Judge in double-murder case tells attorneys to stop their ‘child’s play’

An Orange County judge Friday rebuked two attorneys for bickering with each other in the death-penalty case of Daniel Wozniak, who is accused of beheading an Army veteran and then trying to cover his tracks by killing the man’s friend in Costa Mesa five years ago.

Superior Court Judge John Conley said he was shocked that public defender Scott Sanders and Orange County prosecutor Matt Murphy — both experienced lawyers — had used written briefs and hours of court time to trade accusations about ruined vacations, attacks on character and other personal slights.

“This is just child’s play,” Conley said.

His denunciation came as he ruled on a motion asking to throw Murphy off the case. Sanders alleged that the prosecutor had been trying to use personal attacks to poison the judge’s perspective on the case, but Murphy argued he was only responding to provocations from Sanders.

“It’s gone way too far,” Conley said, adding that the lawyers’ positions could be summed up as name calling.

“It’s the perfect outline of both arguments: ‘My opponent is a jerk,’” he said.

The judge denied Sanders’ request to hold a hearing that would have included calling Murphy to the stand in an attempt to have him removed. But he left Sanders the option of filing a new motion on the topic if circumstances change.

“I think both of you are doing a disservice to your client by engaging in that kind of horseplay you see in the lower court,” Conley said.

Sanders’ argument that Murphy has a conflict of interest because the county district attorney’s office would like to discredit the public defender is “not close,” according to the judge.

“If there’s blame here, it’s on both sides,” Conley said.

For more than a year, the two attorneys have been trading barbs in the murder case, which has been lingering since the 2010 slayings.

Sanders has been trying to take the death penalty off the table for Wozniak, 31, who is accused of killing Orange Coast College students Sam Herr, 26, and Juri “Julie” Kibuishi, 23.

According to grand jury testimony from police detectives, Wozniak admitted shooting Herr so he could steal about $50,000 that Herr had saved from his military service in Afghanistan.

Prosecutors allege that Wozniak dismembered and tried to hide Herr’s body and then used Kibuishi’s corpse as a decoy to throw police off his trail by staging it to look like Herr had sexually assaulted her.

On Friday, Sanders argued that Murphy was more concerned with smearing him and protecting his office’s reputation against allegations of mishandling evidence than with seeing justice in the case.

The district attorney’s office was recently removed in another capital case being defended by Sanders: the sentencing phase for Scott Dekraai, who has pleaded guilty to shooting to death his ex-wife and seven others at a Seal Beach salon in 2011.

In March, Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals booted the district attorney’s office from those proceedings when Sanders brought forth allegations about prosecutors and sheriff’s deputies holding back evidence and illegally directing jailhouse informants.

“There are unquestionably hard feelings about that,” Sanders said.

Murphy responded that Sanders has been deliberately trying to delay the Wozniak trial and that he routinely lobs allegations of misconduct with no evidence. He compared Sanders to the Queen of Hearts.

“Every time she sees something she doesn’t like, it’s ‘off with your head,’” he said.

Before Conley stopped them, the two lawyers also argued about whether Sanders intentionally ruined Murphy’s Christmas vacation by having a court date scheduled on Dec. 17.