Potential jurors questioned ahead of competency hearing in Davis knife rampage
Jury selection began Monday in Carlos Reales Dominguez’s competency trial in Woodland, the first step toward determining whether he is fit to stand trial in the rampage killings of two Davis men and the wounding of a third woman in April and May.
Attorneys did not expect a jury to be chosen Monday, but they had plenty to discuss in morning arguments before Yolo Superior Court Judge Samuel McAdam.
Prosecutors argued to admit Reales Dominguez’s statement in open court expressing remorse for the crimes at a June hearing before criminal proceedings were suspended to evaluate his fitness to stand trial. Also contended, the 21-year-old’s current mental state, nearly two months after the knife attacks that left a stunned Davis on edge for days in late April and early May.
Reales Dominguez was expelled from UC Davis days before the rampage. He stands accused of multiple murders in the knife killings of 50-year-old David Henry Breaux and 20-year-old UC Davis senior Karim Abou Najm and the attempted murder of 64-year-old Kimberlee Guillory.
A disheveled Dominguez, clad and shackled again in a protective vest in court Monday, was taken Friday from Yolo County custody to a hospital for a mental health hold, his attorney Yolo County deputy public defender Daniel Hutchinson said. Reales Dominguez was returned to custody Saturday.
Contrary to criminal trials, it will be public defender Hutchinson’s burden to prove Reales Dominguez is mentally unfit to stand trial and assist in his own defense.
Jurors in the days of testimony to come will only weigh Dominguez’s mental competence, not his guilt or innocence, in the proceedings. The trial is expected to take at least two weeks. Hutchinson will only need a preponderance of evidence to prove doubt, a lesser burden than the more steep criminal trial standard of reasonable doubt, McAdam said.
If Reales Dominguez is found to be mentally fit for trial, criminal proceedings will resume.
Yolo prosecutors Matthew DeMoura and Chris Van Der Hoek argued that Dominguez’s in-court statements and alleged statements in custody show he is aware of the crimes — “points of data,” Van Der Hoek said, relevant as jurors determine whether criminal hearings can proceed.
“He doesn’t want to continue in the process because he’s aware of his guilt,” Van Der Hoek said. “He’s admitted to his guilt multiple times.”
But “an admission in court serves no purpose,” at a competency hearing, Hutchinson said, adding that jurors will be instructed not to consider guilt or innocence in the hearing. McAdam had initially denied the statement’s admission. He later said he had “softened his position considerably,” but had not rendered a final decision.
McAdam had stricken Reales Dominguez’s statement from the record in June before suspending proceedings to allow doctors to evaluate him.
Hutchinson also cited a defense expert’s evaluation of Dominguez’s initial 7½-hour interview with law enforcement. That doctor is expected to testify that Reales Dominguez displayed “multiple symptoms of mental illness” in the hours of questioning with officers.
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