A Bedford man was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Wednesday for the beating death of his girlfriend on a beach in Maine in 2021, the Associated Press reported.
Jeffrey Buchannan, 36, pleaded guilty to murder under a plea agreement. He told police he blacked out before attacking Rhonda Pattelena, 35, who was beaten with a rock on Short Sands Beach in York on March 26, 2021. Pattelena and Buchannan had a child together, and she had wanted him to see her favorite beach, according to the AP.
