Left: Austin Doucette (Franklin County Sheriff”s Office). Right: Mikayla Rose DeSantis (GoFundMe).
Additional details have been revealed in a case out of Maine where a man is charged with killing his girlfriend by shooting her in the chest.
Austin Doucette, 24, stands accused of murder in the death of 23-year-old Mikayla Rose DeSantis, according to the Maine State Police.
The underlying incident occurred at the Left Bank condominiums in Carrabassett Valley, a tiny town some 120 miles north of Portland.
On March 8, DeSantis was shot and airlifted to Maine Medical Center in Portland, where she succumbed to her injuries.
Late last week, Doucette was formally indicted by a Franklin County grand jury on one count of intentional or knowing murder.
Doucette maintains the shooting was an accident and said as much to both 911 dispatchers and police investigators, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Poland Spring-based ABC affiliate WMTW.
That characterization was also relayed by the defendant’s lawyer.
“This appears to be a terrible accident and we hope to get more information in the near future regarding the circumstances of the situation,” defense attorney Verne E. Paradie told the TV station.
On the night of the shooting, a 911 call was placed that led dispatchers and investigators to believe a man and woman involved in a shooting were in a vehicle heading south on Route 27 to meet an ambulance, according to the affidavit. Paramedics met DeSantis and Doucette and found her suffering from multiple wounds to her abdomen. She was rushed to nearby MaineHealth Franklin Hospital in Farmington. The victim was later taken via helicopter to Maine Medical Center in Portland, where she died.
Meanwhile, Doucette traveled along on his own and was detained by the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, according to the affidavit.
The defendant himself made the emergency call, according to the charging document. A detective reviewing the 911 transcript described the caller as “very hysterical throughout” the phone call “as he was yelling and shouting.” The detective also wrote he heard the caller say something about “a gunshot go off.”
“I can’t believe I did this,” the caller said at one point, police claim. Then, Doucette allegedly told the dying woman: “I’m sorry babe.”
The caller also mentioned a gun and said it had accidentally gone off, according to law enforcement. After that, the defendant allegedly told the dispatcher he was leaving with the victim to obtain aid.
Moments later, the first call terminated, law enforcement said. Then, a few minutes after that, the man called 911 again.
“My girlfriend has a gunshot wound,” the caller told the dispatcher during the second call, adding: “It accidentally went off.”
The narrative of an accident appeared consistent in both calls.
The defendant identified the victim by her first name and said she had been shot in the “stomach/abdomen area,” according to police.
“I would never do this,” he allegedly told the dispatcher later on in the second call before adding, “I don’t want to go to jail.”
When law enforcement first arrived at the residence, Doucette was speeding away from the scene of the crime, according to police.
The Maine State Police Evidence Response Team recently executed a search warrant at Doucette’s condo, according to the affidavit.
Inside, investigators found a .45-caliber handgun on the living room couch, according to the affidavit. The location of the gun aligns with statements the defendant made during an earlier custodial interview.
The officer who found the gun described the slide of the weapon as locked back to the rear and said the magazine was on the couch next to the gun, according to the affidavit. Notably, law enforcement officials said they spotted three spent shell casings of Blazer .45 auto ammunition on the living room floor — as well as an unspent round on the couch.
One of the fired bullets went through the coffee table and then through the floor before causing damage to the roof of the condo below, police said. Efforts to recover this bullet were unsuccessful.
A second bullet went through a couch pillow and into the back of the couch, according to law enforcement. A third bullet went through another pillow and the back of the couch before hitting a wooden door and falling to the floor. Both the second and third bullets were recovered by investigators, according to the affidavit.
An autopsy was completed on April 13, according to the charging document. The medical examiner determined DeSantis’ death was a homicide caused by multiple gunshot wounds. Specifically, the examiner found two gunshot wounds in the victim’s chest.
A GoFundMe started by the victim’s brother remembers her fondly.
“Makayla was the most heartfelt, well-minded woman I’ve ever been around,” the fundraiser reads. “She was the best big sister and the greatest role model I could’ve asked for, and was the most loving girl, who loved to bake for her loved ones, loved to do crafts in her free time, loved to paint, and enjoyed going to work every day and being around people who supported her and loved her for who she was.”
The victim and her alleged killer had been together for nearly eight years, according to her family.
