Costa Mesa double-murder defendant wants alleged confession thrown out

The lawyer for a Costa Mesa man accused of murdering two college students in 2010 has asked a judge to throw out the defendant’s alleged confession to the crime, arguing that police had tried to coax information out of him after he asked for a lawyer.

According to detectives’ testimony to a grand jury, Daniel Wozniak, a community theater actor, admitted shortly after his arrest that he killed 26-year-old Army veteran Sam Herr and his tutor, 23-year-old Juri “Julie” Kibuishi. Prosecutors also allege that Wozniak, 31, tried to throw police off his trail by dismembering Herr’s body to hide it and staging Kibuishi’s body in Herr’s apartment to look as if Herr had sexually assaulted her.

But Wozniak’s public defender, Scott Sanders, argued Friday that Wozniak’s confession came only after Costa Mesa police tried to circumvent his Miranda rights.

Orange County Superior Court Judge John Conley will hear more on the issue Monday before deciding whether the alleged confession can be used as evidence during Wozniak’s trial, which is scheduled to begin later this month. Wozniak has pleaded not guilty.

A key portion of Sanders’ argument centers on officers asking Wozniak to write notes for a handwriting comparison.

According to a detective’s testimony Friday, Wozniak told police that he saw writing on Kibuishi’s body — revealing that he had been at the crime scene — and investigators asked him to write down the words he saw.

Under Sanders’ questioning, Det. Jose Morales said investigators planned to compare Wozniak’s handwriting with the writing found on Kibuishi’s body.

Sanders asked why police wanted Wozniak to write down the words he remembered instead of having him copy them from an example or write something generic.

“We were just there to get a sample of his writing,” Morales said, rebutting Sanders’ contention that he had hoped to question Wozniak during the process.

Sanders argued that Wozniak had requested a lawyer during an earlier interview and that asking Wozniak to write from memory crossed the line from a simple handwriting test to an interrogation.

Sanders asked the judge to throw out anything Wozniak said afterward, which would include the alleged confession.

Prosecutors countered that Wozniak never asked for a legal representative. Instead, they said, he would make reference to a lawyer and then initiate more conversation with investigators.

According to prosecutors, this culminated when Wozniak called detectives to his Costa Mesa jail cell and admitted that he killed Herr and Kibuishi so he could steal from Herr’s bank account.