Jurors hear double-murder defendant’s talks with fiancée and police: ‘I’m crazy and I did it’

At the Costa Mesa Police Department in May 2010, Daniel Wozniak called his fiancée from a jailhouse phone.

“Babe, um, listen to me,” Wozniak said, according to an audio recording played for a jury Tuesday. “I’m going to go do something right now. And you’re not going to see me for the rest of your life. Do you understand that?”

“No. No,” she replied, raising her voice slightly.

“I’m not a good person,” Wozniak added before ending the conversation.

Prosecutors at the Orange County district attorney’s office allege the phone call came moments before Wozniak confessed to two killings and a gruesome cover-up attempt.

Wozniak is on trial in Orange County Superior Court, accused of the slayings of 26-year-old Sam Herr and 23-year-old Juri “Julie” Kibuishi. Herr was Wozniak’s neighbor and attended Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa with Kibuishi, according to authorities.

Though authorities say he confessed, Wozniak has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder.

He could face the death penalty if convicted.

Prosecutors say Wozniak, 31, killed Herr on May 21, 2010, so he could steal the Army veteran’s ATM card and drain his bank account of thousands of dollars Herr had saved from his service in Afghanistan.

Prosecutors allege Wozniak shot Herr twice in the head at a Los Alamitos theater where Wozniak performed in community productions, and later dismembered Herr’s body so he could dump the head and other pieces in a Long Beach park, prosecutors say.

Authorities believe Wozniak used Herr’s phone to lure Kibuishi, Herr’s friend, to Herr’s apartment, then shot her and staged her body to look as though Herr had sexually assaulted her and fled.

More than five years after the killings, prosecutor Matt Murphy finished presenting evidence against Wozniak on Tuesday. Closing arguments are expected Wednesday.

On Tuesday morning, jurors watched video of the police interview that followed Wozniak’s call to his fiancée, Rachel Buffet.

“I’m crazy and I did it,” the video shows Wozniak saying.

“You did what?” a detective asked.

“I killed Julie and I killed Sam,” Wozniak replied.

When detectives asked why, Wozniak said, “Money and insanity.”

Staring down at a desk with his hands clasped on top of his head, Wozniak let out a distressed laugh.

“I don’t know why I did it,” he continued. “Mainly it was the money, and it seemed so easy.”

Murphy told jurors during his opening statement last week that Wozniak was in debt and desperate for money to fund his approaching wedding.

Police arrested Wozniak at his bachelor party days after the killings.

A 16-year-old boy who had been withdrawing money from Herr’s account told investigators that Wozniak hired him to collect the cash for him, according to Murphy.

Police, who originally were unaware of Herr’s death, first suspected that Wozniak was funneling money to Herr, Murphy said.

After Wozniak’s arrest, he told police that Herr killed Kibuishi while high on ecstasy and then hired him to cover it up, according to a series of recorded police interviews.

But after the conversation with Buffet, Wozniak told police that he was the killer, authorities say.

In the recorded phone call, Buffet asked Wozniak, “What did you do?”

“I helped Sam cover some stuff up and get some drugs. That’s it,” Wozniak said. “I didn’t murder anybody.”

But when Buffet said she was going to tell detectives about something Wozniak’s older brother said, Wozniak’s voice took on a panicked tone.

“Tim says he had evidence with him or he knew where it was or something,” Buffet said.

“Then I’m doomed,” Wozniak replied, almost whispering.

“Oh God, oh God, oh God,” he added after a brief silence.

Murphy told jurors that the evidence Wozniak’s brother had included the weapon used in the killings.

Wozniak told police that he gave his brother the handgun, the clothes he was wearing during Herr’s slaying, ammunition and other items that could incriminate him.

In the video, Wozniak said he instructed his brother to hide or burn the items.

“I said that someone else had killed somebody,” Wozniak told detectives. “I told him it wasn’t me.”

It’s not clear how much Buffet, 28, and Wozniak’s brother, 41, knew about the killings. Both have been charged with accessory to murder after the fact and pleaded not guilty.

Wozniak told police he acted alone, according to the recorded interviews.

Toward the end of her phone conversation with Wozniak, Buffet asked again, “What did you do?”

“I think you know what I did,” Wozniak replied.