WOODLAND, Calif. — More than three years after a series of fatal stabbings traumatized the Davis community, a Yolo County jury on Tuesday rejected prosecutors’ murder charges against Carlos Reales Dominguez, instead finding him guilty of two counts of involuntary manslaughter while acquitting him of the attempted murder charge involving the lone surviving victim.
The verdict concludes the guilt phase of Dominguez’s retrial but leaves unresolved one of the central questions that has surrounded the case from the beginning: whether his severe mental illness rendered him legally insane at the time of the attacks. The case will now proceed to a sanity phase before the same jury.
Jurors found Dominguez not guilty of second-degree murder in the April 2023 deaths of David Breaux and UC Davis student Karim Abou Najm. Instead, they convicted him of two counts of involuntary manslaughter and found true allegations that he personally used a deadly weapon in both killings.
The jury also acquitted Dominguez of attempted murder in the stabbing of Kimberlee Guillory, who survived a May 2023 attack while sleeping inside her tent at a Davis homeless encampment.
The verdict marks a different outcome from Dominguez’s first trial in 2025. In that proceeding, jurors acquitted him of first-degree murder but were unable to reach unanimous verdicts on the remaining homicide charges or the attempted murder count, prompting Judge Samuel T. McAdam to declare a mistrial.
Throughout the retrial, neither side disputed that Dominguez carried out the attacks. Instead, the case focused almost entirely on his mental state and whether prosecutors had proven he acted with the criminal intent necessary for murder.
Unlike the first trial, prosecutors acknowledged that Dominguez was suffering from schizophrenia during the attacks. However, they argued that his psychosis did not prevent him from acting intentionally and maintained that heavy marijuana use contributed to a cannabis-induced psychosis that exacerbated his underlying mental illness.
During closing arguments, Deputy District Attorney Alex Kian argued that Dominguez made deliberate choices before, during and after each attack.
“He made that choice to kill Mr. Breaux. He chose to grab the knife. He chose to lunge. He goes to Breaux and makes the choice to stab each consecutive time,” Kian told jurors.
Prosecutors also argued that Dominguez demonstrated goal-directed behavior throughout the attacks and knew what he was doing despite experiencing symptoms of mental illness.
Defense attorneys did not dispute that Dominguez stabbed the victims. Instead, Yolo County Public Defender Daniel Hutchinson argued that Dominguez was suffering from severe, undiagnosed schizophrenia and experiencing his first psychotic break, leaving him incapable of forming the mental state required for murder.
“This is not a case of cannabis (use). This was a man with a mental health disease. Clinician after clinician in setting after setting said this man had a psychotic disorder,” Hutchinson told jurors during closing arguments.
The defense rejected the prosecution’s theory that marijuana use explained Dominguez’s mental state, instead relying on testimony from multiple psychiatrists and mental health professionals who diagnosed him with schizophrenia.
The attacks occurred over a five-day period in late April and early May 2023.
Breaux, widely known throughout Davis as the “Compassion Guy” for spending years inviting strangers to discuss the meaning of compassion at a bench in Central Park, was found fatally stabbed while sleeping on a park bench. Prosecutors alleged he suffered 31 stab wounds.
Two days later, Abou Najm, a graduating UC Davis student, was attacked while riding his bicycle through Sycamore Park. Prosecutors said he was stabbed more than 50 times.
Several days later, Guillory was stabbed through the wall of her tent at a downtown Davis homeless encampment. She survived the attack after suffering critical injuries and testified during both the first trial and the retrial.
The case has centered on competing views of Dominguez’s mental condition since shortly after his arrest. Court proceedings were delayed after Dominguez was initially found incompetent to stand trial before later being restored to competency.
During the retrial, jurors heard extensive testimony regarding Dominguez’s psychiatric history, including evidence that he reported hearing voices and seeing shadow figures before the attacks.
Judge Samuel T. McAdam read the verdicts Tuesday afternoon in Yolo County Superior Court. Dominguez remained expressionless as the jury’s decisions were announced.
Following the verdict, McAdam instructed jurors not to discuss the case with the media and ordered them to return to court Wednesday as the proceedings transition into the sanity phase.
That phase will determine whether Dominguez was legally insane at the time of the offenses and therefore criminally responsible for his actions under California law.
If jurors find Dominguez legally insane, he would be committed to a state mental hospital rather than sentenced to prison. If they find he was legally sane, the case will proceed to sentencing on the involuntary manslaughter convictions and the deadly weapon enhancements.
The verdict represents a significant departure from the prosecution’s theory that Dominguez intentionally murdered Breaux and Abou Najm despite suffering from mental illness. At the same time, the jury declined to fully adopt the defense position that his psychiatric condition eliminated criminal responsibility during the guilt phase.
With the sanity trial still ahead, the final legal resolution of one of the most closely watched criminal cases in Yolo County in recent years remains incomplete.
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