BREAKING: Wozniak Receives Death Sentence for Double Homicide

LOS ALAMITOS, CA — The brutal murder of two victims that were left dismembered in dumpsters across Long Beach six years ago at last received closure today.

Daniel Patrick Wozniak received a sentence of death by Orange County Superior Court Judge John Conley for the killing and subsequent mutilation of the body of one victim, as well as the attempt to frame the other victim for the crime.

The 32-year-old former Los Alamitos community theater actor killed two people in an effort to raise money for his wedding and honeymoon. The double-murderer mutilated the body of one his victims and tried to throw authorities off his trail by framing the dead man for the second killing. He was convicted in December for the 2010 murders of 26-year-old Samuel Eliezer Herr and 23-year-old Julie Kibuishi.

Judge Conley denied a defense motion for a new trial and refused to dismiss the death penalty as a potential sentence based on claims of government misconduct in the case. Conley also dealt a tongue-lashing to Wozniak's attorney, Scott Sanders, for filing a 132- page motion during his arguments this morning.

Sanders explained that his filing was a response to prosecutors' criticisms of the defense attorney and that he was told to file it if he wanted to. Conley ruled that the filing be "stricken," but it will be part of the record for an appeal.

Sanders again argued that the Orange County Sheriff's Department engaged in outrageous government conduct in the handling of jailhouse informants, particularly Fernando Perez, who heard Wozniak make incriminating statements. But Perez was never a witness in the trial, since Wozniak had already confessed to Costa Mesa police and Perez's information was redundant and not useful to prosecutors, Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy argued previously.

Sanders also argued that Murphy has made "inconsistent" arguments in the separate cases against Wozniak and his fiancee at the time, Rachel Buffett, who was charged as an accessory after the fact. The defense attorney also argued that a police lieutenant testified that Buffett should have been charged with murder. Buffett is still awaiting trial.

Conley, however, said while there was evidence that Buffett may have known about the murders there wasn't enough evidence to show she did anything to help Wozniak kill the victims.

Conley went over the gruesome details of the killings, including how Wozniak lured Herr to a Los Alamitos theater to shoot him in the back of the head and then, with help from a 16-year-old accomplice he "tricked," he used the victim's ATM card to withdraw money from Herr's bank account. Then he went on stage to perform in a play.

After the play, he went back to the crime scene and began hacking off the head and arms of the victim to impede the investigation, Conley said.

The next day, he used Herr's phone to lure Kibuishi to Herr's Costa Mesa apartment, where he shot her and then pulled her pants down to make it appear Herr had raped and killed her, Conley said. The judge noted Wozniak's use of the internet to research how to get away with the murders.

Wozniak then returned to the stage and "again he looked fine," Conley said.

"Suffice it to say that even his defense attorney was constrained to calling it horrible, terrible and horrific," Conley said.

Conley also noted that it took jurors about 79 minutes to return a verdict of death.

Conley said it was "unclear" how much of a role Buffett played in the killings, but it didn't matter because Wozniak was the one who carried out the murders and dismemberment.

"At the cost of two human lives, the defendant chose not to get married inexpensively or to defer his honeymoon," Conley said. "He wanted to do it in style and he was willing to kill two people he knew to accomplish this."

The judge added, "The aggravating circumstances are so very substantial compared with the mitigating circumstances that these two murders warrant the death penalty."

Conley also denied an automatic motion to reject the jury's recommendation of death.

Wozniak was deep in debt in May 2010, facing eviction and without money for his pending wedding, when he concocted the money-acquisition plan to kill his neighbor, Herr, and throw police off the trail by making it look like Herr murdered and raped Kibuishi, Murphy argued at trial.

Wozniak, who grew up in Long Beach, further tried to confound investigators by dismembering Herr and dumping the body parts in the El Dorado Nature Center in Long Beach, Murphy said.

City News Service contributed to this report. Patch File Photo.