Global Courant
A court-appointed doctor has determined that Carlos Reales Dominguez, a former UC Davis student accused of killing two men and wounding a woman in a series of stabbings that shook the quiet college town, is mentally incapable of to stand trial for these crimes.
Yolo County Supreme Court Justice Samuel McAdam announced the finding at a court hearing on Tuesday. Prosecutors in the case disagreed with the finding and requested a jury trial on the issue of Dominguez’s competence, the Davis Enterprise reported. McAdam has scheduled the hearing for July 24.
“I want to apologize and say I’m guilty,” Dominguez, 21, said in court on Tuesday before his public defender, Dan Hutchinson, asked for a brief suspension. McAdam ordered that the confession be struck from the record.
Dominguez is charged with a series of apparently random stabbings carried out over several days in late April and early May. Two of the attacks took place in local parks, casting a shadow over a city that celebrates with its green space, youth sports and outdoor markets. Dominguez pleaded not guilty at his May 5 arraignment.
Dominguez was first detained on May 3. Police apprehended him near the scene of one of the murders after several Davis residents called police to say he matched a description given by witnesses to two of the attacks.
The first attack was discovered on April 27, when authorities found the bloodied body of 50-year-old David Henry Breaux, a Stanford University graduate who chose to live outdoors and often spent nights in Davis’s leafy Central Park. Breaux had been stabbed to death on a couch where he slept.
Two days later, Karim Abou Najm, 20, a UC Davis senior and Davis High School graduate, was fatally stabbed in Sycamore Park as he cycled home from a college event. Hearing sounds of fear, a neighbor rushed to Najm’s aid but was unable to save him.
Days later, a woman in her 60s was attacked while sleeping in a homeless camp near the center of the city. She was alone in her tent when her attacker cut the canvas, reached inside and stabbed her repeatedly. She was hospitalized but survived.
When police arrested Dominguez, they said they found a large “hunting knife” in his backpack. Davis police chief Darren Pytel said investigators spoke with Dominguez for hours before arresting him for all three crimes.
Following the arrest, UC Davis officials said Dominguez had been “separated” from the school for poor academic performance less than two days before the violence began.
Dominguez, who came to the U.S. from El Salvador in 2009 as an unaccompanied minor, was a veteran student and athlete at Castlemont High School in Oakland. He graduated in 2020 and enrolled at UC Davis.
After his arrest, his father expressed his shock in a brief telephone interview with The Times: “He was so excited to go to Davis. I don’t understand how this could happen,” said the father.
The violence sent a chill through life in the small town of Davis. People were afraid to go out at night and businesses closed their doors early. Community members openly mourned the death of two kind and beloved residents.
After Tuesday’s hearing, Abou Najm’s mother, Nadine Yehya, told the Davis Enterprise that she “couldn’t stop crying” when she heard Dominguez’s confession in court. She and her husband, Majdi Abou Najm, have dedicated themselves to efforts to honor their son’s life, including a mental health research initiative and better interventions to help people before they commit terrible acts. On Sunday, the family attended Abou Najm’s graduation ceremony.
