Opening statements are expected to begin today in the trial of a 31-year-old community theater actor charged with the dismemberment murder of a neighbor and the killing of a friend of the neighbor more than five years ago.
Daniel Patrick Wozniak is accused of killing 26-year-old Samuel Eliezer Herr of Costa Mesa and 23-year-old Juri Julie Kibuishi of Irvine in May 2010.
The case has taken a long route to trial as Wozniak’s attorneys have tried 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 Orange County Superior Court Judge John Conley and Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy and the rest of his office thrown off the case and failed.
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.
Wozniak would go on stage for a production of “Nine” in Fullerton after each slaying, authorities have alleged.
Wozniak killed Herr at the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base, prosecutors allege. Then he lured Kibuishi back to Herr’s apartment, fatally shot her and then took off some of her clothes to make it appear Herr killed her, prosecutors allege.
Wozniak then returned to the theater on the military base where he allegedly dismembered the victim and tried to get rid of the body parts in the El Dorado Park Nature Center in Long Beach, prosecutors allege. Authorities have alleged he was trying to cover up the first crime.
Wozniak was arrested at his bachelor’s party at a Huntington Beach restaurant. Authorities allege he killed Herr to steal his savings and pay for his wedding and honeymoon.
