Sacramento man who killed, buried his mom in backyard convicted of murder

A Sacramento judge needed just 44 minutes to convict Scott Dallas Boyer of second-degree murder for killing his mother and burying her body in the backyard of their Natomas home in 2015.

Sentencing is Aug. 23 before Sacramento Superior Court Judge Stephen Acquisto. Boyer remains held without bail in Sacramento County Main Jail pending the sentencing date.

Boyer waived his right to a jury as trial began. The six-day court trial ended Wednesday with Acquisto’s verdict.

Boyer was arrested Aug. 13, 2015 after a brawl with family members who walked in on him in the backyard of the Natomas home he shared with his mother, Roseanne Brown.

A neighbor’s phone call brought the family members to the home on Aug. 13, 2015. Brown hadn’t been heard from in days, neighbors and relatives would later tell Sacramento police.

They found Boyer trying to drag a portable above-ground pool over a pile of dirt, prosecutors told Acquisto, according to court records.

When they asked about Brown, Boyer lied. He said Brown left with a friend “four or five days ago.”

Next to Boyer and the dirt mound sat a trash can full of bloodstained clothes.

When the family members ran into the home to find Brown, they instead found dried blood on the walls. Boyer followed them inside and the fight was on.

One of the family members was able to pull away and head outside to flag down police while Boyer continued to fight the other relative.

Police would later find more blood throughout the house and Brown’s body buried in the backyard.

Prosecutors said the killing happened in the kitchen. Brown had been stabbed twice in the back with what prosecutors described as “significant force.”

Brown’s murder came after years of loud arguments and worse.

Boyer was so violent with his mother so often that police were regularly dispatched to the home and that neighbors knew to call relatives if they sensed anything unusual happening at the house on Trail End Way.

Sacramento County District Attorney’s prosecutors introduced transcripts of Brown’s calls to emergency dispatchers in the months before she was killed.

In one of the incidents, Brown called a dispatcher from her bedroom, the door locked behind her. She said Boyer attacked her after she caught him taking pills from her purse. It wasn’t the first time, she said.

Prosecutors argued at trial that Brown was “fed up with (Boyer) stealing medication and wanted him out,” the trial record shows.

“My son just choked me,” Brown told dispatchers. “My neighbor saw him choking me.”

When the dispatcher asked if she needed an ambulance, Brown replied, “I don’t need an ambulance. I need him out of here.”

This story was originally published August 2, 2019 at 4:26 PM.