Davis knife rampage suspect still unfit for trial, could remain at state hospital until May
Carlos Reales Dominguez, the 21-year-old man accused in a deadly stabbing rampage this spring in Davis, could stay at a state hospital for at least another five months as he remains mentally unfit to face criminal charges in Yolo County.
The California Department of State Hospitals on Tuesday submitted a report on the status of the treatment Reales Dominguez is receiving at Atascadero State Hospital to restore his mental competency.
Yolo Superior Court Judge Samuel T. McAdam discussed the report in a hearing Wednesday morning. The Davis Enterprise was the first to report on Wednesday’s hearing.
The report indicates that Reales Dominguez remains mentally incompetent to face the criminal charges in court, and the Department of State Hospitals scheduled another status report for him due May 15, said Jonathan Raven, a Yolo County District Attorney’s Office spokesman.
The court scheduled another hearing to review Reales Dominguez’ case on May 24. For now, the murder case remains suspended until Reales Dominguez’s mental competency can be restored.
Raven said if state hospital officials determine Reales Dominguez is mentally fit to assist his attorney in his legal defense between now and the next court date, the judge and the attorneys will be notified and the criminal case could proceed before the May court hearing.
The District Attorney’s Office has charged Reales Dominguez with murder and attempted murder charges with special circumstances in the deadly Davis knife attacks that killed two men and left a third woman critically wounded in late April and early May.
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.
In that week, the college town was gripped with fear amid the manhunt to find the suspect in the three attacks.
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.
On May 4, the Davis Police Department announced Reales Dominguez’ arrest. Officers detained him the evening before a block from Sycamore Park — the site of the second homicide — after 15 separate callers phoned police to report seeing a man who matched the stabbing suspect description.
McAdam in June ruled Reales Dominguez — whose appearances were marked by his disheveled appearance and heavy jail-issued safety vest — was unfit to face the charges in court and suspended the case.
In June, testimony to determine the defendant’s mental competency revealed the former student’s slide into the apparent mental crisis that allegedly precipitated the attacks.
Reales Dominguez said the “devil was talking to him in his dreams,” his former girlfriend testified. His behavior became increasingly bizarre and isolated, his roommates said in court. The behavior became so troubling, roommates testified, that they selected one to talk to Dominguez about seeking help.
His attorney, Yolo County Deputy Public Defender Daniel Hutchinson, argued in court that schizophrenia fueled his client’s behavior.
The Bee’s Darrell Smith contributed to this story.
