Was Dominguez advised of his Miranda rights? Davis police pressed at murder trial
Carlos Reales Dominguez’s defense pressed Davis police officers whether the former UC Davis student on trial in a deadly 2023 knife rampage was advised of his Miranda rights while he was detained at the end of the violent spree.
Testimony in the guilt phase of Dominguez’s murder trial continued Friday in Yolo Superior Court in Woodland. Jurors on the trial’s 10th day viewed officers’ body camera video capturing their questioning of the detained former UC Davis student before his May 2023 arrest in the knife attacks that left two men dead, a woman critically injured and a tense Davis on edge.
Dominguez has pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity of murder and attempted murder in the stabbings in late April and early May 2023 and remains held without bail in Yolo County custody.
When he was arrested, a shaggy-haired Dominguez stood on a streetside curb along a quiet Villanova Drive surrounded by Davis police and Yolo County Sheriff’s deputies, dressed in the dark hooded tracksuit that matched a suspect description. Police officers said he was seen walking from the area of Sycamore Park, the site where the second of the spree’s victims, 20-year-old Karim Abou Najm, was killed.
“I’ve had a lot of stress,” Dominguez said. The fresh cuts on his hands that clutched his shopping bag were self-inflicted, he told officers. “Personal problems,” he said. Inside the tote sat a knife.
At one moment, officers asked Dominguez to set down the bag.
“Is there a reason?” the then 21-year-old said.
“There’s a person we’re looking for in multiple homicides,” the officer responded on the video. “We want to make sure,” the officer said. Minutes later, Dominguez was in handcuffs, seated at the curb, as a chiming ice cream truck drove past.
“You’re not under arrest, you understand?” an officer was heard later on the video recording played in court. “We’re trying to figure out what’s going on.”
Dominguez’s defense counsel, Yolo County Deputy Public Defender Daniel Hutchinson, seized on the officers’ questioning of Dominguez, first detained in handcuffs, then while freed of his restraints.
Out of his cuffs, Hutchinson argued, officers decided Dominguez was not technically under arrest and could be questioned without advising him of his constitutional rights to remain silent and ask for a lawyer.
Davis officers at the scene twice told Dominguez he was not under arrest during their questioning and before he agreed to climb into Davis Police Sgt. Matthew Muscardini’s cruiser for the drive to Police Department, the video showed.
Davis officers on the recording calmly probed for answers:
“Do you know what’s going on lately in the city of Davis?” “Do you watch the news?” “Did something bad happen? That you’re involved in? You sure? Tell me what happened.”
“I can’t read your mind but I don’t think you’re being truthful. Why are you so nervous?” “Did you have something to do with the crimes?”
Hutchinson asked whether testifying Davis officers planned such a scenario when they uncuffed Dominguez and sent surrounding officers away before continuing their questioning.
“Was the question to have everyone leave and remove (Dominguez) from cuffs by design so you could question him without advising him of his Miranda rights?” Hutchinson asked Muscardini at one point.
Muscardini said the officers were from outside agencies and no longer needed to be at the scene. By then, Davis officers had a man who fit the suspect’s description. The knife Yolo County prosecutors say was used in the attacks was in Dominguez’s shopping bag.
“At that moment, you had probable cause” to arrest Dominguez, Hutchinson said. “If he said, ‘I’m free to go,’ you wouldn’t let him?”
“No.”
“You didn’t have probable cause to arrest him?”
“No,” Muscardini said. “He wasn’t under arrest. I didn’t think there was a need to advise him of his Miranda rights.”
Yolo County prosecutors Frits Van de Hoek and Matthew DeMoura expect to close their case Tuesday before Yolo Superior Court Judge Samuel McAdam.
Defense attorney Hutchinson will open his case on Monday as testimony continues.
.JPG)