Former UC Davis student Carlos Reales Dominguez appeared briefly in Yolo County Superior Court Friday for the first time since he was declared incompetent to stand trial in August.
Dominguez is charged with killing 50-year-old David Breaux on April 27 and 20-year-old Karim Abou Najm on April 29, and to have attacked 64-year-old Kimberlee Guillory through the wall of her tent on May 1. The series of stabbings shocked Davis, a normally quiet college town.
Last week it was announced that state hospital officials deemed Domiguez fit to stand trial.
In court on Friday, Judge Samuel T. McAdam summarized the state hospital’s report from Dec. 20, sharing that doctors believe Dominguez has sufficient knowledge and understanding of the legal proceedings and the charges before him, and that the risk he will harm himself or others in an institutional setting is low.
When he appeared in court, Dominguez cut a very different figure than he had when he was first arrested. He was more clean-shaven and looked fuller in the face, with his black hair brushed back.
The hearing lasted only 10 minutes and ended with a new court date. Dominguez will return for a preliminary hearing in the criminal proceedings against him during the week of Feb. 26.
Dominguez had been a third-year student at UC Davis majoring in biological sciences until April 25, when he was expelled for academic reasons. He was arrested May 4, after multiple residents reported a man matching the suspect’s description walking around the neighborhood where Najm was killed. When police apprehended Dominguez, they found a large knife in his backpack.
After his arrest, Dominguez’s public defender questioned his client’s competency, suspending his criminal trial. What followed was a week of testimony by former friends, roommates and Dominguez’s ex-girlfriend, who chronicled the man’s descent into socially withdrawn and delusional behavior.
Three mental health professionals diagnosed him with schizophrenia and it was determined that the criminal trial could not proceed. McAdam ordered Dominguez to receive psychotropic medication against his will.
Dominguez spent a little over three months at the state psychiatric hospital in Atascadero before doctors there deemed him “restored to competency” on Dec. 20.
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