A San Mateo County Superior Court judge might have convicted Pacifica resident Malik Dosouqi for the brutal stabbing murders of two men on Skyline Boulevard in Woodside, but prosecutors are still unnerved by his acts, their randomness and their ferocity, Chief Deputy District Attorney Sean Gallagher said on Monday.

On March 17, Judge Lisa A. Novak found Dosouqi guilty of two counts of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of lying in wait and committing multiple murders. Dosouqi had a court trial with his verdict determined by a judge rather than by a jury. The defense and prosecutors had agreed to waive the jury trial, Gallagher said.

On the night of June 17, 2019, Dosouqi killed cab driver Abdulmalek Nasher, 32, of Pacifica, near the El Corte de Madera Creek Open Space Preserve. Just before midnight on June 18, he also killed tow truck driver John Pekipaki, 31. Both men died at the scene and neither victim knew Dosouqi, the DA's office has said.

Dosouqi lured both of the victims to Skyline Boulevard by calling for services and then stabbed them repeatedly with a large knife. San Mateo County Sheriff's deputies personnel investigating Nasher's homicide found Dosouqi after they heard the second victim, Pekipaki, calling for help nearby. Pekipaki, who worked for Specialty Towing in East Palo Alto, had been called out to the foggy area to aid Dosouqi who claimed his car was in a ditch.

When the two deputies responded to Pekipaki's cries, Dosouqi attempted to flee by driving his car directly at the deputies and Pekipaki, who was mortally wounded on the ground. A deputy fired shots at Dosouqi's car but didn't strike him. Dosouqi's car went off the road and landed in a ditch and he was taken into custody.

Gallagher said that besides finding Dosouqi near the scene, he was linked to the murders through phone records. Much of the second incident was also caught on police body-worn and patrol car dash-camera video, he added. The recordings, which were played in court as evidence, were chilling, he said.

"There was a sense of the horror of it all," Gallagher said.

Paul Demeester, Dosouqi's attorney, couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

The area was dark and remote; the deputies didn't know if the assailant was hiding among the trees or bushes in the dark with a gun; they saw the dead and dying bodies and a car with the suspect was coming at them, Gallagher said.

"It was a really scary chain of events. There was no place to go for help. It really was like something out of a horror movie," he said, calling it a very premeditated and planned pattern of crimes, and noting the evidence was strong against Dosouqi.

The randomness of the killings sticks with the prosecution team. It was not an accidental shooting or an argument or a burglary that got out of hand, he said.

"It is frightening. It's like a class of murder cases you'd see in the '70s, done with extreme violence. This is like a thrill killing," he said.

Two killings in two days was "really unnerving," Gallagher said.

"What was going to happen on Day 3? This was going to go on and on until he was caught. Each of the victims was just doing their job. They were lured to their deaths. It's gratuitous; there was no motive," he said.

Judge Robert Foiles initially declared Dosouqi incompetent on Nov. 1, 2019. He was sent to Napa State Hospital for psychiatric treatment until he could be restored to competency. On May 27, 2021, Judge Elizabeth Lee found him competent to stand trial after the prosecution's psychiatrist, Dr. Danica McDounough from Napa State Hospital, testified that he was competent to stand trial and "it is not a close call."

Dosouqi didn't react to the verdicts. He acted improperly throughout the trial, smiling and laughing to himself when witnesses gave their testimony, Gallagher said.

"But he's not insane," Gallagher said, adding that Dosouqi knew what he was doing and planned his crimes.

"I expect that he expected the verdict," he said.

Dosouqi is scheduled to be sentenced on April 15. He remains in custody without bail.