Jurors hear of frantic effort to save Davis stabbing victim at trial's second day
The wrenching recording culled from the officer's body camera concluded the second morning of Carlos Reales Dominguez's murder trial in Yolo Superior Court in Woodland, now in its guilt phase. A second phase of the trial will follow to determine whether Dominguez was sane at the time of his alleged attacks.
The former UC Davis student faces murder and attempted murder charges in the weeklong stabbing rampage that left two dead and grievously wounded another in late April and early May 2023.
Dominguez has pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity in the 2023 spree. He sat motionless at the defense table next to Yolo County deputy public defender Daniel Hutchinson as the violent night Najm was killed replayed in the courtroom.
Najm, 20, was the spree's second victim on April 29, 2023, stabbed repeatedly in the savage attack and fighting for his life as Davis police Cpl. Pheng Ly raced to the scene. Ly took the stand Tuesday before Yolo Superior Court Judge Samuel McAdam, describing the late-night call broadcast over his cruiser's radio.
Davis Police Department detective Alex Torres describes the dirt on a pair of sweat pants that was worn by David Breaux, who was allegedly stabbed to death by former UC Davis student Carlos Reales Dominguez, during the first day of trial at Yolo Superior Court in Woodland on Monday.
'It was a report of a man down with blood all over him at Sycamore and Colby in West Davis,' Ly testified. 'I went emergency lights and sirens. A person down with blood all over him — there had been a homicide a few days earlier and that played in my mind as well.'
Davis was a city on edge and in shock after the knife killing two days earlier of 50-year-old David Breaux, the beloved 'compassion guy' who found dead on a bench in the city's Central Park. Ly rushed to a physician desperately performing CPR and pleading with Najm to stay alive.
'Come on, buddy,' the man could be heard as he continued performing chest compressions on Najm.
The doctor lived in a home on the park's border and told Ly he saw the attack on Najm as well as the young UC Davis student's assailant flee down the trail. He heard a man call for help and was able to give Ly a description of Najm's attacker. He was 19 or 20, white or Hispanic, the physician said, as an urgent Ly took over CPR and called dispatchers.
'I need all units here,' Ly said on the recording. 'He's not looking good. Multiple stab wounds.'
Davis Police Department detective Alex Torres moves a sweater that was worn by David Breaux who was allegedly stabbed to death by former UC Davis student Carlos Reales Dominguez, during the first day of trial at Yolo Superior Court in Woodland on Monday.
Dominguez jurors heard testimony from several witnesses Tuesday including Davis police officers and crime scene technicians who were first on scene at Central Park where Breaux's body was found. The 14 jurors — eight women and six men — and three alternates also heard from unhoused residents near the tent where Kimberlee Guillory, the third stabbing victim, was attacked and seriously injured.
Officers used crime scene photographs to detail for jurors the wounds Breaux suffered in the deadly attack — puncture wounds to his back, arms and hands as he presumably tried to fend off his assailant.
Trial proceedings are being live-streamed online but, on Yolo judge McAdam's order, graphic images of the crimes were shown only inside the courtroom.
Patricia Mendes, an American Medical Response paramedic with 41 years on the job, was among the first to find the deceased Breaux on the park bench late on the morning after he was killed April 27, 2023. Under the bench was a 'very large puddle of blood.'
'There was no pulse,' she testified.
Davis Police Department detective Alex Torres describes the evidence of stabbings on a sweater, allegedly fatally stabbed by former UC Davis student Carlos Reales Dominguez, during the first day of trial at Yolo Superior Court in Woodland on Monday.
Mendes testified that as she tended to Breaux, she spotted something in the grass beside the bench.
'I saw an empty knife sheath made of leather that appeared to be brand new,' she testified.
Prosecutors allege the leather sheath was part of the tactical knife they say Dominguez purchased online in December 2022, five months before the attacks that killed Breaux and Najm and wounded Guillory.
Testimony resumes Wednesday and was expected to continue for another week and a half.
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