Elk Grove man accused in I-80 shooting near Davis found mentally fit to stand trial
An Elk Grove man accused of firing gunshots that hit two vehicles last year on Interstate 80 near Davis has been deemed mentally fit to stand trial on two counts of attempted murder and several other felony charges.
Andre Chevill Wilson, 55, remained in custody Tuesday at the Yolo County Jail, where he’s been held without bail since his Feb. 10, 2022, arrest minutes after the shooting.
Along with the attempted murder charges, Yolo Superior Court records show Wilson faces charges of firing a gun at a vehicle, assault with a machine gun, unlawful possession of a machine gun, being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition and possession of an assault weapon. He also faces numerous enhancements, including allegedly using an assault weapon in the shooting.
Wilson’s trial was initially scheduled to start July 3, but that was canceled in June. The court ordered a mental competency evaluation after the county’s Public Defender’s Office declared a doubt that Wilson was mentally fit to assist in his own legal defense at trial, according to a June 21 filed court minute order.
On July 24, Wilson returned to court for a hearing to determine his mental competency. The court received a report from psychologist Sirintip Rhee that found Wilson to be mentally competent, according to the order.
Superior Court Judge Tom Dyer ordered Wilson’s trial to begin Oct. 23, and scheduled a trial readiness hearing Oct. 18.
The I-80 shooting occurred shortly after 6 a.m., when Wilson fired a gun at another motorist heading west on the freeway near the Mace Boulevard exit ramp, the California Highway Patrol said. Officers later determined the gunfire struck two vehicles; the occupants in those vehicles were not injured.
After the shooting, Wilson’s vehicle re-entered I-80 and headed west from the Mace Boulevard on-ramp, where his vehicle left the road and crashed into a fence, the CHP said. CHP officers, with help from other law enforcement agencies, found Wilson near the crash scene and took him into custody.
Wilson’s trial isn’t the only criminal case in Yolo County in which the defendant’s mental competency has come under question.
A jury has been paneled to determine whether Carlos Reales Dominguez is mentally fit to face charges in a series of brutal stabbings in Davis that killed two men and seriously wounded a homeless woman while she was in her tent. The brutal and seemingly random attacks in late April and early May had the college town gripped in fear until police announced Reales Dominguez’s arrest on May 4.
Testimony in Reales Dominguez’s competency trial is scheduled to resume Monday with Patricia Tyler on the witness stand. She’s a telehealth psychiatrist who provides mental health care via Zoom call for inmates at the Yolo County, and she recommended on June 21 that Reales Dominguez be given emergency antipsychotic medication instead of waiting for repeated hospital visits.
The jury will decide whether Reales Dominguez should be sent to a state hospital to restore his mental competency before he can return to faces charges of murder and attempted murder. The jurors also can determine the defendant is mentally fit and have the court proceed with his criminal case.
