Prosecutors challenge defense expert’s competency findings in Davis knife rampage
Yolo prosecutors forcefully challenged a defense expert who had found Carlos Reales Dominguez was incompetent to stand trial after changing her opinion in recent weeks.
Psychologist Juliana Rohrer took the stand Thursday in the fourth day of Reales Dominguez’s competency hearing in Yolo Superior Court in Woodland. Rohrer testified the former UC Davis sophomore now accused of two killings and an attempted murder in the spring knife attacks that shocked Davis suffers from schizophrenia and was not fit to stand trial on the charges.
“I would say that Mr. Dominguez is a textbook example of schizophrenia,” Rohrer told defense attorney Yolo County deputy public defender Daniel Hutchinson.
But prosecutors say Rohrer had a different opinion in a report to the court of her May 28 jail visit with Reales Dominguez. On June 12, Rohrer had concluded Reales Dominguez had a psychotic disorder stopping short of a full schizophrenia diagnosis. She said that Reales Dominguez was able to answer questions on the roles of the attorneys in his case and the charges he faced.
Prosecutors insist Reales Dominguez is competent to stand trial in the knife attacks that killed 50-year-old David Breaux and 20-year-old graduating UC Davis student Karim Abou Najm; and a third that seriously wounded Kimberlee Guillory, 64, as she slept in her Davis encampment.
They argue Dominguez has been “toying with the system,” selectively understanding and answering questions posed to him by investigators, doctors and counsel.
Yolo County Deputy District Attorney Matthew De Moura seized on Rohrer’s testimony that she changed her opinion upon reviewing findings from neuropsychologist Dale Watson — a change attorneys only learned during her testimony Thursday. Rohrer did not add the new conclusions to her report, explaining them Thursday on the stand.
Rohrer testified that she later changed her finding to schizophrenia after reading Watson’s report, but did not file a new report reflecting the change of opinion.
“I only learned she’s changed her opinion for the first time on the stand,” Yolo County deputy public defender Hutchinson told Yolo Superior Court Judge Samuel McAdam outside the presence of jurors.
Watson also had met with Reales Dominguez in custody, but the 21-year-old refused to sit with Watson for a final competency examination, prosecutors said — a key to determining the Davis suspect’s fitness for trial.
Without the final exam, De Moura told Rohrer during cross-examination, “You don’t have a second opinion that Dominguez is unable to assist his attorney on a rational basis. You don’t have a second opinion to compare to.”
De Moura also challenged the defense expert on the questions she posed Reales Dominguez she asked in her May 28 interview and whether Rohrer truly knows how Reales Dominguez communicates with his attorney.
“You have no evidence that he couldn’t assist counsel,” De Moura said. “You don’t actually know how Hutchinson and Dominguez interact with each other. You never asked whether Dominguez was willing or unwilling to assist his attorney?”
“I didn’t ask that specific question,” Rohrer answered.
A Yolo County mental health professional, former roommates, a co-worker and an ex-girlfriend testified earlier this week to Reales Dominguez’s declining mental state. Dominguez had heard voices, had stopped talking to his roommates months before the April and May attacks, they said. One roommate had testified Reales Dominguez was “staring out into dead space” before his May arrest.
All were signs, Rohrer testified Thursday, that pointed to a schizophrenia diagnosis.
Dominguez has been confined to the Yolo County Jail’s infirmary since his arrest on murder and attempted murder charges in the rampage where he has refused meals for days at a time and was taken to nearby Woodland Memorial Hospital for care after being placed on a rare in-custody mental health hold.
Testimony continues Friday before resuming Aug. 7
