Man found guilty of brutally slaying his girlfriend in Huntington Beach

A jury convicted a Huntington Beach man who was abusing his girlfriend in the weeks leading up to her fatal stabbing in 2020 of first-degree murder on Tuesday.

After a week of testimony, it took the jury roughly two hours to unanimously find 39-year-old Craig Charron guilty of killing Laura Sardinha on Sept. 2, 2020. Her mother, Marie Sardinha, broke into tears as the verdict was announced at the Orange County Superior Courthouse in Santa Ana, before embracing other friends and relatives who were present throughout the trial.

The defendant was scheduled to appear for sentencing July 25. He and his attorney, Michael Guisti, had requested a continuance to allow Charron to sort out unrelated business with the Veteran’s Affair’s office, which Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Janine Madera objected to.

“Next of kin and loved ones have waited long enough,” she said.

Charron said Sardinha, snuck up behind him and tried to cut his throat with a knife, resulting in a struggle. But prosecutors say the defendant ambushed the victim, then injured himself and manipulated evidence in an effort to gaslight investigators.

Guisti, acknowledged his client had been violent and manipulative with Sardinha in the weeks leading up to her killing. He hit her hard enough to perforate one of her ear drums according to a medical exam performed Aug. 16, 2020.

The defendant is heard threatening to end their relationship as the victim repeatedly tells him she is in pain in a cellphone video recorded that morning. Later Charron begs Sardinha not to report the incident to authorities in texts sent while she was at the hospital.

“Would you be willing to talk to me without calling me names or hitting me?” she wrote in a reply. “...I’m so scared you won’t stop.”

But the abuse didn’t end, according to footage recorded in the hours leading up to Sardinha’s killing. She is heard asking Charron to leave her alone over 50 times as he harasses her at 4 a.m. Charron is seen continuing to berate her in videos shot on their patio later that morning.

Charron is also heard saying “don’t hurt me” when Sardinha picks up her laptop and walks away from him to go inside. Madera claimed that was an attempt to manipulate potential viewers into believing the defendant was afraid of being harmed by her. The prosecutor also noted Sardinha was 10 inches shorter and over 100 pounds lighter than the defendant.

After that exchange Sardinha went to their building’s leasing office to have Charron evicted and the locks to their apartment replaced. When he texted to ask if he could come over to gather his belongings, she referred him to property management.

By that afternoon the victim was at home celebrating her freedom from Charron in a conference call with her mother and best friend. That conversation was interrupted at around 1:15 p.m. when Sardinha’s relatives heard her exclaim “Oh my [expletive] God, he’s here,” followed by her screams and the sound of her phone falling to the ground. It’s unclear how Charron got back into the residence.

“She fought like hell to her last dying breath,” Madera told jurors. “...Laura was the most powerful witness you heard in this trial.”

Blood streaked the walls and floors of their apartment in photos presented during trial. Sardinha was slumped facedown against the jamb of their bathroom door with two fatal stab wounds to the chest as well as numerous cuts to her head and hands.

In police body-worn camera footage, Charron was seen lying on the ground in the hallway just around the corner with wounds to his throat and chest. The defendant’s injuries featured several shallow slashes next to a two deeper cuts, one on his neck and another at his heart. His attorney, Michael L. Guisti, claimed those were made by the victim.

However, Dr. Nicole Ellis of the Orange County Coroner’s Office testified that the surface lacerations were consistent with what are known as hesitation wounds, suggesting those as well as his most serious injuries were self-inflicted.

Madera suggested Charron attempted to flee the scene of the crime but, after seeing flashing sirens and hearing a police helicopter overhead, he instead went back inside, cut himself and planted a knife near Sardinha’s body. She pointed to droplets of what appeared to be blood at the bottom of the stairs leading to their apartment that are only seen in the body worn camera footage after officers arrived, as well as a pool of Charron’s blood near the entrance of their home that was separate from where he and the victim were found, as evidence of her theory.

Guisti challenged Madera’s theory, noting Charron nearly bled out as a result of his injuries. Guisti said it was unreasonable to believe his client could have precisely orchestrated events “just in time to lose his vital signs and die on the floor” before first responders resuscitated him.

“They need you to believe my client is a faker,” Guisti said.

Madera challenged Charron’s credibility, noting that in previous interviews with police he claimed to have been arguing with Sardinha for about an hour before their violent confrontation. However her mother and best friend testified they heard no such argument while they were on the phone with her immediately prior to the attack.

Other witnesses brought to the stand included three women who all filed restraining orders against the defendant after dating him between 2013 and 2017. One of them testified being strangled and struck with a wine bottle in the predawn hours after her birthday in Oct., 2015. At some point during that confrontation, the defendant recorded himself saying the words “Rachel stop hitting me,” Madera said.

Guisti pointed out that one of thsoe women admitted hitting his client. Charron testified during trial, and said what past lovers had characterized as violent episodes were rough sex or otherwise misunderstandings.

Madera noted that he claimed to have no recollection of critical events and refused to review transcripts provided to refresh his memory when questioned during cross examination about inconsistencies he presented in his interviews with police. Guisti said Charron was in a hospital, intubated, taking medication for pain and recovering from injuries, all of which would have impacted his memory.

Marie Sardinha recalled confusion and asking her daughter “who’s here?” followed by horror as violence unfolded on the other end of the line. The victim’s mother called police then immediately drove from her home in Long Beach to her daughter’s apartment in Huntington Beach. But by the time she arrived, Laura Sardinha had already been killed.

At some point during the attack two calls were sent from the victim’s phone. One resulted in a voicemail in which she is heard “narrating a portion of her own murder.”

About a week later the recording appeared in Shaina Smith’s inbox. Smith is Laura Sardinha’s best friend of 21 years.

Loved ones said Laura Sardinha loved to cook, but had trouble using a knife following a motorcycle crash in 2019. Smith described her as a typically outgoing and happy person. But she stopped hearing from her friend as much and noticed a change in her demeanor shortly after she started dating the defendant about two months before she was killed.