By admin 
A Yolo Superior Court judge Wednesday assigned Carlos Reales Dominguez to a state hospital after declaring the former UC Davis student legally insane when he stabbed two Davis men to death during a 2023 knife rampage.
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Dominguez will be committed to the unnamed state facility for 180 days, where he will receive treatment, after which Yolo County prosecutors will ask to extend his commitment for an additional two years. A hearing to consider that request is set for April. Prosecutors can renew their request every two years thereafter, Yolo Superior Court Judge Samuel T. McAdam told Dominguez on Wednesday afternoon.
“You’re going to the state hospital,” McAdam told Dominguez from the bench. “You could be at the state hospital for the rest of your life. Do you understand that?”
“Yes, your Honor,” Dominguez, clean-shaven and clad in a charcoal-gray suit, replied from the defense table.
The order concluded a deeply emotional afternoon punctuated by powerful addresses from the survivors of David Breaux and Karim Abou Najm — Breaux’s sister, Ann Maria; and, Abou Najm’s parents, Nadine Yehya, and Majdi Abou Najm.
For nearly two hours, Abou Najm’s parents, mother then father, delivered a hymn to unimaginable grief over the son they lost, their search for healing and their anger at a justice system they say betrayed them.
“’Thank you, Mama.’ Those were his last words to me. My eyes didn’t get a chance to bless him,” Nadine Yehya said, reading from the witness stand, husband Majdi by her side. A man in a dark suit seated in a rear row wiped away tears as she spoke.
Karim, she said, loved soccer and tennis, was witty and eager to debate the issues of the day. He was a stellar student at Davis High School and, by spring 2023 at UC Davis, was developing software, running a small technology firm and was courting potential venture capital.
Majdi described his son’s birth in near-metaphysical terms, his own grief as shattering.
“I speak as a devastated father,” he opened, in tribute to “a great man, a beautiful son,” as images of Karim Abou Najm were projected onto a courtroom screen.
“I cannot talk about Karim without talking about infinity,” he said. “I’m talking about a moment taken over by euphoric love. I encountered infinity when I welcomed Karim into the world. Karim came into this world eyes wide open. I simply miss being Karim’s father. Being his father was the honor of my life.”
Today, Yehya said, she and Karim’s father look blankly at the chair where he used to sit. Life without their son “means living in a constant state of longing,” she said. “I miss the sounds of the shower after a late night of study. I miss washing and folding his clothes. He was supposed to come home that night.”
“We did everything right. Karim did everything right,” she said later. “So, what went wrong?”
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Breaux’s sister remembered the first time she saw her newborn baby brother, how he “looked like a warm loaf of bread” atop the bed; how Breaux had a “heart of love long before he was known as the ‘Compassion Guy.’” She also recalled their mother’s own mental health battle, framing her forgiveness of her brother’s killer.
“I learned a name for that illness. It was called schizophrenia,” she said. “I understand schizophrenia. I can’t imagine being told he committed horrific acts that he cannot undo. I know the acts are not who he is. I forgive Carlos Reales Dominguez. I hope that he not only gets medical attention, but that he have the peace of mind to be OK. I hope he’ll be OK.”
Jurors in July found Dominguez guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the deadly April 2023 knife attacks on Breaux, 50, and Karim Abou Najm, 20, in Davis’ Central and Sycamore parks, but acquitted Dominguez of second-degree murder at the end of a lengthy second trial in the slayings.
Dominguez waived a jury trial to determine whether he was sane at the time of the stabbings. McAdam at a July hearing declared Dominguez insane, citing “overwhelming” evidence at trial.
“When he committed the crimes, he had a mental disease. That was schizophrenia,” McAdam said at the July hearing. McAdam later said Dominguez was incapable of understanding that his acts were morally and legally wrong.
Dominguez, diagnosed with schizophrenia, had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the killings and the near-fatal attack on the spree’s sole survivor, Kimberlee Guillory, at both his retrial and his initial 2025 murder trial.
Guillory, who testified at both trials about her attack, was in the courtroom for the afternoon hearing but did not address the court.
Jurors in 2025 failed to reach verdicts in the case that terrified Davis in late April and early May 2023. Dominguez’s criminal proceedings were suspended for months before that first trial while he was ordered to a state hospital to regain competency to stand trial.
