By Maya Farshoukh, Katherine Parker, Keira Baptista
Morning: Dominguez Waives Fifth Amendment Rights to Testify
WOODLAND, CA – Carlos Reales Dominguez appeared Monday in Yolo County Superior Court for his ongoing trial. Deputy Public Defender Dan Hutchinson called Dominguez to the witness stand for direct examination. Judge Samuel T. McAdam continued presiding as Hutchinson questioned Dominguez about his childhood, academic background, and the onset of schizophrenia symptoms.
Dominguez remains in custody, with charges including two counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, multiple weapon and injury enhancements, and a prior felony conviction.
The previous hearing focused on the accusation that Dominguez fatally stabbed two unhoused men—David Breaux and Karim Abou Najm—in Davis in 2023. The former UC Davis student faces allegations that the attacks were “random and unprovoked.” His defense argues Dominguez was in a psychotic state during the killings, raising questions about his competency to stand trial. The case has drawn intense public attention due to its impact on the Davis community, stoking debate over public safety and mental health. If convicted, Dominguez faces life in prison.
Key witnesses, including mental health experts, are expected to testify in the coming days. On Monday, Hutchinson began direct examination by asking Dominguez basic questions about his birth date, parents, and siblings—all of which he answered correctly.
Hutchinson asked Dominguez if he had schizophrenia. “Yes,” Dominguez replied. When asked if he had previously disbelieved the diagnosis, Dominguez again answered “yes,” noting it wasn’t until after his stay at Atascadero State Hospital that he accepted the diagnosis.
Dominguez then spoke about his early childhood in El Salvador. He said he didn’t remember his parents but was raised by his grandmother, whom he called both “mom” and “dad.” He recalled she was a teacher and remembered going to her school, where he played the drums.
Dominguez said that when his grandmother didn’t take him to school, he stayed with a maid—whose name he couldn’t recall but remembered as a woman. When asked if the maid had done anything inappropriate, Dominguez answered “yes,” describing a disturbing incident in which the maid undressed both herself and Dominguez and put him on top of her. He said he believed it happened more than once but could not recall if it occurred before or after kindergarten.
When asked about immigrating to the United States, Dominguez said he remembered a black SUV and a piece of paper with his parents’ phone number. He recalled being with a group of 10 to 15 people and not recognizing anyone. He said he cried when others couldn’t tell him where they were. He also remembered crossing a large river.
Dominguez said flashing lights appeared and people were taken into a truck. A pregnant woman told him they needed to hide behind a bush, but later said they had to surrender. He next recalled being in a room with iron bars, drinking juice. He said there were no other children present, but the woman was there. When asked how he felt, he said “confused.”
He stayed in that room for about 10 days before being moved to another room with seats and meals of eggs. After a month, he was transferred to a foster home for immigrant children. Unlike previous locations, it was “just a regular house.”
Dominguez said he didn’t remember calling his parents. Eventually, he flew to Oakland and was picked up by an uncle—his mother’s uncle. When he met his parents for the first time, they were having a barbecue. He described feeling “confused but happy.” He eventually recognized his mother from photos but had never seen his father’s image before. He said he did not initially trust them because he “didn’t know who they were.”
Dominguez said he hadn’t known he had a younger brother before arriving in the U.S., though he later confirmed Dylan had already been born. His grandmother visited and slept in the same bed with him, as they had done in El Salvador. When she left, he felt “sad” and said he never saw her again.
Dominguez enrolled in second grade at Markham Elementary School, speaking no English at the time. He learned English and Spanish simultaneously and by third grade, he said he was “not fluent in English, but knew enough to understand.” He transferred schools in fourth grade after his close friend moved away. He attended New Highland Academy and became fully fluent by fifth grade.
By seventh grade, he was helping raise his younger siblings—cooking, cleaning, and transporting them to school. He described his relationship with them as “close.” His father worked long hours as a plumber, and his mother worked at a fast-food restaurant. Dominguez said his relationship with his parents was “not great,” noting he “didn’t see them often.”
Dominguez described instances of physical violence in the home. He recalled being spanked once and witnessing his father physically restrain his mother, who cried out for help. Another time, his father pushed his mother into a wall, leaving a crater. He attributed these incidents to his parents’ drinking habits, which he said occurred every Friday and Saturday. Their drunken arguments were loud and frequent, and Dominguez said he preferred to stay in his room with his siblings during those times.
In high school at Castlemont, Dominguez joined the football and track teams, making varsity. His parents began attending his football games in junior and senior year, but not consistently. Meanwhile, he continued caring for his siblings—juggling responsibilities with school and sports. He said he used the hour between school dismissal and practice to pick up his sister, as he didn’t want her walking alone in their low-income neighborhood.
