Defense tries to bar death penalty in OCC students’ killings
Defense lawyers are trying to take the death penalty off the table for a man accused of murdering two Orange Coast College students in Costa Mesa more than four years ago.
According to grand jury testimony, Daniel Patrick Wozniak, 30, has admitted to police to killing Samuel Herr, 26, and Juri “Julie” Kibuishi, 23, in 2010 so he could steal $50,000 from Herr’s bank account.
Prosecutors say Wozniak staged Kibuishi’s body to look like Herr had sexually assaulted her. He also is accused of dismembering Herr’s body so he could hide the remains in a park.
Wozniak’s case has been slowed by accusations of misconduct that his public defender, Scott Sanders, has leveled against the Orange County district attorney’s office and Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
On Thursday, Sanders filed an 80-page summary of what he believes to be a culture of Orange County law enforcement withholding evidence that could be helpful to defendants and misusing jailhouse informants to violate defendants’ constitutional rights.
He says Wozniak was approached by a jailhouse informant to elicit a confession.
“The Orange County district attorney’s office, and related law enforcement agencies, have proved over decades that they are willing to decide on their own who is guilty and who is not, who deserves to live and who to die, and to illegally create and withhold evidence in the pursuit of enforcing those decisions,” Sanders wrote.
He argued that capital punishment should be ruled out for his client.
But prosecutor Matt Murphy shot back that the filing had little or nothing to do with Wozniak’s case. Prosecutors say they will not use any information from jailhouse informants in Wozniak’s trial.
“This has to be the biggest dud in the history of Orange County jurisprudence,” Murphy said in court.
Sanders’ summary is only a preview of his allegations, not an official request to dismiss the death penalty in the case, which caused some confusion in court Friday.
“I don’t know what that is,” Orange County Superior Court Judge James Stotler said. “This isn’t an actual motion.”
Sanders explained that he wanted to give the court an idea of what he’s been doing but said he needs more time to craft a final motion that he said could run 20,000 pages, an idea that Murphy mocked.
“Not only is that absurd, it’s obscene,” Murphy said, reminding Stotler that three deadlines for Sanders’ motion have already passed.
At times, Stotler had to rein in Murphy and Sanders as they spent most of Friday’s hearing arguing about previous insults and accusations they have thrown at each other.
A deadline for Sanders’ motion to bar the death penalty is unclear. The trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 13.
The two sides will return to court Monday for another hearing.