Killer gives ghastly excuse for stabbing two people to death during week-long rampage in college town

Daily Mail​

05-06-2025

A student on trial for stabbing two people to death and seriously injuring a third during a week-long rampage has claimed he believed his victims were supernatural 'shadow figures'.
Carlos Reales Dominguez, 23, who was on a full scholarship at the University of California, Davis - where he was studying to be a doctor, is facing murder charges for the deaths of David Breax, 50, and Karim Abou Najm, 20, as well as an attempted murder charge for the near-fatal stabbing of Kimberlee Guillory, who is now 64.
His defense does not deny that Dominguez stabbed and killed the two men, and tried to kill Guillory - but instead claims he was suffering from untreated schizophrenia during the rampage in the spring of 2023.
The fallout caused businesses to close early and night classes to switch to virtual learning until the suspect was caught, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Dominguez has pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity to the charges against him.
To bolster that claim, Dominguez took the witness stand on Monday and Tuesday - when he shared how he thought he was confronting what he believed were supernatural 'shadow figures.'
Those figures, as well as 'shape shifters' and whispers he would hear 'like the TV had been left on in the background' would appear in his dreams, room and along the paths and parks he frequented at night, Dominguez testified.
He said it was not until he was confined to a state hospital months later that he 'realized that the shadow figures were people I had stabbed.'
In one instance, Dominguez claims he saw a figure laughing and pointing at him silently as it approached him on the Sycamore Park bike path on April 29, 2023.
He said he believed the figure resembled the devil, and claimed he wanted to see if the shadow would try to avoid him if he got in his way, KCRA reports.
Instead, Dominguez said, the figure crashed into him and they both fell on the ground.
'I remember the shadow, the shape-shifter coming toward me,' the accused murderer recounted to the 17-person jury.
'If I stepped in his way, he would see me and move to his right or left. He would stop laughing and point at me.
'I felt bad that he was making fun of me, not because I was angry, but because I was scared,' Dominguez said, noting that he does not remember actually attacking anyone and denied noticing any blood on his hands or clothes.
But the details of the story matched up with the stabbing death of Najm, who was on his way home from an undergraduate awards ceremony that night when he was stabbed to death.
Dominguez also spoke about seeing a shadow figure in a tent, who he said motioned for him to come closer.
As he approached, he said the shadow grabbed him - prompting Dominguez to punch the shadow away.
That shadow appears to have been Guillory, who was stabbed through a tent at a homeless encampment but survived the attack.
And, he claimed, he saw Breaux as a 'shadowy figure' who was taunting him.
Dominguez said he remembered lunging at the figure, but then 'blanked out,' according to Davis Vanguard.
He claims he no longer suffers from such hallucinations after taking medication each night, but confirmed he still experiences negative symptoms like stiff posture and an inability to express emotion.
Those who knew him in college have also testified how he became more distant and aloof, appearing uninterested in everything, losing weight, growing out his hair and letting his hygiene slip leading up to the murders.
Health professionals have similarly testified that they believe Dominguez has some form of schizophrenia.
However, prosecutors have challenged Dominguez's account of events and argued that it was anger that drove him to kill the two men and also stab Guillory.
Fits Van Der Houk pointed to incidents of violent behavior, including punching a wall after failing a chemistry exam and breaking a toilet at his shared residence.
Dominguez even wrote a poem entitled Knife in My Hand, which included knife imagery, and bought a combat knife online prior to the attacks.
'You killed David Breaux because you were angry,' Van Der Houk argued.
'You were thinking about killing people,' he said, noting that Najm was stabbed more than 50 times and Breaux was stabbed more than 30 times.
The two were remembered fondly in the community in the aftermath, with residents saying Breaux was 'instrumental' in the addition of a 'Compassion Bench' at the corner of 3rd and C Streets, where he would ask people their definition of the word 'compassion.'
He later published his notes as a collection of anonymous writings.
Abou Najm, meanwhile, was set to graduate in just six weeks, his father told ABC10.
He already had two jobs lined up for after graduation.
'We moved from Lebanon in 2018 when the situation in Lebanon was a little bit starting to go in not the right direction,' his father said. 'We came here hoping for safety.'
'I want this to be his memory: a bundle of energy, a bundle of positivity,' Majdi Abou Najm said of his son.
'Someone who was full of ambition, proud of his roots, who just wanted to make this world a better place.'