An Elk Grove man is set to be sentenced in January after a jury convicted him last week of killing a Windsor man in Santa Rosa, in what prosecutors say was an act of jealousy.
Diego Kekahuna, 21, faces 25 years to life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Bryan Mendez, 20. Jurors also upheld additional allegations that Kekahuna fired a gun and caused a death, which could add more time to his sentence.
The trial, overseen by Judge Laura Passaglia, lasted six days in Sonoma County Superior Court. Jurors began deliberations Sept. 16 and returned their verdict a day and a half later, according to court records.
Mendez, a friend of Kekahuna’s girlfriend, was killed on Slater Street in Santa Rosa — the city’s first homicide of 2024. In a sentencing brief, Deputy District Attorney Robert Rasp wrote that Mendez was shot seven times in “an execution-style killing.”
“The defendant showed little remorse following the killing and even engaged in mocking the victim’s death on recorded jail phone calls,” Rasp wrote.
Investigators said the violence stemmed from Kekahuna’s suspicions that his girlfriend was cheating on him. Since mid-2023, he had sent her angry text messages accusing her of infidelity, threatening suicide and berating her.
On May 12, Kekahuna took an Uber to Santa Rosa to see her. He slept in her car and at her home while she was away. Though she initially knew he was nearby, he continued showing up without her knowledge. She told him to leave before she came home with Mendez the night of May 13. Kekahuna left but returned after they arrived.
A confrontation followed outside the home. Mendez came out and was shot twice before falling. Kekahuna then approached and fired five more rounds at his head, court records state.
Investigators found a small ceramic paring knife under Mendez, though records did not say why it was there.
Surveillance video showed Kekahuna yelling, “He walked up on me.” He continued to claim self-defense after his arrest and in later court appearances. The footage also captured him hiding a handgun in the wheel well of a parked truck, where officers later recovered it.
After the shooting, Kekahuna called his parents, who picked him up. He was arrested the next day at their home.
You can reach Staff Writer Colin Atagi at colin.atagi@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @colin_atagi.