Fatal Wedding Planner: Daniel Wozniak Gets Death Sentence For Double Homicide And Robbery
Wedding planners usually have one of the most sought-after services for happy couples, helping them make their union a happy one from day one. However, former theater actor Daniel Wozniak funded his wedding in a very gruesome manner.
Wozniak had killed two of his friends, taken their money, and used it to pay for his wedding and honeymoon. Thankfully for the victims and his fiancee, the marriage never happened.
Orange County Superior Court Judge John Conley presided over the case of the Santa Ana fatal wedding planner. The jury decided on a verdict in just one hour that the 32-year-old ex-actor should be convicted for double homicide.
Daniel Wozniak killed two people to pay for his pricey wedding and honeymoon https://t.co/QqiwTZpG7X
— New York Post (@nypost) September 24, 2016
What may have sped up the process was the grisly way Wozniak had attempted to cover up the murders of his friends Army veteran Samuel Herr and the victim’s friend Julie Kibuishi. After shooting both of them, he’d attempted to make it look like Herr had sexually assaulted Kibuishi, killed her, and fled the scene. This included decapitating Herr and dumping his body in the park.
Steve Herr, Samuel’s father, had stated he had been attempting to get ahold of his son and went to his house. After letting himself in with the key, he’d found Kibuishi’s partially clad body and called 911.
Wozniak had done this because he’d been in debt when he’d planned to get married in 2010, and Samuel Herr had $50,000 he’d saved from his days in Afghanistan. It didn’t work, though, since Wozniak had been arrested only days later. The Orange County Register says Herr had been trying to earn a college degree and get back into the Army.
Wozniak’s gruesome wedding plan had almost worked, as police had initially listed Samuel Herr as a fugitive. Then they’d found ATM withdrawals in large amounts and charges for a Long Beach pizza parlor. A 16-year-old boy had been caught using the card, and he’d said that Wozniak had told him to. Police had arrested Daniel Wozniak at his bachelor party in a sushi restaurant in Huntington Beach, two days before his planned wedding.
#BreakingNews: Daniel Wozniak sentenced to death for killing 2 friends to fund his wedding https://t.co/54TXXJDYnO
— O.C. Register (@ocregister) September 23, 2016
The death sentence laid out for Wozniak was the fastest decision of its type in Orange County history, and even his lawyer had trouble defending him, says the New York Post. Superior Court Judge John Conley had commented on the proceedings.
“At the cost of two human lives, the defendant chose not to get married inexpensively or to defer his honeymoon. He wanted to do it in style, and he was willing to kill two people he knew to accomplish this. … Suffice it to say that even his defense attorney was constrained to calling it horrible, terrible and horrific.”
Herr’s murder had happened on May 21, when Wozniak had lured his friend to the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos and then shot him to death. Following this, he’d cut off Herr’s head and arm and disposed of the body. Samuel Herr had been identified by a tattoo on his chest which said “Mom & Dad.”
Rachel Buffett, who Wozniak had been engaged to, was also arrested for being an accessory after the fact. She pleaded not guilty.
Wozniak’s death sentence for his grisly wedding plans could be a long time coming as he waits in San Quentin’s death row. Complications with the death sentence in the State of California are the reason he won’t be executed sooner. Samuel’s father, Steve, stated in court that the execution can’t come quickly enough for the murder of his son and only child.
[Featured Image by Joe Prachatree/Shutterstock]
