Santa Ana woman’s murderer finally convicted after three years

Leticia Mahe, a 50-year-old resident of Santa Ana, was murdered on July 14, 2021. Her killer, Kennedy Anthony Audain, a 55-year-old man, was finally convicted on Thursday of fatally stabbing Mahe, who was his girlfriend, at a Garden Grove motel.

Audain was convicted of first-degree murder with a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a knife. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 13. He is facing up to 26 years to life in prison.

Audain killed Mahe just before 5:45 a.m. on Wednesday, july 14, 2021, at a Motel 6 located at12091 Trask Ave., according to Senior OCDA Deputy District Attorney Harris Siddiq.

Mahe dialed 911, and told the police that Audain was holding her captive at knifepoint, at the Motel 6.

A responding police officer saw Mahe through a window as he was pacing back and forth in the room, “yelling and screaming,” according to Siddiq.

Mahe then throw dirty clothes from a hamper onto the bed before he spotted flames and heard the smoke alarm go off, accordng to Siddiq.

When the police officers knocked on the motel door, there did not get a response. However, they got into the room by using a hotel master key a short time later and then arrested Audain, whose clothes were stained with blood.

Mahe had multiple stab wounds to her abdomen, upper torso, neck, head, back and arms, according to Siddiq. She was pronounced dead at the hotel.

Witnesses at the hotel heard Mahe and Audain arguing at about 5 a.m. One of them said “I love you” multiple times before the woman cried out, Siddiq said.

Another witnessheard a “table getting flipped over and things being tossed around,” according to Siddiq. He told the jury that it sounded as if Mahe was being beaten.

Mahe had “extremely low intellectual ability” as well as a “traumatic brain injury, which likely also had contributed to his limited cognitive ability,” according to an expert noted in the court records.

The expert also said that Mahe had “multiple neurocognitive” issues that affected “his problem-solving and self-regulation capacities,” according to Mahe’s public defender, Thomas Nocella.

The expert also testified that Mahe’s intoxication on methamphetamine also affected his decision-making.

Audain had a long history of criminal activities including:

• 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.