Dominguez’s attorney, Yolo County Deputy Public Defender Daniel Hutchinson, brought family, roommates and a former girlfriend to testify about how Dominguez’s mental state had eroded in the months before the violence. Psychiatrists, including a former director of Napa State Hospital, examined him, and medical experts testified at trial about his schizophrenia diagnosis.
But the trials, Majdi Abou Najm said, addressing McAdam directly at times from the stand, reduced their son to “the hallucinations of a troubled mind” — the experience, a “dehumanizing, heartbreaking case shattered by an entire system that did not care.”
Abou Najm and Yehya left the courtroom after his statement.
“I just want to go to Sycamore Park. I just want to grieve my son and cry with my community,” Abou Najm said, before a final word to his son: “I love you to infinity and beyond.”
Complete coverage
For more than three years, The Sacramento Bee followed the Davis stabbing case from the first killing through the investigation, arrest, competency proceedings and trials of Carlos Reales Dominguez, while documenting the lives lost, the survivor’s ordeal and a community shaken by violence. Explore The Bee’s coverage below.
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- April 27, 2023: Police investigating after dead body was found at a park in Davis
- April 28, 2023: Police increase patrols at Central Park where a man was killed in ‘brutal’ stabbing
- April 30, 2023: 2nd stabbing homicide at Davis park in 4 days — UCD student identified as victim
- May 1, 2023: Slain UC Davis senior, 20, remembered as ‘exceptional’ academic star
- May 4, 2023: Davis police questioning ‘person of interest’ as part of investigation of stabbings
- May 4, 2023: Davis stabbings: Police announce arrest of suspect in attacks that killed 2
- May 4, 2023: Dominguez, 21, ex-UC Davis student, arrested as suspect in deadly stabbings
- May 4, 2023: UC Davis community reacts to arrest of former student after three stabbings
- May 5, 2023: Who is Carlos Dominguez? Suspect grew up in Oakland, football team captain
- May 5, 2023: Davis stabbing suspect pleads not guilty, denied bail after deadly spree
- May 5, 2023: Davis stabbing attacks: Murder charges filed against Dominguez
- May 5, 2023: ‘Brazen and brutal’: A timeline of the Davis stabbings and arrest of Dominguez
- May 5, 2023: Parties and video games: Suspect, roommates seemed like typical college kids
- May 6, 2023: Davis is a city of characters and compassion. How rampage shattered its soul
- May 6, 2023: UC Davis student slain in stabbings remembered: ‘A brilliant mind and a kind soul’
- May 6, 2023: How the Davis community can heal after brutal stabbings and Dominguez arrest
- May 7, 2023: Rattled but resilient: Davis moves forward after arrest and a ‘shocking’ week
- May 8, 2023: Could Davis suspect face death penalty? Decision may take months, says DA
- May 8, 2023: Tens of thousands raised for surviving Davis stabbing victim’s medical bills
- May 22, 2023: Mental exam ordered. ‘I don’t want an attorney,’ Dominguez shouts in court
- June 6, 2023: Doctors in deadly Davis rampage case to get first look at medical records
- June 20, 2023: Davis knife rampage suspect Dominguez not competent for trial;case will continue
- June 20, 2023: Families of Davis murder victims sit in Yolo courtroom in ‘painful journey’ to justice
- July 21, 2023: Competency trial to begin for suspect in Davis stabbing rampage that left 2 dead
- July 24, 2023: Potential jurors questioned ahead of competency hearing in Davis knife rampage
- July 25, 2023: Lawyer says schizophrenia fueled Dominguez. ‘Devil was talking to him,’ ex testifies
- July 26, 2023: Accused Davis killer showed bizarre, isolated behavior before stabbings, roommates testify
- July 27, 2023: Prosecutors challenge defense expert’s competency findings in Davis knife rampage
- July 29, 2023: First week of Dominguez competency trial: Experts lay out suspect’s mental spiral
- Aug. 4, 2023: Dominguez going to state hospital; DA agrees suspect not fit for trial
- Aug. 6, 2023: What now for Dominguez as state hospital awaits in Davis stabbing rampage?
