A court-appointed physician has decided that Carlos Reales Dominguez, a former UC Davis pupil charged with killing two males and wounding a lady in a string of stabbings that shocked the quiet school city, is just not mentally competent to face trial for these crimes.
Yolo County Superior Courtroom Choose Samuel McAdam introduced the discovering throughout a court docket listening to Tuesday. Prosecutors within the case took difficulty with the discovering and requested a jury trial on the query of Dominguez’s competency, the Davis Enterprise reported. McAdam set the listening to for July 24.
“I wish to apologize and say I’m responsible,” Dominguez, 21, stated in court docket Tuesday earlier than his public defender, Dan Hutchinson, requested for a short recess. McAdam ordered that the confession be struck from the report.
Dominguez is charged in a collection of seemingly random stabbings carried out over a interval of days in late April and early Could. Two of the assaults occurred in native parks, casting a pall over a metropolis that celebrates its inexperienced house, youth sports activities and out of doors markets. Dominguez pleaded not responsible at his Could 5 arraignment.
Dominguez was first detained on Could 3. Police stopped him close to the scene of one of many killings after a number of Davis residents referred to as police to say he matched an outline offered by witnesses to 2 of the assaults.
The primary assault was found April 27, when authorities discovered the bloodied physique of 50-year-old David Henry Breaux, a Stanford College graduate who selected to stay open air and sometimes spent nights in Davis’ leafy Central Park. Breaux had been stabbed to demise on a bench the place he slept.
Two days later, Karim Abou Najm, 20, a UC Davis senior and Davis Excessive College graduate, was fatally stabbed in Sycamore Park as he biked residence from a college occasion. A neighbor heard sounds of misery and got here to Najm’s assist however wasn’t capable of save him.
Days later, a lady in her 60s was attacked as she slept at a homeless encampment close to the town’s downtown. She was alone in her tent when her assailant slashed the canvas, reached in and stabbed her repeatedly. She was hospitalized however survived.
When police detained Dominguez, they stated they discovered a big “hunting-style knife” in his backpack. Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel stated investigators spoke with Dominguez for hours earlier than arresting him for all three crimes.
After the arrest, UC Davis officers stated that Dominguez had been “separated” from the college for poor tutorial efficiency lower than two days earlier than the violence started.
Dominguez, who got here to the U.S. from El Salvador as an unaccompanied minor in 2009, was an completed pupil and athlete at Castlemont Excessive College in Oakland. He graduated in 2020 and enrolled at UC Davis.
After his arrest, his father expressed shock in a short telephone interview with The Instances: “He was so excited to go to Davis. I don’t perceive how this might occur,” the daddy stated.
The violence solid a chill over life in small-town Davis. Individuals have been afraid to exit at evening, and companies closed their doorways early. Neighborhood members brazenly mourned the deaths of two mild and well-loved residents.
After the listening to Tuesday, Abou Najm’s mom, Nadine Yehya, instructed the Davis Enterprise that she “couldn’t cease myself from crying” when she heard Dominguez’s confession within the courtroom. She and her husband, Majdi Abou Najm, have devoted themselves to efforts to honor their son’s life, together with an initiative for analysis into psychological well being and higher interventions to assist folks earlier than they commit horrible acts. On Sunday, the household attended what would have been Abou Najm’s school commencement ceremony.
