Prosecutor: Killer Who Laughed While Cutting off Victim's Head Deserves Death

An Orange County community theater actor who killed and dismembered one of his victims and then staged the murder of a woman to make it look like the first victim was her rapist and killer should be put to death for “desecrating” their bodies for the “worst” motive -- money, a prosecutor told jurors today.

In closing arguments in the penalty phase of the trial of Daniel Patrick Wozniak -- convicted last month of the May 2010 murders of 26-year-old Samuel Eliezer Herr and 23-year-old Julie Kibuishi -- Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy tried to deflect any potential defense of the defendant’s crimes.

Murphy ridiculed any notion that Wozniak may have been “manipulated” by his then-fiancee, Rachel Mae Buffett, who has been charged as an accessory after the fact for lying to investigators.

Murphy conceded that there appears to be some indication Buffett may have been in on the killings, but investigators could never come up with enough evidence to charge her.

“They need a villain -- someone to point a finger at to distract you from what Daniel Wozniak did,” Murphy said.

“If she was in on it with him it would be the dumbest thing she could do -- it just doesn’t make any sense,” because Buffett told investigators where to find a “bonanza” of evidence in a backpack that contained the murder weapon with Wozniak’s DNA on it.

Wozniak, Murphy noted, has repeatedly denied Buffett was involved in the planning or execution of the murders.

The prosecutor invited jurors to go ahead and hypothetically consider it’s true she was a co-conspirator.

“How would her involvement lessen his responsibility in any conceivable way,” Murphy said.

Pointing to Wozniak, the prosecutor added, “That man made a series of decisions that brought us all together and Rachel is not responsible for what he did. Each one of us is responsible for our own decisions.”

Murphy also brushed off another of Wozniak’s witnesses -- convicted gun burglar Daniel Munoz, who testified that his former fellow inmate was “generous” with sharing soup in jail and “talked about God.”

“I’m surprised that guy didn’t get arrested again going out of the court house,” Murphy said.

Murphy also pointed to the testimony of family members of the victims. He noted Herr’s father, Steve, testifying, “Here I am praying they find my son’s head -- how do you describe something like that? A father praying they find his son’s head.”

Murphy said, “That’s not a nightmare. That’s what actually happened.”

The prosecutor said Wozniak treated his victims like “trash,” and that he was “laughing as he cut off a human head.”

Murphy turned to the jury and said, “So the question I ask you in your verdicts are they (trash)?”

Wozniak’s attorney, Scott Sanders, said he agreed with the prosecutor that “there are no words” to describe the horrific nature of the crimes.

But, he added, “If you return a verdict of life in prison without the possibility of parole that’s not like saying they’re lives were trash.”

Sanders argued that Wozniak was essentially manipulated by his fiancee into thinking a loan he received from a friend, Chris Williams, had to be paid back quickly or they faced consequences from loan sharks. That, however, was a lie because Williams had gotten the money from a benefit concert to help him pay medical bills.

Sanders pointed to the testimony of Munoz as an example of how Wozniak had the potential to reform himself while in prison.

“It’s about what a person can become after they do something terrible,” Sanders said. “Is he redeemable? Is it a life that has value?”

In the first phase of the trial, Murphy told jurors that Wozniak was deep in debt in May 2010, facing eviction and without money for his pending wedding, when 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, who grew up in Long Beach, 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 Kibuishi to Herr’s apartment so he could shoot her and stage the crime scene, Murphy said.

Wozniak 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.

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.

Wozniak’s ultimate undoing was a collect call he made from the Costa Mesa jail in which he made incriminating statements to Buffett as he implored her not to tell investigators about the backpack with the murder weapon in it, Murphy said.

Jurors will be asked to recommend the ultimate punishment or life in prison without the possibility of parole. Orange County Superior Court Judge John Conley will make the final decision.

Closing arguments were expected to conclude Monday.

City News Service