When will Davis' stabbing trial begin? Judge sets date for murder of suspect Carlos Dominguez

A Yolo Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that the trial against Carlos Reales Dominguez, the former UC Davis student accused in a series of stabbings that left two dead and shocked the Davis community l last year, could start next year at the earliest.

A large number of discoveries – due to three stabbing victims – and delays in the criminal trial after Reales Dominguez's mental state was evaluated made it difficult for public defender Daniel Hutchinson to mount a successful defense this year, a said Judge Samuel T. McAdam.

“This case has a lot of moving parts,” McAdam said from Woodland’s bench Tuesday morning. “It’s a complex matter.”

The trial, estimated to last six weeks, has been provisionally set for April 28.

Reales Dominguez is accused of murder and attempted murder with special circumstances in the three attacks in late April and early May. David Breaux, 50, and Majdi Abou Najm, 20, were killed in separate parks in the city of Davis, within days of each other. Their killings were followed by the brutal attack on Kimberlee Guillory, 64, as she slept in her tent on May 1 in a homeless encampment. She survived the stabbing.

The criminal case against Reales Dominguez was stayed after prosecutors admitted he was mentally incapable of understanding the charges against him and assisting in his own legal defense. But in December, Atascadero doctors helped heal Reales Dominguez and restore his mental consciousness.

McAdam reinstated criminal charges against the 22-year-old on January 5.

Before being transferred to the state, Reales Dominguez had sometimes refused to take antipsychotic medications during his time in prison.

Reales Dominguez was a UC Davis biological sciences major who had excelled as a high school student-athlete in the East Bay, but was dismissed from the university for academic reasons on April 25, two days before commencement of the murderous rampage. During his court testimony in June, his friends described him as exhibiting bizarre behavior, making him further removed from society.

The Yolo County District Attorney's Office decided earlier this year that it would not seek the death penalty.