JURY: Arizona man guilty of murder – Larry Basford

A four-day trial ended Friday when a jury found an Arizona man guilty of strangling his boyfriend in their hotel room during a trip to Panama City Beach in 2021, prosecutor Larry Basford announced.

Scottie Jay Black, 43, of Tonalea, Arizona, was found guilty of second-degree murder in the October 3, 2021 death of Tyrell James Sagg, 41, of Rock Point, Arizona. Both areas are part of the Navajo Nation, where Black was eventually picked up for questioning.

The case began on October 3, 2021, when the defendant and the victim's girlfriend reported finding him dead on the floor of their hotel room in Panama City Beach. The three were here on vacation. There were no visible injuries to the victim.

A later autopsy revealed that the victim had internal injuries consistent with being strangled. Further investigation revealed that the defendant and the woman later withdrew money using the victim's ATM card and returned to Arizona. Other evidence showed that no one else entered or left the room while the victim was being killed.

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In the trial, prosecutors Peter Overstreet and Nadia DeAbreu called twelve witnesses. They included a detective from the Navajo Nation Police Department who helped search for the suspect and two investigators from the Panama City Beach Police Department who flew to Arizona to interview Black. This five-hour interview, during which the defendant's story changed several times, was played in its entirety for the jury.

“Mr. “Black thought he could have covered up his crime well,” Overstreet said. “However, the testimony of the medical examiner (Jay Radtke) and the extremely thorough investigation by detectives from the Panama City Beach Police Department led the jury to the truth about what happened in the hotel room that fateful night.”

The jury deliberated for approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Basford thanked the Panama City Beach Police Department, the Medical Examiner's Office and the Navajo Nation Police Department for their work on the case, which spanned the country.

For more information, contact Mike Cazalas at [email protected] or call 850-381-7454.