Jury selection to begin Tuesday in trial of double murderer Daniel Wozniak’s ex-fiancée

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Tuesday in the trial of Rachel Buffett, who is accused of being an accessory after the fact for her former fiancé, convicted double murderer Daniel Wozniak.

Buffett, who was arrested in 2012, is charged in Orange County Superior Court with three felony counts of accessory after the fact or knowledge of a crime.

In May 2010, Wozniak, a community theater actor, needed money for rent and his upcoming wedding and honeymoon with Buffett, authorities said. He plotted to kill Sam Herr, 26, his neighbor at the Camden Martinique apartment complex in Costa Mesa, prosecutors said.

Wozniak wanted to steal $62,000 that Herr had saved from serving in the Army in Afghanistan. After shooting Herr at a Los Alamitos theater, Wozniak used Herr’s phone to lure Juri “Julie” Kibuishi, 23, to Herr’s apartment, where Wozniak shot her twice in the head.

After performing in a play, Wozniak dismembered Herr’s body so he could hide it at the theater and El Dorado Nature Center in Long Beach. He staged the scene of Kibuishi’s killing to appear as though Herr had raped her and fled, prosecutors said.

Wozniak was arrested at his bachelor party days after the killings after ATM withdrawals from Herr’s bank account led police to him. Police said Wozniak confessed to both slayings after he called Buffett from jail.

In the call, a recording of which was played for jurors at his trial, Wozniak learned police would soon discover a bag of evidence, including the murder weapon.

Wozniak was convicted in December 2015 of two counts of murder and was later sentenced to death.

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