Experts detail Dominguez's mental slide in jail as Davis stabbing trial presses on

Darrell Smith, The Sacramento Bee on May 25, 2025

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Carlos Reales Dominguez sat motionless at the defense table Friday as experts testified to his mental decline at Yolo County Jail following his May 2023 arrest in the serial Davis stabbings that left two dead and another seriously injured.

Testimony continued Friday in Yolo Superior Court in the guilt phase of the former UC Davis student’s murder trial. Dominguez’s defense, a week into its case before Judge Samuel McAdam, is arguing that Dominguez showed symptoms of schizophrenia at the time of the knife killings in late April and early May 2023, symptoms that worsened while jailed for the crimes.

Dominguez has pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity in the stabbing deaths of David Breaux, 50, and Karim Abou Najm, 20, at Davis’ Central and Sycamore parks; and the wounding of Kimberlee Guillory, then 64, in her tent in the city’s downtown. Jurors will decide whether Dominguez was sane at the time of the crimes in the second phase of the scheduled 10-week trial.

Experts included Amy Gutierrez, the mental health coordinator who monitored Dominguez while he was on suicide watch in those first months inside Yolo County Jail. Gutierrez told jurors that Dominguez had dramatically dropped weight, spent long periods staring at the walls in his cell and had stopped showering or brushing his teeth, before being sent to a Davis hospital on a mental health hold.

“I believed he was greatly disabled,” Gutierrez told Yolo County deputy public defender Daniel Hutchinson, of Dominguez’s placement on a mental hold.

Dominguez was on suicide watch for more than 100 days in Yolo County custody, experts testified, before that watch was lifted in August 2023.

Dominguez was also beginning to show “significantly more serious symptoms” of mental illness, Patricia Tyler, the psychiatrist and former Napa State Hospital director, who also evaluated Dominguez, said. Tyler described a man “very dirty, poorly groomed and barely speaking,” who appeared to show no expression or emotion, a sign of schizophrenia, she said.

“Here was a man in jail for the first time on a charge of murder with no sign of distress,” Tyler testified. “His affect was quite unusual.”

Jurors on Friday afternoon also returned to the nearly seven-hour interview of Dominguez by Davis detectives at Davis Police Department that led to his arrest, watching as detectives pressed him for details on the stabbing of Guillory, the lone survivor of the Davis attacks, inside her tent near Second and L streets.

“Look at me, John,” Davis detective Steve Ramos said at one point, calling Dominguez by the name he gave Davis police. “What did you do, John? What did you do at the tent? Help us understand. How did you get into the tent?”

Later, Ramos questioned Dominguez about the first victim, Breaux, the tactical knife found stowed in Dominguez’s shopping tote and the leather knife sheath recovered days earlier by crime scene technicians next to Breaux’s body at Central Park.

Ramos’ questions were met with long pauses and short answers. Dominguez, seated next to Hutchinson at the defense table, watched intently as his videotaped self struggled to answer the detective’s questions.

“Why do you have that knife?” Ramos asked.

Dominguez zipped up his jacket at one point while officers left the interview room for food and prepared to leave when he was stopped by an officer. He wanted to take a walk, Dominguez told the officer on video. The same officer asked Dominguez what he was thinking about.

“Schoolwork,” Dominguez said.

Jurors Thursday afternoon watched the first hour of the interview with a disheveled Dominguez and the Davis detectives who wanted answers from their prime suspect.

“People lie to me every day,” Ramos told Dominguez on the interview video as Davis police Detective Matthew Muscardini watched from the witness stand. “Take a look around this room. Be honest with yourself. Why are we here? Why are we here with you in this room?” he said.

“I’m not sure,” Dominguez said.

Testimony resumes Tuesday in Woodland.

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