wendi Miller.
[somber music]
- On April 25th, I received a phone call from our father.
And he said, "Please come to Darren's place.
The police have asked to meet with the family."
As I'm sitting there, the first words
out of the detective's mouth was,
"I just want you to know that we have the person
"that has done this in custody.
"And we have a very dangerous person
off the streets."
- But investigators' work is far from over.
- You never know.
You never know till the jury deliberates.
I knew that we were gonna do everything we could
to bring justice to their family.
Because the only thing worse than murder
is having the person who did it get away with it.
[dramatic music]
* *
- On April 25, 2022, Orange County braces itself
for the high-profile trial of Jamon Buggs
for the murders of Wendi Miller
and Darren Partch.
- Three years after Buggs is charged
with this double murder, it comes to trial
almost on the anniversary of the murders.
- I did go to the trial.
And I just remember, he was sitting down.
And I just saw the back of his head.
I was thinking, why would anybody want to murder my mom?
There's nothing that she could have done
to make someone want to kill her.
And, like, it was just like this red mist.
I was so mad.
- Through the course of testimony,
the Orange County DA presents their theory
of what happened the night Wendi and Darren were shot.
- In his people finder searches,
Buggs, he was able to get Darren Partch's actual address.
He shows up approximately 2:00 in the morning or so
outside of Darren Partch's apartment.
- He noticed that the front door
was left unlocked.
- All we know for sure is that he made entry,
got into the bedroom,
shot Wendi Miller in the head,
and then he shot Darren Partch multiple times.
- The prosecution had an abundance of evidence
against Buggs.
Buggs clearly matched the description
that was given by the woman in Irvine.
He fled.
Flight is an indication of someone's guilt.
He dumped the gun. They located the gun.
The ballistics from that gun that he fired that night
in Irvine came back to the same bullets
that were used to murder.
And then you have the motive.
You have the connection between Darren and Samantha Brewers.
The notebook that was located in Jamon Buggs' Camaro trunk
had Darren's name and address written on it.
This was a key piece of evidence
for the prosecution to show premeditation
and deliberation.
It's someone who's plotting and planning.
Trying to find any place where he can find someone
who might have some type of connection
to Samantha Brewers so he can hunt them down
in cold blood...
[gunshot] And murder them.
* *
- Eight days later, arguments conclude
and Buggs' fate rests in the jury's hands.
- Darren's mom said, "Honey, the jury has gone in,
and they're gonna make a decision."
I immediately--that was one of the first times
I got a little nervous.
- The jury was out for approximately three hours.
It was a clean sweep on everything.
- On May 3, 2022, Jamon Buggs was found guilty
of two counts of first-degree premeditated murder.
He received two life without parole sentences.
- What was surprising about sentencing was,
Buggs went on about how it was a case of mistaken identity,
which prompted Judge Prickett to note,
"I don't think it was a case of mistaken identity."
- Samantha's tall, thin.
Wendi's, like, 5'3" and has real curly hair.
No. He killed Wendi
because she would have been a witness.
You know, she could have identified him shooting Darren.
- I was glad that they got him behind bars.
Okay, he's out of my life.
He's out of the world.
- Someone who takes a life
doesn't deserve to have a life.
He's where he needs to be, and he should stay there
until the end of time.
- Jamon Buggs is a vicious, violent criminal.
And if he was upset, it literally meant
everybody that upset him had to die.
It's a tremendous sense of relief.
You know, the family got justice.
[somber music]
- I thank the attorney and all the detectives
for all the work they did.
But just because the trial is over, it's not.
It's still the hurt and the sadness
of losing a child still there.
- They say time heals.
Not true.
I just wish--
I just wish for one more phone call,
one more text message.
But you know what?
We'll be together again.
That I can promise you.
* *