Dominguez’s former girlfriend testifies at trial in deadly Davis serial stabbings
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Former girlfriend testified to Dominguez's mental decline before the attacks.
- Dominguez pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in 2023 serial stabbings.
- Testimony continues in trial expected to run through July in Woodland court.
Carlos Reales Dominguez’s former girlfriend returned for a second day of testimony Tuesday in Woodland, revisiting the day she learned Davis police had arrested Dominguez in the serial stabbings that left two men dead and a woman fighting for her life.
“I cried a lot,” Caley Gallardo said Tuesday, a day after detailing her doubts and fears over her then-beau’s mental state. “He was my boyfriend. We dated for two years. He was someone I had loved, so it was very difficult.
“The person I had dated would never have done something like that.”
Dominguez has pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity in the April 2023 stabbing deaths of David Breaux and Karim Abou Najm and the near-fatal attack on Kimberlee Guillory days later in May 2023.
Dominguez was struggling with the symptoms of schizophrenia, his attorney Daniel Hutchinson argued, a mental crisis that led to the violent spree that terrorized Davis in the spring of 2023.
In earlier testimony on Monday, Gallardo testified she had also seen Dominguez’s slide in the months leading to and after she broke off their relationship in April or May 2022. He thought he was hearing voices and believed that people were talking about him.
On another occasion, Gallardo testified, Dominguez scuffled with a man outside Gallardo’s apartment building. She said Dominguez thought the man was talking about him. Later, in her car, Gallardo said Dominguez tried to open the passenger door and leave while she was driving.
When she did stop the car, Gallardo testified, Dominguez “just walked away in the darkness. I was really worried about him. I knew he was very angry. It was outside, it was night time. It was very concerning.”
She knew about schizophrenia but wasn’t familiar with its symptoms, she told Hutchinson in Monday’s testimony. Still, she testified, she thought Dominguez had some sort of mental illness.
“I was concerned for him and his mental well-being,” Gallardo said during her Monday testimony. “I didn’t want to leave him on his own, but I was worried.”
Gallardo had ended her relationship with Dominguez months before she visited to check on him at his Hawthorne Avenue home in Davis in September and October 2022, she testified.
The Dominguez she saw during those visits was “the worst I’d ever seen him,” she testified. His hair had grown long, he was unshaven and hadn’t showered. By December 2022, Dominguez was “still withdrawing, but he would still want to socialize.”
Gallardo wouldn’t see Dominguez again until July 2023 when she testified at his competency hearing.
As Gallardo looked out at Dominguez, clean-shaven and clad in a gray suit and tie seated behind the defense table, defense attorney Hutchinson asked, “Does he look closer to the man you met?”
“Yes,” she said.
Testimony in the two-phase trial, which could last into July, will continue through the week.
This story was originally published May 20, 2025 at 12:48 PM.
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