Actor Performed on Stage Between Murders: Prosecutor

By PAUL ANDERSON

A Los Alamitos community theater actor charged with two murders was deep in debt, facing eviction and without money for his pending nuptials when he came up with a plan to kill a Costa Mesa neighbor and, to throw police off his trail, make it look like the victim murdered and raped a friend, a prosecutor told a jury today.

And then, to make it harder for investigators to pin the murders on him, Daniel Patrick Wozniak dismembered one of the victims and dumped his body parts in the El Dorado Nature Center in Long Beach, Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy alleged.

The defendant used one of the victim’s phones to lure the other victim to her friend’s home so he could kill her and stage the crime scene, Murphy alleged.

He also tricked a 16-year-old boy who looked up to the defendant into withdrawing cash from the bank account of one of the victims so Wozniak could pay his rent, avoid eviction and have money for his wedding and honeymoon, the prosecutor alleged.

The complex scheme worked initially, as Costa Mesa police continued to focus on Wozniak’s first victim, 26-year-old Samuel Eliezer Herr, as a suspect in the murder of 23-year-old Julie Kibuishi, Murphy said.

According to the prosecutor, Wozniak ultimately confessed and told investigators, “I killed Julie and I killed Sam. Sam came first. It was all just about money and that’s it.”

Wozniak knew Herr as a friendly neighbor who also enjoyed the hot tub at the Camden Martinique apartments in Costa Mesa across from Orange Coast College, where Herr was a student following a stint as a U.S. Army paratrooper who did a tour of duty in Afghanistan. Herr wanted to rejoin the Army and attain an officer’s rank, Murphy said.

Kibuishi lived at home in Irvine with her parents, but she was Herr’s best friend and often slept on his couch.

“He was kind of like a big brother to Julie,” Murphy said. “And Julie was like his platonic wife who nagged him to do his homework.”

On May 22, 2010, Herr’s father could not get in touch with his son, which was unusual, so drove over to his apartment and discovered Kibuishi’s body, Murphy said. Her jeans and underwear were ripped, and written on the back of her top was, “All yours, (expletive) you.”

Also found in the apartment was a bizarre sketch of a woman who appeared Asian with the words, “I’m done” on it, Murphy said.

Initially, police suspected Herr of raping and murdering Kibuishi, Murphy said. But a sharp-eyed crime scene investigators noticed the “s” on the sketch and the note on the victim’s back did not match Herr’s handwriting. Instead, it looked more like the writing on a wedding invitation from Wozniak.

As police continued to follow clues, they then began to believe Wozniak was somehow involved in helping Herr get away with the murder. But the more they focused on Wozniak, the more they got the feeling he was the culprit and Herr was innocent, Murphy said.

One of the main clues initially was the active use of Herr’s ATM card in Long Beach that was used to order pizza and to make maximum daily cash withdrawals, Murphy said.

Wozniak enlisted then-16-year-old Wesley Frielich, who met the defendant when he was 10 and appeared in a play at Liberty Theater on the Los Alamitos military base. The boy looked up to Wozniak, who called him “out of the blue” after being out of touch for a couple of years, the prosecutor said. Wozniak told the boy he was working for a bail bondsman and needed to help retrieve money from a customer who had skipped bail, Murphy said. The teen reluctantly agreed to go along with the scheme and would hand over the cash to Wozniak, Murphy said.

Police began to stake out the ATMs and the pizza place, and as they followed Frielich., it led them to Wozniak, Murphy said.

Wozniak, who was arrested at his bachelor party at Tsunami Sushi in Huntington Beach, concocted a story about getting into a credit card scam with Herr and then trying to help his friend get away with the murder, Murphy said. Part of the scam involved Wozniak sneaking money out of Herr’s account to help with his getaway, the prosecutor said.

Police did not believe the story because it made more sense that Herr would just clean out his account before the crime, Murphy said. Wozniak, however, dazzled them with his acting in the interrogation and was “selling it” initially, Murphy said.

As Wozniak’s story faced more challenges from detectives, the defendant then said he was in fear of Herr, who he claimed had threatened to kill him if he cooperated with authorities, Murphy said.

Wozniak’s ultimate undoing was a collect call he made from the Costa Mesa jail to his fiancee, co-defendant, Rachael Mae Buffett, who is charged as an accessory after the fact, Murphy said.

Buffett told Wozniak that his big brother, Tim, who is also charged as an accessory after the fact and is expected to testify in the trial, was in trouble for handling evidence, Murphy said.

“Then I’m doomed,” Wozniak replied before pleading with his fiancee to not come forward to authorities, according to the prosecutor.

Wozniak had handed his brother a backpack stuffed with Herr’s clothes, wallet and cell phone, Murphy said. Tim Wozniak threw the satchel full of evidence into the yard of his parents’ home in Long Beach, Murphy said, adding the brothers had been estranged from their mother and father.

Wozniak lured Herr to the Los Alamitos base theater under the ruse of helping him move some props around, Murphy alleged. When they got there, they climbed up to an attic, where Wozniak shot Herr twice in the head, because the first shot was not fatal, Murphy alleged.

Wozniak then used Herr’s phone to lure Kibuishi via text messages to Herr’s apartment that evening, so he could kill her and make it look like Herr had done it, Murphy alleged.

Wozniak shot Kibuishi twice in the head, as well, the prosecutor alleged. Despite trying to make it appear as if she were sexually assaulted, there was no evidence that occurred, Murphy said.

Wozniak took the stage after Herr’s execution-style killing as the star of the Hunger Artist Theater’s performance of “Nine,” then killed Kibuishi after the show, Murphy alleged.

Wozniak returned to Los Alamitos to dismember Herr’s body, hacking off a hand, an arm and the victim’s head, Murphy alleged. But the defendant, in his haste, left behind a shell casing from the gun that matched ballistics tests on the murder weapon, an antique Llama II .380-caliber automatic pistol, Murphy alleged.

Wozniak’s attorney, Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders, waived his chance to an opening statement. Sanders’ co-counsel, Tracy Lesage, may make an opening statement later in the trial.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Wozniak, so the trial will be conducted in two phases. In the first phase, the jurors will consider the defendant’s guilt, and if he is convicted, they will consider whether to recommend life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.

City News Service