A 55-year-old man was convicted Thursday of fatally stabbing his girlfriend in a Garden Grove motel nearly three years ago.
Kennedy Anthony Audain was convicted of first-degree murder with a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a knife. Audain, who is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 13, faces 26 years to life in prison.
Jurors deliberated for about three hours before convicting Audain of killing 50-year-old Leticia Mahe of Santa Ana July 14, 2021.
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Audain killed the victim just before 5:45 a.m. Wednesday in a Motel 6 at12091 Trask Ave., according to a trial brief from Senior Deputy District Attorney Harris Siddiq.
Mahe dialed 911, saying the defendant was holding her captive at knifepoint, Siddiq said.
An officer dispatched to the motel saw the defendant through a window pacing in the room, "yelling and screaming," Siddiq said.
The defendant then throw clothes from a hamper on the bed before he spotted flames and heard the smoke alarm go off, the prosecutor said.
When officers knocked the door, there was no response, but they got in with a master key a short time later and arrested Audain, whose clothes were stained with blood, Siddiq said.
Mahe sustained multiple stab wounds to her abdomen, upper torso, neck, head, back and arms, Siddiq said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
A couple in a neighboring room heard the two arguing about 5 a.m. with one saying, "I love you" multiple times before the woman cried, Siddiq said.
Another neighbor heard a "table getting flipped over and things being tossed around," Siddiq said. It also sounded as if the victim was being beaten, the prosecutor said.
According to court records, an expert has said that the defendant has "extremely low intellectual ability" as well as a "traumatic brain injury, which likely also had contributed to his limited cognitive ability."
The expert said the defendant has "multiple neurocognitive" issues that affect "his problem-solving and self-regulation capacities," Nocella said.
The defendant's intoxication on methamphetamine also affected his decision-making, according to the expert.
Audain was on probation at the time of the stabbing. He pleaded guilty June 7, 2021, to assault on a peace officer, resisting arrest and contempt of court for disobeying a restraining order, all misdemeanors, and was sentenced to 76 days in jail.
As part of that case, Audain was charged with stalking and stalking with a restraining order a law enforcement officer, but those felony counts were dismissed May 24, 2021, according to court records.
Audain pleaded guilty to a felony count of stalking April 25, 2019, and was sentenced to 210 days in jail and placed on three years of formal probation then. He pleaded guilty to felony resisting an officer and misdemeanor criminal threats Oct. 2, 2018, and was sentenced to 90 days in jail and placed on three years probation.
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