Former UC Davis student will face retrial on murder charges

WOODLAND, Calif. (CN) — Prosecutors said Thursday they’ll retry a man accused of fatally stabbing two people and trying to kill a third in a California college town after a jury acquitted him last month of the most serious charges.

Jurors struggled for over a week before finding Carlos Dominguez — who medical experts said suffered from schizophrenia and reported seeing “shadow shapeshifters” — not guilty of first-degree murder in the 2023 deaths of David Breaux, 50, and Karim Abou Najm, 20. They reached no verdict on charges of second-degree murder, the attempted murder of an unhoused woman and involuntary manslaughter.

While jurors reached no decision except on first-degree murder, they revealed they split 10-2 in favor of acquittal on second-degree murder.

That partial verdict set the stage for Thursday’s hearing in Yolo County Superior Court, where Deputy District Attorney Matt De Moura announced his office would retry the 22-year-old Dominguez on his remaining counts.

Dominguez has pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity.

Both De Moura and the deputy public defender, Dan Hutchinson, agreed on Jan. 20 as the date of the new trial.

Noting Dominguez has now sat through two trials, one of them about his competency, Judge Sam McAdam questioned whether both sides could settle the case through a plea. He offered to assign a retired judge to act as a go-between.

“Obviously, the community has spent a lot of resources on this case,” McAdam said.

De Moura said he couldn’t commit either way at the time, though he didn’t outright reject the possibility.

The second trial, like the first, is expected to take over two months. On Thursday, it led McAdam to request prosecutors provide an updated charging document — a formal list detailing the criminal accusations Dominguez faces — to reflect the first-degree acquittals.

McAdam expressed concern when both attorneys said premeditation could be an element of the attempted murder charge. The judge noted that prosectors claimed the slayings were sparked by Dominguez being scorned by his girlfriend and expelled from college.

“It would seem the jury rejected that,” McAdam added, noting jurors delivered their verdicts after a 10-week trial.

Hutchinson argued that prosecutors should dismiss the attempted murder charge, though he said De Moura was legally correct.

De Moura, in turn, said each criminal accusation had its own separate set of facts. That caused McAdam to question whether he’d again argue to jurors that anger and retaliation motivated Dominguez.

The prosecutor said it was premature to reveal any trial strategy.

The killings in the town of Davis, home to UC Davis, put the community on edge. The late April 2023 slayings, and early May 2023 attack on the unhoused woman, led people to report sightings when they spotted someone who resembled the suspect’s description.

One of those sightings led police to find and speak with Dominguez and ultimately arrest him after spotting a knife in a bag he was carrying.

Arguing Dominguez was competent, prosecutors took him to trial months after his arrest. However, they relented after a few days, pausing criminal proceedings. Dominguez went to a state hospital, where his competency was restored and the case resumed.

Competency, which includes the ability to understand criminal proceedings and assist his attorney, played no role in the trial that started in May. Prosecutors conceded Dominguez suffered from schizophrenia, but argued he had lucid moments and could form intent.

Dominguez testified in his own defense. He told jurors that he saw “shadow shapeshifters” who pointed and laughed at him. Former friends and roommates testified about Dominguez’s physical and mental deterioration, watching an athletic, hygienic man turn into a recluse who heard voices and stared at walls.

Hutchinson slammed prosecutors and law enforcement, calling the investigation and prosecution of his client “amateur hour.” He accused prosecutors of misstating evidence, which led McAdam to admonish one deputy district attorney over the issue.