Despite these burdens, Dominguez excelled academically. His transcript showed mostly A’s and GPA scores of 3.8 to 4.0. He attributed his success to a love for learning and engaging teachers. When asked about a single “C” in English, he explained it was due to tardiness from dropping off his siblings.
Dominguez participated in internships, including one at a dental clinic. He served as ASB treasurer during ninth grade and started a YouTube channel in his junior year, portraying himself as an outgoing and social student. Videos shown in court included playful pranks with his siblings and skits with friends.
He recalled first learning he was undocumented around age 13 and initially fearing it would hinder his college plans. After speaking with a school counselor, he applied to multiple UC campuses, being accepted to all but Berkeley. He enrolled at UC Davis.
Dominguez testified that his first quarter at UC Davis was difficult due to COVID-19 and online classes. He said he was more reserved compared to high school. His first friend at UC Davis was a neighbor with whom he played video games. Through this friend, he met more people, including his girlfriend, Caley, whom he described as “very pretty and smart.” He recalled first noticing her feeding or talking to squirrels—something he later understood after learning she aspired to become a veterinarian.
Dominguez said he stayed in regular contact with his siblings, and both he and Caley valued family. Photos shown in court depicted their relationship and friendships. He testified that he maintained good hygiene to impress her and appreciated the dining options at UC Davis, which allowed him to eat three meals a day—unlike in high school, where he often ate only dinner.
Dominguez said his fraternity recruitment involved cultural knowledge tests and performing skits. One included a dance to “Suga Suga” by Baby Bash, though it wasn’t well choreographed. Another dance, the “berries and cream” routine, was not performed because he wasn’t first in line for initiation.
Hutchinson asked Dominguez if he ever punched a wall. Dominguez said he had—once during high school after an argument with his father, and again in college when he tested positive for COVID-19 and didn’t place into his desired chemistry course.
Dominguez said he aspired to be a doctor “to help people.” When Hutchinson asked about any prior health issues, Dominguez said he had only broken a thumb and had his appendix removed.
The defense then addressed the onset of schizophrenia symptoms. Dominguez said he had no symptoms during the first half of his freshman year but began experiencing them in the second half. He described a dream—or hallucination—of a faceless shadow figure sitting at a table, which he interpreted as the devil. He wasn’t sure if he was awake or dreaming.
In another instance of suspected sleep paralysis, he saw a shadow figure kneeling on his chest. When asked if he felt it physically, he replied, “Yes.” He tried to scream and looked around the room, uncertain whether he was awake.
Dominguez said he described these experiences to friends as “racing thoughts,” which he interpreted as voices. He couldn’t recall specifics of the conversation with one friend but remembered trying to explain.
After a family trip to Las Vegas, Dominguez’s brother told him he had been staring at a ceiling fan for long periods. Dominguez remembered it but hadn’t realized it at the time. He said he didn’t think anything was wrong with him.
He also described seeing a shadow figure with horns under his desk while working on a music beat, which frightened him. “I thought something evil had surrounded me,” he said. He attempted to wake his girlfriend and reach for the figure, which then disappeared.
Dominguez said he took a shortcut along railroad tracks to visit his girlfriend’s apartment. Hutchinson is expected to continue the direct examination later today. The trial is scheduled to resume at 1:30 p.m.
Afternoon: Dominguez Testimony Resumes
The Dominguez trial resumed the afternoon of June 2, 2025, in Yolo County Superior Court under Judge Samuel T. McAdam. Carlos Reales Dominguez took the stand to testify about his deteriorating mental health, citing persistent visions of “shapeshifting shadow figures” that incited paranoia and fear.
Dominguez is charged with two counts of murder, attempted murder, and multiple counts of unlawful use of a deadly weapon.
Defense attorney Daniel Hutchinson conducted the direct examination.
Hutchinson began by confirming Dominguez was taking the antipsychotic medication Zyprexa, or Olanzapine—a treatment for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder—at the time of the April 2023 killings. Dominguez affirmed the claim.
The defense then reviewed Dominguez’s housing arrangements during his sophomore and junior years at UC Davis. Dominguez testified that he lived at Parkside Apartments with roommates before moving to a house on Hawthorn Lane in Davis.
While living at Parkside, Dominguez frequently walked or biked to Ryder Apartments to visit his girlfriend before their breakup during his sophomore year. Before the breakup, he adopted a cat his then-girlfriend had been fostering, explaining that the two were “beginning to bond.”
