Carlos Dominguez sent to Napa State Hospital in deadly 2023 Davis stabbing rampage

Carlos Reales Dominguez was transferred Tuesday to Napa State Hospital to begin his commitment after a judge declared the former UC Davis student not guilty by reason of insanity in the 2023 fatal stabbings of two Davis men, his attorney said Wednesday.

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Dominguez began a six-month commitment ordered by Yolo Superior Court Judge Samuel T. McAdam in August. Dominguez will receive treatment at the Napa facility, after which Yolo County prosecutors will seek to extend his commitment for two more years at an April hearing in Woodland.

Prosecutors can renew that request every two years thereafter, McAdam said.

Dominguez’s defense attorney, Yolo County Deputy Public Defender Daniel Hutchinson, confirmed Dominguez’s move from Yolo County custody, but declined further comment Wednesday.

Yolo Superior Court jurors in July found Dominguez guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the fatal April 2023 knife attacks on David Breaux, 50, and Karim Abou Najm, 20, at Davis’ Central and Sycamore parks. The panel acquitted Dominguez of second-degree murder after a lengthy retrial.

Dominguez waived a jury trial to determine whether he was sane at the time of the stabbings. McAdam declared Dominguez legally insane at a July hearing, citing “overwhelming” evidence presented at trial.

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“When he committed the crimes, he had a mental disease. That was schizophrenia,” McAdam said at the July hearing, adding that Dominguez was incapable of understanding that his acts were morally and legally wrong.

Hutchinson argued at trial that Dominguez’s mental state had deteriorated in the months before the fatal knife attacks on Breaux and Abou Najm and the near-fatal stabbing of Kimberlee Guillory, the attacks’ lone survivor. Doctors later diagnosed Dominguez with schizophrenia.

Jurors in 2025 failed to reach verdicts in Dominguez’s first murder trial. Yolo County prosecutors retried Dominguez earlier this year, arguing that he made deliberate choices during the attacks despite symptoms of schizophrenia.

Hutchinson argued that Dominguez’s mental illness prevented him from forming criminal intent.

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