Los Al Grad Convicted in Grisly Theater Murder

By PAUL ANDERSON

A community theater actor was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder today for killing and dismembering a neighbor, then trying to cover up his crime by killing a female friend of the victim.

Daniel Patrick Wozniak, 31, faces a possible death sentence. His trial will now enter a penalty phase, which will begin Jan. 4. Jurors will be tasked with recommending whether Wozniak should be sent to death row or spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The father of 26-year-old victim Samuel Eliezer Herr of Costa Mesa said he was “relieved” when he heard the verdicts.

“It was never in doubt and it was long overdue,” Steve Herr said.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy told jurors that Wozniak was deep in debt in May 2010, facing eviction and without money for his pending wedding, so he came up with a plan to kill his neighbor and throw police off his trail by making it look like Herr murdered and raped a female friend.

Wozniak further tried to confound investigators by dismembering his first victim and dumping Herr’s body parts in the El Dorado Nature Center in Long Beach, Murphy said.

After killing Herr at the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base, Wozniak used one of the victim’s phones to lure 23-year-old Julie Kibuishi to Herr’s apartment so he could shoot her and stage the crime scene, Murphy said.

He also tricked a 16-year-old boy who looked up to the defendant into withdrawing cash from Herr’s bank account in order to pay his rent, avoid eviction and have money for his wedding and honeymoon, the prosecutor said.

The complex scheme worked initially, as Costa Mesa police continued to focus on Herr as a suspect in Kibuishi’s killing, 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.”

Referring to a third round of questioning with police when Wozniak claimed he was “crazy,” Murphy said in his closing arguments today, “There’s nothing wrong with his head. It’s what’s wrong in his heart.”

Closing arguments, which began this morning, were done by the lunch break, with Murphy telling jurors the evidence was overwhelming. The panel reached its verdict late this afternoon, convicting Wozniak of the murder counts and finding true special circumstance allegations of multiple victims and murder for financial gain.

Attorneys will return to court Tuesday to discuss whether jurors will hear evidence that Herr was charged with murder in Los Angeles County but ultimately acquitted. Orange County Superior Court Judge John Conley earlier ruled that it would not be used in the guilt phase of the trial, but Wozniak’s attorneys are hoping to use it in the penalty phase.

The case took a long route to trial, with Wozniak’s attorneys trying to make a case of outrageous governmental misconduct based on the defendant’s encounter with a jailhouse informant.

Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders sought to have Conley and the Orange County District Attorney’s Office removed from the case, but the effort failed.

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City News Service