SANTA ANA — A 55-year-old man was sentenced Friday to 26 years to life in prison for fatally stabbing his girlfriend in a Garden Grove motel nearly three years ago.
Kennedy Anthony Audain was convicted July 11 of first-degree murder with a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a knife.
Jurors deliberated for about three hours before convicting Audain of killing 50-year-old Leticia Mahe of Santa Ana July 14, 2021.
Audain killed the victim just before 5:45 a.m. in a Motel 6 at12091 Trask Ave., according to a trial brief from Senior Deputy District Attorney Harris Siddiq.
The prosecutor argued in court papers that the defendant was ineligible for probation because “he used a weapon, inflicted physical injury, was an active participate in the crime, has a prior record indicating a pattern of regular or increasingly serious conduct, lacks remorse, and will be a danger to the community if not imprisoned.”
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.
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 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.
Audain earlier 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.