- Aug. 7, 2023: ‘Time will tell’: Davis stabbing suspect awaits state hospital stay before murder trial
- Aug. 17, 2023: State hospital confirmed but Dominguez transfer could still be months away
- Sept. 14, 2023: Ruled unfit for trial, Dominguez is transferred to state hospital
- Dec. 21, 2023: Davis suspect still unfit for trial, could remain at state hospital until May
- Dec. 29, 2023: Dominguez deemed competent by state hospital, will return to face trial
- Jan. 5, 2024: Trial in Davis stabbing spree reinstated after Dominguez deemed mentally competent
- Feb. 26, 2024: Yolo DA will not seek death penalty in Davis stabbing case against Dominguez
- Feb. 28, 2024: Dominguez, accused in Davis stabbing spree, bound for murder trial
- March 13, 2024: Here’s when Dominguez, accused in fatal Davis stabbing spree, will face trial
- April 27, 2024: Year after Davis stabbing spree, family and community members honor victims
- April 28, 2024: Davis residents reflect on deadly stabbing spree: ‘I don’t think it’s a distant memory’
- April 30, 2024: Parents of slain UC Davis student unveil ‘safe and peaceful space’ memorial
- June 18, 2024: Judge sets date for suspect Dominguez in Davis stabbing spree trial
- Oct. 24, 2024: City will dedicate art piece to memory of 20-year-old killed in rampage
- April 27, 2025: Dominguez murder trial begins in 2023 stabbings that terrorized Davis
- April 28, 2025: Jury selection to begin soon in Dominguez’s trial over deadly Davis rampage
- May 5, 2025: Trial of Dominguez opens with grisly recounting of Davis stabbing spree
- May 6, 2025: Jurors hear of frantic effort to save Davis stabbing victim at trial’s second day
- May 7, 2025: Doctor who tried to save second victim in 2023 Davis stabbing rampage takes stand
- May 8, 2025: Survivor of Davis stabbing spree testifies at Dominguez trial about attack
- May 17, 2025: Was Dominguez advised of his Miranda rights? Davis police pressed at murder trial
- May 19, 2025: Dominguez’s father, sister testify at murder trial in violent 2023 Davis attacks
- May 20, 2025: Dominguez’s former girlfriend testifies at trial in deadly Davis serial stabbings
- May 23, 2025: Experts detail Dominguez’s mental slide in jail as Davis stabbing trial presses on
- June 2, 2025: Dominguez, suspect in 2023 Davis stabbing spree, testifies at murder trial
- June 3, 2025: Dominguez in Davis trial: ‘I realized the shadow figures were people I stabbed’
- June 6, 2025: Dominguez ‘ambushed’ victims in serial Davis attacks, say prosecutors in closing
- June 23, 2025: Yolo jurors continue to deliberate accused Davis serial stabber Dominguez’s fate
- June 27, 2025: Mistrial for Dominguez in Davis stabbings case. What jury told judge
- July 24, 2025: New January trial ordered for Dominguez in deadly 2023 Davis stabbing spree
- Oct. 16, 2025: Yolo DA wants own doctors to evaluate Dominguez before new trial in Davis killings
- Nov. 21, 2025: Judge denies more evaluations as new THC theory pushed in Davis stabbing case
- Jan. 22, 2026: Dominguez to face new murder trial in May for 2023 Davis serial stabbings
- March 25, 2026: Dominguez returns to Yolo court ahead of May retrial in deadly 2023 knife slayings
- March 26, 2026: Dominguez returns to court ahead of new trial in deadly Davis stabbings
- May 22, 2026: Yolo jury selection continues in Dominguez retrial in 2023 Davis stabbing spree
- May 29, 2026: DA: Potent marijuana pushed Dominguez to violence in deadly Davis stabbing spree
- June 8, 2026: Surviving Davis stab victim recalls near-fatal attack at Dominguez murder trial
- July 21, 2026: Dominguez found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in fatal Davis stabbings
- July 22, 2026: Dominguez ruled insane, will be committed to state hospital for Davis stabbings
- July 26, 2026: Why juries rejected murder charges in K Street shootout and Davis stabbings
- Aug. 20, 2026: Dominguez sent to state hospital as Davis stabbing victims’ families confront loss
This story was originally published August 19, 2026 at 7:17 PM.