Trial in killings of two OCC students tentatively set for October
Five years after the killings of two Orange Coast College students, attorneys said Friday that they’re on the verge of beginning the trial for the Costa Mesa man accused in the case and set a tentative October start date.
But it remains to be seen if that goal will stand. Trial dates repeatedly have been vacated in the case against Daniel Patrick Wozniak, 31, who is charged with murdering Samuel Herr, 26, and Juri “Julie” Kibuishi, 23, in May 2010.
Prosecutors allege that Wozniak dismembered Herr’s body, dumped his head in a park and, in an attempt to throw police off his trail, staged Kibuishi’s body to look as if Herr had sexually assaulted her.
At a hearing Friday, Herr’s father, Steve, pleaded with Orange County Superior Court Judge John Conley to get the case moving.
“Can we get a date for a trial? We’ve been waiting five years,” Steve Herr said after waving his arms to get the judge’s attention. “That’s all I really want, just a tentative date for a trial.”
Conley agreed and set an Oct. 2 target, but the judge still has a slate of motions and contested subpoenas to consider before the case can proceed.
Most of the decisions he’ll have to make involve public defender Scott Sanders’ accusations that Orange County prosecutors and law enforcement officers have violated Wozniak’s and other death penalty defendants’ right to a fair trial for by withholding helpful evidence from their attorneys and using a jailhouse informant program to illegally seek incriminating information.
In Wozniak’s case, Sanders has alleged that law enforcement officials colluded with an informant and a TV show that interviewed Wozniak behind bars.
Sanders said he also intends to ask Conley to bar the entire Orange County district attorney’s office from prosecuting the case.
A similar motion from Sanders succeeded in March, when an Orange County judge barred the district attorney’s office from participating in the case against admitted mass killer Scott Dekraai. The California attorney general’s office has appealed that decision.
On Friday, Wozniak prosecutor Matt Murphy sparred with Sanders, saying he has been the target of mudslinging by the public defender. Sanders said he never made allegations personally against Murphy but more broadly against prosecutors and law enforcement.
Conley will begin weighing some of Sanders’ motions at a July 31 hearing.
The judge couldn’t rule on any issues earlier because Sanders was seeking to have him removed from the trial. The attempt was repeatedly rebuffed, and Sanders exhausted his appeals when the California Supreme Court this month declined to take up the issue.
The case fell to Conley after Judge James Stotler recused himself in January, questioning his ability to be unbiased against Sanders.
“Remember, I’m coming in in the middle of this movie,” Conley told the lawyers Friday. He asked them to prepare briefs to get him up to speed.