Trial Date Set After Double Murder Victim's Father Begs for Justice

A trial date in October has been set for a man faced with the death penalty for the Los Alamitos dismemberment murder of another man and the killing of a friend in Costa Mesa.

The oft-delayed death penalty trial of Daniel Patrick Wozniak received another trial date of Oct. 2 after the father of one of the victims implored the judge presiding over the case to schedule one.

Steve Herr, the father of victim, Samuel Eliezer Herr, told Orange County Superior Court Judge John Conley that he wanted another trial date set.

“We’ve been waiting five years,” Herr said. “That’s all we really wanted.”

The case has been plagued with delays, particularly since Wozniak’s attorneys have alleged outrageous government misconduct in the use of a jailhouse snitch and the involvement of Orange County sheriff’s deputies in helping to arrange an interview of the defendant on MSNBC’s “Lockup.”

Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy has said he advised Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders of Wozniak’s interview on the program and that his office had nothing to do with it, but only found out about it through Herr, who saw an ad for the show.

MSNBC’s lawyers are fighting Sanders’ request for correspondence and other information regarding the network’s interview of Wozniak.

Sanders is pushing for an evidentiary hearing on the use of a jailhouse informant who befriended Wozniak and passed on potentially incriminating statements to jailers. Murphy has pointed out that he has no plans to use the informant as a witness and that he was not yet an official snitch for the sheriff when he buddied up with Wozniak.

Also, Murphy argues, Costa Mesa police are the lead law enforcement agency in the case against Wozniak and that the sheriff’s only role is as a jailer.

Sanders won an evidentiary hearing for one of his other clients -- convicted mass killer Scott Dekraai -- that led to findings of misconduct that led another judge to remove the District Attorney’s Office as prosecutor.

Murphy also pushed Conley today to issue a finding that the prosecutor was not personally involved in any alleged misconduct, something he argues Sanders has alleged in court papers. Sanders has emphasized that he is alleging “government misconduct,” not “prosecutorial misconduct.”

Conley said he wasn’t prepared to do that today because he was “like someone coming in in the middle of the movie.” Both sides are set to argue the issue July 31.

The state supreme court this month rejected a petition from Wozniak to boot Conley from the case. Another judge recused himself when he said he became so frustrated with Sanders that he did not think he was capable of being fair to the defendant.

Prosecutors had the judge presiding over the Dekraai case removed when he was assigned to it following the other judge’s recusal.

Wozniak is accused of shooting Samuel Herr after luring him to the Los Alamitos Joint Forces military base in May 2010. Prosecutors allege he then used the victim’s cell phone to trick his friend, Juri Kibuishi, into going to Herr’s Costa Mesa apartment, where the defendant gunned her down and then made it look like Herr killed her during a sexual assault. Wozniak then allegedly returned to the base to dismember Herr.

City News Service