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    Athlete, honor student, murderer? How did a UC Davis student spiral into an accused killer?

    The testimony in Carlos Reales Dominguez's competency trial raised one enormous question: Why did no one intervene as the young man spiraled from high school honor student to accused murderer? During his freshman year at the University of California, Davis, he confided in friends that he was hearing voices. A few months after starting his sophomore year, he told his then-girlfriend "the devil ...
    by Brittny Mejia, Los Angeles Times Aug 14, 2023 8 minutes
    Abou Najm, a senior at the University of California, Davis and the son of a professor at the university, was fatally stabbed at Sycamore Park.

    The testimony in Carlos Reales Dominguez's competency trial raised one enormous question: Why did no one intervene as the young man spiraled from high school honor student to accused murderer?

    During his freshman year at the University of California, Davis, he confided in friends that he was hearing voices. A few months after starting his sophomore year, he told his then-girlfriend "the devil was talking to him in his dreams." Over that same academic year, a roommate spotted him several times moving his mouth, but with no words coming out.

    Witness after witness testified during the proceeding, which would decide whether Dominguez was competent to stand trial for the late April murders of David Henry Breaux, known around town as the "Compassion Guy," and Karim Abou Najm, a UC Davis student set to graduate that spring. Dominguez is also charged with the attempted murder of Kimberlee Guillory.

    Throughout the July competency trial, the 20-year-old Dominguez sat wraithlike, pale, his unwashed hair a curtain in front of his eyes. He wore a dark-green safety smock to keep him from killing himself.

    "I would say that Mr. Dominguez is a textbook example of schizophrenia," testified Juliana Rohrer, a psychologist appointed by the court to determine whether Dominguez was mentally competent.

    Although Rohrer had previously found that Dominguez was not competent to stand trial, prosecutors challenged that conclusion — landing the case before a jury in Yolo County Superior Court.

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