Davis stabbing attacks: Murder charges filed against ex-UC Davis student Carlos Dominguez
Yolo County prosecutors filed formal charges Friday against ex-UC Davis student Carlos Reales Dominguez, charging the 21-year-old with two counts of murder and one of attempted murder, with enhancements for premeditation and other allegations that could lead to a death penalty prosecution.
District Attorney Jeff Reisig’s office also filed special circumstances of “for multiple murders, in that Carlos Reales Dominguez murdered more than one person,” court documents say.
Such special circumstances can be used in prosecutors pursuing a death penalty case, although no such decision has been announced.
The filing, which comes in advance of an arraignment for Dominguez at 1:30 p.m. Friday, also includes enhancements for “great violence, great bodily harm, threat of great bodily harm, or other acts disclosing a high degree of cruelty, viciousness, or callousness.”
The filing also alleges Dominguez used a weapon during the three knife attacks that began April 27 and that the “manner in which the crime was carried out indicates planning, sophistication, or professionalism.”
“The defendant has engaged in violent conduct that indicates a serious danger to society,” the court filing says.
Dominguez, a biological studies sophomore who was kicked out of UC Davis for academic reasons on April 25, is accused of two fatal stabbings and a third that left a homeless woman in critical condition over a week-long siege of the college town 15 miles west of Sacramento.
David Henry Breaux, 50, a local fixture known as the “Compassion Guy,” was the first victim. He was discovered with multiple stab wounds in Central Park on April 27.
The second victim was Karim Abou Najm, 20, who was killed the night of April 29 as he was walking through Sycamore Park in Central Davis, not far from where Dominguez lived with roommates and the same park where Dominguez was spotted Wednesday afternoon.
Phone calls from 15 area residents who saw him at the park led to his detention about a block away and his eventual arrest. Police later discovered a large hunting knife in his backpack that they beleive was used in the attacks.
Najm, a UC Davis senior and the son of a university professor, also had been stabbed multiple times. A public memorial service for Najm is set for 4 p.m Friday at the UC Davis International Center, 463 California Ave., Suite 3140.
The third victim on the weeklong series of stabbings was Kimberlee Guillory, who was living in a tent near Second and L streets when someone slashed open the side of the tent just before midnight on May 1 and stabbed her repeatedly.
Guillory survived and is now recovering at UC Davis Medical Center.
Dominguez is being held at a Yolo County Jail and has refused all media requests for interviews.
