Trial in Davis stabbing spree reinstated after Carlos Reales Dominguez deemed mentally competent

A Yolo Superior Court judge reinstated criminal proceedings Friday against Carlos Reales Dominguez, the 22-year-old accused of a stabbing spree that injected fear throughout Davis last spring after two people were killed and a woman was severely injured.

Friday’s nearly 10-minute hearing marked the first time since August that Reales Dominguez appeared in the Woodland courthouse to face the criminal charges levied against him. He has spent the past few months receiving treatment at Atascadero State Hospital to restore his mental competency.

Reales Dominguez entered the courtroom Friday morning wearing a gray-striped Yolo County Jail inmate uniform. His long hair was combed back away from his face. It was a stark contrast from the gaunt young man from this past summer who at times refused to eat or drink while in jail and appeared to stare at nothing while in the courtroom with stringy, unkempt hair sometimes covering his face.

The former UC Davis student is charged with murder and attempted murder in the three attacks. David Breaux, 50, and UC Davis student Karim Abou Najm, 20, were killed in separate Davis city parks days apart. Their slayings were followed by the brutal attack on 64-year-old Kimberlee Guillory as she slept in her tent in a homeless encampment. She survived the stabbing.

The criminal case against Reales Dominguez was suspended after prosecutors conceded he was mentally incompetent to understand the charges he faces and assist in his own legal defense. This announcement came after impaneled jurors heard testimony from his ex-girlfriend, roommates and friends to determine whether he was mentally fit.

Judge Samuel McAdam started Friday’s hearing by summarizing a report on Reales Dominguez’s mental health status from the California Department of State Hospitals. McAdam said the report was dated Dec. 20, but the court did not receive the report until Dec. 27. Last week, the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office announced that doctors had determined that Reales Dominguez’s mental competency was now restored.

The judge said the doctor’s report indicates that Reales Dominguez has “sufficient knowledge and sufficient understanding of the legal procedure and charges, and his mental health disorder of schizophrenia with catatonia.”

“The report also indicates that the defendant has the capacity to rationally assist legal counsel,” McAdam said. “The report further indicates that the risk of self-harm is low, and the risk of harm to others in an institutional setting is low. And again, most importantly, the report indicates that the defendant is certified as competent to stand trial.”

Yolo County Deputy Public Defender Daniel Hutchinson did not challenge the state hospital findings detailed in the report.

Preliminary hearing before trial

The judge reinstated Reales Dominguez’s criminal case, but there still is another legal procedure that the court has to undertake before the case can proceed to trial.

McAdam scheduled a preliminary hearing to begin Feb. 26, when the attorneys will have an opportunity to present evidence and witnesses to testify in court about the brutal stabbings and the circumstances surrounding the seemingly random attacks.

At the conclusion of the preliminary hearing, the judge will determine whether there is sufficient evidence for Reales Dominguez to stand trial as charged.

Evidence and testimony in the preliminary hearing will be held in the afternoons and is expected to last four days, Yolo County Deputy District Attorney Matthew De Moura told the judge on Friday.

McAdam ordered that Reales Dominguez shall remain in custody at the county jail without bail, since “there’s no reason to return him to a state hospital at this time.” The judge also confirmed a court order to involuntarily provide the defendant with medication while in custody.

Before he was transferred to the state, Reales Dominguez at times had refused antipsychotic medication while at the jail.

Reales Dominguez was a UC Davis biological science major who had excelled as a high school student-athlete in the East Bay but was dismissed from the university for academic reasons on April 25, just days before the deadly rampage started. In court testimony in June, his friends described him displaying bizarre behavior, becoming further withdrawn from society.

Reales Dominguez spoke briefly in court

On Friday, Reales Dominguez only spoke briefly, telling the judge “yes” when asked whether he was willing to waive his right to a speedy preliminary hearing to start before Feb. 26. This also is a contrast from his outbursts in previous court appearances.

In May, Reales Domniguez rose from his seat and told the judge, “I don’t want an attorney. I’d like to take it myself, if possible.” In June, the defendant told the judge: “I want to apologize. And I want to say that I’m guilty.”

Nadine Yehya, Najm’s mother, attended Friday’s hearing as she has done in the early phases of this criminal case. She declined to comment as she left the courtroom. She has said before it’s “a painful journey” about her family’s mission to seek justice for her son.

Maria Breaux, Breaux’s sister, also attended the hearing to see the judge reinstate the case in her younger brother’s death. He was a local fixture known in Davis for sharing his message of compassion to anyone willing to listen.

“I’m looking forward to things moving on and getting resolution,” she said Friday shortly after leaving the courtroom.

The Bee’s Ishani Desai contributed to this story.