Mental health workers testify during competency trial of accused Davis stabber

WOODLAND, Calif. (CN) — A friend of serial stabbing suspect Carlos Dominguez saw him walk, staring into “dead space,” down the middle of the road on the day he was arrested.

Sidney Slesicki testified Wednesday that Dominguez had withdrawn socially from his friends and housemates in the months leading up to his arrest. On May 3, Slesicki pulled into the driveway of the Davis, California, house where Dominguez lived with three other people. He told Dominguez to be careful, as another stabbing had recently occurred — one of two murders, as well as an attempted murder, authorities would later say Dominguez committed.

Dominguez didn’t look at his friend.

“His vision was just kind of locked and he was staring into dead space,” Slesicki said while on the witness stand during the second day of Dominguez’s competency trial. “He did not even look at me.”

Dominguez — currently on trial in Yolo County Superior Court to determine if he’s competent to have charges of murder and attempted murder levied against him — quasi-marched to the middle of the street and made an almost perfect 90-degree turn before walking away, Slesicki said.

That was the last time Slesicki said he saw his friend before the trial.

Sometime later on May 3, authorities arrested Dominguez. He’s charged in connection with the late April murders of David Henry Breaux, 50, and Karim Abou Najm, 20. Dominguez also faces an attempted murder charge in connection to a woman in her 60s who was stabbed multiple times in a homeless encampment on May 1.

Kimberlee Guillory survived the stabbing and called 911, leading to a manhunt that resulted in Dominguez’s arrest. He’s pleaded not guilty.

A doctor’s report states Dominguez, a former UC Davis student, isn’t competent to stand trial. Prosecutors disagreed and requested a trial on the issue. Criminal proceedings against Dominguez are paused pending the jury’s verdict.

Slesicki was one of a handful of witnesses to testify in that trial on Wednesday.

Amy Gutierrez, a mental health professional stationed at the Yolo County Jail, testified that she first saw Dominguez in custody on May 4.

“Mr. Dominguez presented with bizarre posture,” Gutierrez said, referring to how he appeared. “He was very rigid in the way he was standing."

“He presented very flat, which means without emotional response," she added.

Dominguez has remained on suicide watch since his arrest, though he’s never talked about wanting to hurt himself, Gutierrez said. That’s because he’s been withdrawn, shown an inability to care for himself, periodically gone for periods without eating and not identified a reason for living.

Dominguez is in a cell without anything to read, look at or listen to, Gutierrez said. At one point she offered to post song lyrics on his wall, after he expressed an interest, but he declined.

In mid-May, Gutierrez sent an email saying that Dominguez needed more care than the jail could provide. That weekend he was taken to the hospital because his vital signs weren’t stable. Days later, he went again.

Dominguez displays symptoms of someone with schizophrenia, Gutierrez said, including a lack of eye contact and poor hygiene.

“Oftentimes, he’s laying down, not moving,” she said. “I’ve observed him in rigid, bizarre positions.”

At one point, Gutierrez asked if Dominguez was working with his attorney and understood what was occurring in court. “He said no,” she said.

Brandi Halsted, who works with Gutierrez as a clinician at the jail, said Dominguez has talked about returning to classes at UC Davis and talking to a counselor. Halsted broached the subject of his future at one point. Dominguez said he wanted a home, a family and to live in the Bay Area.

That thinking shows a lack of insight into his current situation, Halsted said.

The trial is scheduled to continue Thursday.