After the relationship ended, Dominguez began writing poetry in his room, which he said led him to “slack off a bit” on schoolwork. Hutchinson presented a poem recovered from Dominguez’s iPhone, preserving the original formatting:
Knife in my hand
Slitting her shell
unconscious
hells broken
When I push and stroke in
Here we go again
main focus
Riding misfortune
Giving her
Attention she asked for
Hand on knife pull
Suck
At least in me
Who am I again
Oh no l’m not stranvangent
Dominguez testified that he had no memory of writing the poem but interpreted it as a sexual metaphor, stating that “knife in my hand” symbolized sex, likening it to “cutting through the ice… not warming up to each other, just getting straight to the point.” When Hutchinson asked if “straight to the point” referred to sex, Dominguez replied, “Yes.”
He emphasized that he loved his ex-girlfriend, never intended harm, and maintained personal hygiene after the breakup—contradicting her claim that his health declined.
The defense shifted to Dominguez’s reported encounters with “shadow figures.” He recalled the first incident while visiting his girlfriend’s apartment, describing the figure as “scary” because “it didn’t have a source, or like a sunlight to actually create a shadow. It looked like it was just there by itself.”
Hutchinson asked whether Dominguez remembered whispering to himself or staring at walls, as reported by a former roommate and coworker at Jack in the Box. Dominguez testified that he did not recall these behaviors.
After moving to Hawthorn Lane following a falling-out with a roommate, Dominguez said he began recognizing symptoms of schizophrenia. “I remember hearing whispers… like if the TV was left on, and it would just be voices in the background,” he said. “I remember hearing noises, like loud bangs on the wall and knocks on the door… a bunch of people talking at the same time in a low tone.”
He described increasing paranoia: “They wouldn’t leave me alone. It would kind of happen and take my focus away.”
Dominguez said he saw a shadow on a housemate’s door that resembled the figure he saw in his freshman-year dorm—a figure he believed to be the devil. These sightings and auditory hallucinations occurred “pretty frequently… at least once every day,” prompting Dominguez to listen to music and walk to Sycamore Park to distract himself.
Even on walks, Dominguez said, he continued seeing shadows: “off in the distance, or… at the corner of my eye.” He described them as “short shadows, not very big.”
One day at the park, he found a knife blade near the swing set and began throwing it at a tree. “Most of the time it would just bounce off; it wouldn’t really stick,” he said. He later ordered a replacement knife from Amazon, saying the original “was getting dull.” Dominguez also carved abstract faces into Sycamore Park’s trees.
At his new home, Dominguez began feeding his cat human food instead of pet food and admitted he did not provide a litter box.
He testified that his parents did not offer financial support during college. He relied solely on financial aid, with only one late rent payment caused by FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) issues.
In 2023, following winter break, Dominguez said he began isolating and stopped responding to family texts. “I wouldn’t text them or they wouldn’t really reach out to me,” he said, despite their claims to the contrary.
Dominguez said he began to believe the “shapeshifters” were connected to the whispers. “They wanted to get me… take control over my actions.”
During a walk in Central Park, Dominguez testified he saw a “shadow figure coming my way riding a bike.” He described the figure’s mouth as “opening like he was laughing really, really, extremely” and noted a disturbing gesture with the hand. “The mouth was black inside… and opened very widely,” he said. “It was not normal.”
He said he was scared because “it was not within my own shadow.”
In another episode, Dominguez recalled sitting near the Davis Fire Department at night when voices said, “You won’t, you won’t. You won’t go up to him.” Dominguez testified it was the “first time” he could clearly understand what the voices were saying. When a shadow figure approached, he said, “I just threw my body… lurched at him,” before blacking out. He remembered riding his bike away from another shadow figure—this one with only “half a face, and just an eye.”
This incident resulted in the first victim’s death, though Dominguez testified he had not intended to kill the figure.
A similar event occurred at Sycamore Park. Dominguez testified that another laughing shadow figure approached on a bike. This time, he stepped in front of it because he “wanted the shadow to stop pointing and laughing.” He recalled “falling backward… and lurching at him,” before running away and eventually returning through the park to reach his home.
That encounter led to the second victim’s death. Dominguez again testified he did not want or intend to kill the shadow figure.
The final violent episode occurred near Second and L streets, where Dominguez saw a shadow inside a tent “signaling” him to approach. As the figure emerged, Dominguez said he flinched and “made like a stabbing motion” toward it. When asked if he remembered holding a knife at the time, Dominguez responded, “No.” He fled after hearing a high-pitched scream, which he said “scared” him.
Dominguez also testified that he remembered stabbing himself near the base of his thumb without any clear reason. He acknowledged that the bloody clothing entered as evidence was his.
Before the hearing concluded, Dominguez explained why he was at the Davis Safeway when arrested. He testified that he had gone to buy bread after his cat tore a hole in the original loaf, making it “bad.”
The Dominguez trial is scheduled to resume Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. in Yolo County Superior Court.
